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Silver Spring, Md.: Humm, human smoke detectors.

Our children certainly should be protected in case of fire and they need to go to school so some solution has to be found.

I would think temporary systems would be available. Given what policing high schools is like it probably doesn't hurt to have 8 extra people wandering around keeping an eye on things - like the security guards at retail stores that can tell you where different departments are or help the clerks during slow times.

Did she give you any indication what the people get paid to do that?

John Kelly: The county fire department told me they usually hire a private security company. The fire marshall seems unconcerned about it. It's evidently done all the time, whenever a smoke detector, alarm or sprinkler system is inoperative. I just like the image of these people, roaming the building, sniffing the air. I guess that's the way we used to do things.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: What do you think inspired Marion Barry to bring in Dr. Seuss and his trash-to-energy gizmo? Or was that a Willie Wonka creation?

John Kelly: I loved the name: the gasifier. And this quote from Marion Barry: "This is not a sham, not a game. This is the real stuff."

The real, trash-and-sewage-burning-perpetual-motion-machine that-sits-on-a-church-parking-lot-but-can't-be-turned-on because-the-ministor-got-in-a-fight-with-Marion-Barry stuff.

But what if it turned out to work? There'd be some irony in a machine invented and funded by indigenous peoples saving us all from our messy energy.

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