Last week I received an 8 x 10 glossy print of our President, with an enscribed message from the Republican National Committee thanking me for my support. If by “support” they mean getting to know my representatives with near-weekly letters urging them to vote against, filibuster, or otherwise stop whatever atrocity the White House might be up to, then I say, “You’re welcome” to the Republican National Committee.

Then in yesterday’s mail I received a letter from Dick Cheney asking for my continued support against the Democrats and their special interest groups (didn’t Halliburton, Cheney’s former (or current?) employer just get a no-bids contract with the Defense Department for rebuilding Iraq where they reported to their shareholders a net profit of something something like 300 million?

Given how I feel about the goings-on of the current administration, it seems that the White House’s direct mail campaigns have about as much precision as their “smart bombs” have in Iraq.

Driving around southern Portugal in the province of Alentejo, the land is sparsely populated and full of cork trees.

In the 17th century Dom Pérignon was the first to use cork in glass bottles for sealing wine.

Two-thirds of the world’s cork comes from these fields.

It takes 40 years for a cork tree to to grow bark thick enough for harvest. Its useful life lasts another 150-200 years, harvesting the bark every 9 years.

Farmers write the year of the last harvest on each tree, so they can quickly scour the countryside for any ripe bark.