When I traveled through England by train with my lovely first wife during our honeymoon I mentioned to a Londoner how quaint and wonderful his country’s restored buildings looked. He paused momentarily, than responded by explaining to me that unlike your America, since the fall of our empire we no longer can afford to build a-new! That was forty years ago and only until recent days have I felt the fatalism of that Londoner so many years ago. – N.P.Contompasis