That Sinking Feeling (Chapter IX, "Pay No Attention to the Hole Behind the Curtain")

(Click here to learn why you should care about, of all things, sinkholes.)

KABC-7 in Los Angeles reports it under the category "Bizarre News" - you know, like, Watch this puppy chase his own tail!! Next on America's Funniest Home Videos!!! Hiiiiiiii-larious!!!

But when the story is about the bowels of the earth suddenly opening up without warning simply because it rained too much, plunging an unspecting driver twenty feet below the pavement; and when civil engineers tell us that an epidemic of similar such sinkholes is the direct result of what happens when governments can no longer afford to attend to a rotting wastewater infrastructure because conservatives have convinced the nation that "tax relief" is the most noble gift a politician can offer the people--well, maybe there's something a bit more serious going on.