But Waste Was of the Essence of the Scheme

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has an entertaining (for a sufficiently generous definition of "entertaining") PDF document "2008: Worst Waste of the Year", a guide to your tax dollars at work. A total of $1,315,476,562 is chronicled.

New Hampshire's 0.016% contribution to that total is a $205,800 HUD grant to the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, earmarked by Senator Judd Gregg. Frost lived there for approximately 11 of his 88 total years. But there are no doubt unloved walls, unstaying gold, untaken roads, etc. New Hampshire residents can visit for free.

I've heard, however, that if you are caught singing "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" to the tune of "Hernando's Hideaway", you will be escorted from the premises.

Update: It occurs to me that our younger readers may not be familiar with "Hernando's Hideaway". Here's the appropriate clip from The Pajama Game:

I might as well also toss in some lines from Frost's little-known first draft of the poem (from a very old copy of National Lampoon):

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To sign my name in yellow snow.

(Post title from here.)


Last Modified 2012-10-09 8:20 AM EDT