Though preferable to a deficit, the $250-million surplus Maine lawmakers will deal with this coming session raises concerns about the state’s ability to make accurate revenue projections. On the other hand, expansion of the prison system may go as much as $20 million over budget, renovations to the State House could exceed expectations by $5 million or more and the new state police training center in Vassalboro is looking at a $2.5 million overrun. Things just have a way of evening out.

Remember Question 9 on the November ballot, the constitutional amendment voters approved that allows towns to offer tax breaks to owners of property with significant historic value? Do you recall how Cape Elizabeth pushed this proposal, saying it’s better to offer these property owners the carrot of incentive than it is to whack them with the stick of regulation? Did you know Cape Elizabeth now is in the process of enacting historic-preservation regulations? Can we have our carrot back?

Speaking of last month’s election and short memories, Maine Public Television, which gained voter approval of a $9.4 million bond with its “If we don’t do it, who will?” pitch, didn’t do it when it refused to grant Gov. King air time for a major address on the Atlantic salmon endangered species issue. After all that effort saving Big Bird, apparently the folks at MPT were suffering compassion fatigue.

Sara Jane Olson, the accused Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist-turned- Minneapolis housewife, used the time she spent in jail awaiting trial after 24 years on the lam from conspiracy and attempted murder charges to write a cookbook to help pay for her defense. It’s called “Serving Time: America’s Most Wanted Recipes” and the cover shows Mrs. Olson — alias Kathleen Soliah — standing in a target, holding handcuffs and a spatula. Let’s hope the recipes have better taste than the author.

With the rubble of the WTO debacle still littering the streets, supporters of the way the Seattle Police Department handled the protests clashed with critics last weekend in concurrent rallies that featuring shouting, shoving, name-calling and dueling T-shirt slogans. The World Trade Organization probably has had it fill of Seattle, but the World Wrestling Federation has to like what it sees.

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a special Y2K stamp Dec. 27, a Year 2000 update of the famous New Year’s baby Saturday Evening Post illustrations by J.C. Leyendecker. Postal officials say the colorful stamp will serve as a historical record of this unique time and will “bring a little joy and excitement as we go through our mail.” And, just in case the predictions of computer calamity come true, they burn quite brightly and throw off a fair amount of heat.