Remember Sisyphus? The guy fated to roll a boulder up a hill forever? Last week I saw him behind an asphalt truck, filling potholes. When I asked why he wasn't rolling his boulder anymore, he leaned on his shovel and replied, "The gods said that they didn't really understand how gravity works, so there was a chance the boulder might just float away someday and I would be released from my torment. But they definitely understand how the Minnesota Legislature works. And since a long-term solution to road and bridge repair would require honesty and political courage, the gods are certain that I'm now doomed to suffer for eternity!"

"Aren't we all?" I muttered as I drove on to Wisconsin to buy beer at a grocery store on Sunday.

Mike Farris, Northfield