Looks like shit, smells like shit...

There's an old joke from third grade about a boy who steps in a gooey mess in the school yard. His friend says, "You stepped in shit." He says, "No I didn't. It's mud." His friend takes a fingerful of the muck and says, "It looks like shit. It smells like shit." Then he puts his finger in his mouth. "It tastes like shit." And then after considering for a moment, he says, "It is shit."

Joe Klein arrives at the same conclusion in an essay in Time this week. He accurately portrays a media fourth estate so bent on fairness that they miss the point - John McCain is slinging shit.

All right, what exactly did you expect horse shit to smell like?

It's an old, old sprawl story. Suburbanites seeking the security of country living suddenly find themselves confronted with rural smells, sights or practices which may have been there for centuries, and now they want them to stop.

What's most odd about this story, is that Ron and Stephanie Borelli, own horses. So when they built a home adjacent to a horse farm, one would expect they would have known what they were getting into.

Apparently not. The Borelli's have sued their neighbors, the Hill Farm, and are now trying to get the town to stop the farm from holding horse shows on the property. The horse shows may violate Middletown's commercial zoning regulations.

Ron Borelli is a Republican member of the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Courant reports that Mayor Sebastian Giuliano is an ally in Borelli's fight with the Hill Farm. I guess if you want experts in horse shit, you could do worse than to consult a politician.

BTW, there is a monetary value to horse manure, that should not be overlooked in determining a solution to this problem. Not so sure about horse urine.