In watching news of India's unexpectedly successful Congress Party progress over the past week, my attempts to discover what the party's platform actually is — and what their oft-referred-to "reforms" consist of — were unsuccessful. It turns out that on the other side of the world, "left wing" might still mean "progressive":

With most of Congress's coalition partners and outside supporters coming from left-wing parties, investors are concerned that Congress might reverse some of the key economic reforms of the past decade. Some of these initiatives include lower import tariffs; tax breaks for foreign investors and Indian business houses; sell-offs of state-owned industries, hotels, and utilities; and cutbacks in bureaucratic regulations.

But, while Congress leaders say they might slow down the sell-off of profitable state industries, such as state oil companies, the overall direction of liberalization would continue.

Wholesale privatization? Individual empowerment? Congress has apparently turned a new leaf, shedding a history of leftist state-ossification for rightist, libertarian reform. Foreign policy is promised to remain on the course set by outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We'll see, as would-be Prime Minister Sonia Gandhi has bowed out from a leadership position amid a brief power vacuum that's caused party-faithful hysterics and a tumultuous couple of days at the Indian stock exchange. From here, though, the Congress Party looks like welcome change.

It was a long, rousing session for the Civil Service Commission this evening — at one point, I was laughingly called "devious" by a lawyer. That's probably the finest compliment I've received in this line of work. To top things off, in preparation for tonight's public meeting I came across this Ohio Supreme Court decision. One question about it: what in hell goes on down there in the Ohio Civil Rights Commission?

What began as a sullenly grey morning broke into one of those cool, cloudless Sunday afternoons, the respite that gets rarer as summer sets in. And yes, it really was that green.

I definitely need to wake up before dawn more often.

I'm multitasking during dinner, paging through the latest National Geographic while listening to Special Report with Brit Hume. Every three months or so NG, in the spirit of artistically perfect but charmingly naive observation, runs a puff-piece on one dictatorship or the other. Usually it's Cuba, no surprise for the would-be jewel of the West Indies. This month NG goes to Vietnam. You know, the Communist Vietnam that scores atrociously on Freedom House's test on rights and liberties. I didn't need to read it; just flipped to a random page, read two sentences and groaned. Visually stunning whitewash as usual.

Here's some advice on trusting the opinions of the oppressed: Asking people in a dictatorship what they think of their government is like asking a fish what he thinks about the bear whose mouth is closing around him.

Off soapbox. It's okay; the next story is about wolves.

Speaking of Ghostbusters, I ran across this transcription of the October 1984 issue of Starlog. The magazine is still in publication — and science fiction flicks today are as breathtaking as ever — but there's a certain charm to the early-Eighties FX rags.

WHILE I'M AT IT: Scroll down for a belated edition of "Four on the First." Vince's and Fugazi's are perfect for late-evening Friday with coffee; U2's is perfect driving music, with comparable mileage city or highway; and Mode will likely bring back more than a few "So that's who sang that song" memories.

I've just rediscovered Cox & Forkum. Very nice.

That which is housetrained, I am wont to love. Even though he's done much to deny it, Glenn Reynolds has gone catblogging. Why miss out? This is my sister's cat, Steve, taken from my March visit to her's and her husband's house in Maryland. Cat and sister met when Steve — barely weaned, alone and feral — began hanging around outside the school at which my sister worked. Students had been feeding the scrawny thing, then in the dead of winter; someone gave the resident feline a cardboard box lean-to but as a snowstorm approached, my sister's good nature got the better of her and she adopted the poor wretch before subfreezing temperatures came.

Steve's a good, affectionate cat — even if some of her days out in the open follow her, and you can't snuggle her as much as you might a truly domesticated pet. (Yes, "her," and it's a long story as to why.) Besides, Steve's hunter instinct brings conquerer's moments that only storytellers and digital cameras can relate to children and grandchildren:

"First, the Lord made the beast known as Dog. Then, dissatisfied, He made Cat." I wish they hadn't cut that line out of the King James.

It's beautifully cloudless this morning, about fifty degrees, and today's high temperature will reach seventy — although Cleveland was graced with a comfortably warm day or two last month, the coming week's forecast ensures that spring has definitively arrived. We might even see some leaves unroll. As usual, National Geographic has proven itself remarkably pertinent to events at hand: thunderstorms have been predicted in my area for tomorrow evening and Monday, and Geographic's latest issue leads with tales of tornado chasers. Have you ever seen a photograph of the tornado's fabled ability to "snap telephone poles like toothpicks," or a view straight up a funnel itself? This issue has got them both. In glossy foldouts. If you're heading to a newsstand, grocery store, book shop or doctor's waiting room, drop a little petty cash for a copy. Until then, there's a Flash presentation on Geographic's website.

Oddball stories of fact used to be gems one found in their daily newspaper or local evening news. Now, the best tales that even Weekly World News couldn't dream up are, thanks to Fox News, compiled and presented to you in one complete package. Tales like this one:

An entire Canadian town may be in danger of being gobbled up by the earth. As many as 12 cars, trucks and other vehicles, including a 40-foot trailer, disappeared into a huge sinkhole near the downtown of Timmins, Ont., reports the Timmins Daily Press. The hole opened up about 8 a.m. Monday morning, Tony Raymond, owner of Raymond's Garage, told the newspaper.

"I saw it happening and I just yelled to everybody to get out," Raymond said. Raymond's Garage is on land lying over an old mine that ceased operation in the 1940s, the paper said. As the ground collapsed, the resulting pressure caused water in the mineshaft below to spurt upwards.

"The pressure lifted a cement shaft cap, causing tidal waves which submerged the streets with 1½ feet of water," said Fire Chief Lester Cudmore. "There are more than 10 pieces of equipment at the bottom of the sinkhole right now," he added, "including a 40-foot trailer, two wreckers, two trucks and two half-tons."

...An earlier cave-in took place in 1963, during which three buses plunged into the ground.

"In my understanding they are still there," said Cudmore.

A vengeful Hephaestus or greedy Mole Men? Retro screenwriters, this one's good right out of the box. Eek!