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People liked Shannon. They liked her, but even Seth Popper and Mary Richards found it difficult to suspend reality sufficiently to engage Shannon's extreme idealism. Osten's most committed statement was, "If only Shannon possessed heaven's lathe." He was sure it wasn't optical distortion from the edge of his eyeglasses, but Frank's cigar seemed to elevate at that remark. Osten thought to himself, "Not dead. He's in there." Looking with a gesture at Shannon's pile of documents, Mac whispered in a drone "Don't expect the Insurance Commissioner to even read that. Government, for the people, is dead." Macaluso was liberal, maybe even beyond, but not a liberal, not linked to any group. Liberal in nature, through and through, hell bent on helping the children, and yet, he had a hard time listening to arguments about government making things better. Reacting to conversation about the radio commentary which was questioning the role of America in foreign conflicts, especially one such as was unfolding in Kuwait, Macaluso made a chin flicking Italian gesture capped with, "We make great bombs. Period." Seth fussed, "Why conflict?" Pedi-Popper had no idea why we were getting involved in Kuwait at all, to which Doctor Farr Ak Ali, nearby at the next table, leaned back to instruct, "It's oil. That's all. We are there for oil." "What?" Osten was surprised at that remark, "Don't you think our duty to our principles has anything to do with it?" Farr brightened with, "Yes! We are principally oil eaters." "Oh come-on Farr," was a general grumble. But Farr was known to be astute. If you countered him on anything dealing with strategy, you generally wound up check mated. His was a razor mind. It peeled away irrelevance. He reasserted himself. "Seriously.