Way back in 2001, just after the second plane hit the second World Trade Center tower, before anyone in the US really thought much about terrorism, I turned to my girlfriend (who would later become my wife) and told her that it made sense that the second plane would wait a short while. It means that they get more media coverage. And it would not surprise me in the least if we would see something else a short while later (which we did). And so on.

As it turned out, there wasn't a whole lot more after the Pentagon plane hit, but there certainly could have been more. A whole lot more.

A man in Sumter, South Carolina, saw masked people outside his house and opened fire. With an AK-47 assault rifle. Shots struck a 12-year-old boy. Thirteen times. The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly thereafter.

With all the hubbub about whether or not teenagers should be trick-or-treating (and there are even municipalities enacting laws to enforce such a ban), perhaps the larger issue to ask is: Why in the world would someone have an AK-47 loaded and ready to fire, on Halloween of all nights?

Way back in December of last year, rumblings were heard about a deal for freezing rates for homeowners having trouble with their mortgages. Yesterday, it was announced that the government may have the plan ready to use about $50 billion from the financial bailout in order to guarantee $500 billion in mortgages.

This must be new math, because I have no idea how $50 billion can guarantee $500 billion. Regardless, I want some of that action. I really don't get how the people who pay their mortgages and their car loans and credit card bills and every other debt they incur don't get any relief, while those who don't pay their bills get to take a free ride. It makes you wonder why you should bother being responsible.

With all the excitement that banks are having lately - 13 insured banks and savings and loans have failed this year, including two major thrifts - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has decided that they need more money coming in to help shore up the money going out.

As the insurance fund stands (and there apparently is an actual fund), the balance is somewhere around $45.2 billion, which is below the minimum level set by Congress, and the lowest level since 2003.

It's times like this that I wished that I had some better way of displaying headlines. I don't know what, exactly. Maybe a big flashing sign. Or perhaps a rotating banner. Just something, because a story like this just begs for something more than text. I could always go retro and bring in the good old blink element, but that would just be annoying. So I suppose that means I'll just tell the story.

For those of you who don't live in Charlotte, or in the general area, we're low on gas. Really low. It's not because of the weather - at least not the weather that we have here. When Hurricane Ike hit what seems like months ago, apparently they shut off our gas pipelines or something. Because for the last week or so, stations all around town have gradually been shuttering their pumps, and now we're down to almost nothing. Gas-wise, I mean. Lots of lines, and plenty of horns. Even one arrest (maybe more, that's just all I've heard about).

Those of us who live in the big city (as if Charlotte is a big city) may not be aware of this problem, but it seems that there is a problem with some gas pumps in the world. Not the ones with electronic digital displays, but those that have the old dial-type digital displays. As an aside, does anyone remember the original digital clocks? I had one of those that had the old-style digital numbers, like the ones in Back to the Future (I think it was Back to the Future). I guess you would call them mechanical digital or something. But I digress.

It seems that these dial-style pumps are running into a problem. They can only handle gas that costs $3.99 per gallon or less. It's a limitation of the dials. Sure, it's possible to replace the dials, but it's a pretty expensive proposition. At the same time, the pumps can only count up to $99.99 per sale.

By now, I'm sure you've heard about the possibility that Leondardo DaVinci may have hidden notes in The Last Supper.

Whether this is true or not will certainly be a matter of debate - or something you dismiss. But it's certainly an interesting theory. I think that most people will admit that Leonardo was a genius, or has certainly had enough work attributed to him to be considered a genius at any rate!

It seems like every day I pass by some new sign - I mean an actual sign - that tells me about something that happened somewhere. The memorial bridge to Bob, a t-shirt that extolls the virtue of the thug who died in a hail of bullets, someone's name on the back of a mini truck or even the clean stretch of city street that is done in honor of what's-her-face. Are you kidding me?

While I might be able to get behind a fallen soldier who gets their name slapped on a freeway or bridge overpass (and that's a bit of a stretch), there has to be a point when it's just a bit too much, right? When does it all end? I get that you want to express your grief, and I am probably the least likely to care. It's not that I don't care about you, it's just that I think these things should be shared among those who knew the person the best, not necessarily shared with the world.

While we sit through shows with commercials advertising hundreds of stations (or those of us without DVRs do, at any rate), and even basic cable has dozens of channels, and as broadband and cell phone penetration reaches something of a saturation point, when is pre-empting going to be retired?

I get that there can be a radio emergency of some kind. For the first time ever, I heard the emergency broadcasting service used recently. That was one radio station, and it lasted for perhaps 30 seconds to announce weather activity. I can live with that. But television? Not so much.

The star receiver for the Carolina Panthers who is perpetually carrying a chip on his shoulder, Steve Smith, is in hot water again. This time for his fight with cornerback Ken Lucas.

No one really knows what exactly happened, but there is not exactly any love lost between the two, especially since they go up against one another regularly during practice. We just know that the war of words is now a war of fists. Or fist, at any rate - Smiths.

Maybe I'm just getting old. If I am, I hope that it doesn't involve the need to signal that I'm going to turn a mile down the road - and then come to a complete stop before starting up again to actually make the turn.

I'll admit that it's been a while since I've lived anywhere other than the South (approaching twenty years now), and when I did it was - gasp - California. But the people in North and South Carolina are really bad at turning.