The announcement last week by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt that the federal government would step in and proceed with an endangered-species listing for Atlantic salmon came with the clear implication that Maine’s plan to restore the imperiled fish was fine — the state simply had not done enough to implement it. That would be the difference between a document and a deed.

Battered by complaints from coast to coast about the decline in the reliability and quality of air travel, the airline industry is fighting back, saying the increasing frequency of delays isn’t the result of overbooking, last-minute rescheduling and other profit-boosting practices, but of the Federal Aviation Administration being too fussy about weather conditions. The lost luggage? Blame the suitcase manufacturers.

When the King administration said a couple of weeks ago that it would not release the findings of an independent audit of how well state agencies have prepared for the Y2K computer glitch, the reason given was that the report contained sensitive information that could impact public safety. Now, after citizens and lawmakers raised a stink, the findings have been released and it turns out the most ill-prepared state agency is the Department of Public Safety. My, that is sensitive.

Down in the part of Maine that is on the move, drivers are in a major snit over various plans to revise Turnpike tolls. Seems everybody wants the ‘Pike widened but nobody wants to pay for it. While Southern Maine squabbles over 50 cents, folks up north would give an arm and a leg just to be able to pass once in a while.

The debate on the $9.4-million bond referendum to fund Maine Public Television’s conversion to digital appears to be focusing more upon the quality of programming than on the merits of the new high-tech format. Most viewers, in calculating the worth of PBS fare, agree that Big Bird is a plus — the argument is over how much to subtract for Lawrence Welk.

An embarassed President Clinton has apologised profusely for the remark he made the other day comparing the troubled Northern Ireland peace process to two drunks who can’t leave the bar. Most Northern Ireland leaders forgave the gaffe, accepting the comment as merely an unfortunate expression of the frustration everyone feels. The Rev. Ian Paisley, who has made a career out of strife, wasn’t buying it — the stereotyping was just the sort of stupidity he expected from an ignorant Arkansas hillbilly.

Speaking of banalities from bygone days, Professor Mary Daly, fighting to get her job back at Boston College, was in Maine last week to justify her refusal to admit men into her all-women theology classes. Females are inhibited when males are in the same room, she says. Plus, the boys dip the girls’ pigtails in the inkwells.