New Census 2000 data show that Maine falls well below the national average in both personal income and higher-education attainment,

a situation a State Planning Office analyst blames on geography – the numbers are lower in northern Maine, which is too far from Boston to benefit from its economic

and educational opportunities. Since an

earlier Census 2000 release showed a mass migration from the north to Maine’s two southernmost counties, it appears the problem of geography is nearly solved.

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According to a new Gallup Poll, 55 percent of Americans think President Bush takes too many vacations – after his month-long break at his Texas ranch ends after Labor Day, he will have spent close to half of his days in the White House away from the White House. Call it coincidence or cause-and-effect, but the same poll also found that 55 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is doing his job.

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Among the flake factors that contributed to his defeat last November was former Vice President Al Gore’s proposal – it came to him in a dream, he said – for the United States to put into deep space a satellite that would beam back ’round-the-clock images of Earth as a constant reminder of its beauty and fragility. Turns out, such a satellite was built, tested and made mission-ready, but the $100 million Triana now sits in a NASA storeroom – delays by opponents in Congress knocked it off the shuttle schedule and now it can’t get a lift to its destination. Perhaps Mr. Gore could just drop it off on his next visit to the home planet.

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Don’t forget the current VP, Dick Cheney. He’s been in a tussle for months with the General Accounting Office, the government watchdog agency, over his refusal to divulge the names of people who consulted with the energy task force he headed. The GAO now has sent Mr. Cheney a demand letter, a strongly worded precursor to legal action and a step never before taken against either a president or a vice president. Mr. Cheney has yet to respond; he’s gone fishing in Wyoming for the rest of the month. Maybe the GAO could appeal to his personal virtue.

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A smokesman, er, spokesman for the world’s second-largest cigarette maker, British American Tobacco, has announced that the company was especially pleased to spend $82 million on a new plant in South Korea, where by 2003 it should be producing 400 million packs a year. “We always wanted to put down roots, commit to society and give something back to the Korean people,” he said. A reader responds, “Weren’t the cancer, emphysema and heart disease enough?”