A landlord up in Jefferson County apparently saw fit to take two of his tenants hostage yesterday, and traded gunfire with the local cops until they managed to subdue him. Makes me wonder if I should be more wary of my own landlord.

For those of you who aren't actually relatives or close friends, I live in the postindustrial wonderland known as Bellefonte, PA, in the green and mountainous palm of God His Hypothetical Self, AKA "Nittany Valley". Bellefonte is full of old buildings, which is to say, empty of actual tenants. This makes the town very attractive for bachelors of a certain age and lack of affluence. It beats living in your parents' basement. What this means is that a lot of my friends and co-workers live in various apartments around Bellefonte. More than I expected when I first moved here three years ago. About half of us rent from the same guy, Ron, who seems to own half the town. Quite the real-estate magnate, yes? Not if you've seen the buildings. I happen to think that my apartment is better than most, and it's bizarrely subdivided (used to be a medical office of some sort, I'm told) and suffering from intermittent leaks in the roof. Best that can be said about Ron's buildings is that the apartments are very cheap, and he doesn't bother you much.