AND ANOTHER THING …

Peter von Tiesenhausen of Alberta, Canada, has been fighting oil and gas development in his province for a decade with lawsuits and activism but without muck luck. Now, a new approach; he’s declared his dilapidated picket fence and decaying boat and the overgrown yard in which they sit to be a work of art that will be degraded if a gas well is drilled next to his property. He even got an art critic to review it – “a visual requiem for the natural world.” No word yet on how the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board will rule on Mr. Von Tiesenhausen’s objections, but one member already has declared his use of wood rot to be derivative and his handling of stickerbushes rather jejune.

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California has been fighting smog for several decades, also without much luck and, now, also with a new approach. The battle against auto emissions all but lost to the public demand for SUVs, the state Air Resources Board is shifting the attack to fireplaces. Under proposed rules for next year, most wood-burning fireplaces and stoves would be banned in new homes; in existing homes, masonry fireplaces would have to be disabled, converted to natural gas or upgraded to expensive soot-containing models before they could be sold. If the public responds to this clean-heat campaign the same way it did to the one for clean cars, expect the blast furnace to become the new home d?cor must-have.

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United Airlines made the largest bankruptcy filing in aviation history Monday, saying it was the only way to keep the world’s No. 2 airline flying after two years of heavy losses. Officials with the Chicago-based company saw Chapter 11 restructuring is the only way to save the business and it will take hard work and sacrifice by all involved. Labor contracts will have to be renegotiated and jobs will be lost. Management salaries and benefits will be reduced. There will only be seven peanuts per bag.

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If you sometimes think there’s way too much government regulation and way too little to show for it, you’ve probably been to Pelham, N.H. That’s where police recently learned that the large, luxurious home in the town’s most exclusive neighborhood was headquarters of the E’Lan Swingers Club, a place where 70 people or more would pay $50 each to socialize in ways not condoned by the Welcome Wagon. Upon discovering this Granite State Gomorrah, town officials found the only thing on the books they could charge the owners with was failing to get the proper permits for their hot tubs: the fine is $275. Oh yes, future club meetings will have to be held in that part of Pelham zoned for industrial use. That’s why they call it the service economy.