Big Freddy was folding his morning newspaper as I joined him.

"Leaving?'' I asked.

"I'll have a refill because there's a lot to talk about,'' he said as he waved to the waitress.

"As in?'' I asked.

"The state of the economy, the state of the health care tug of war, unemployment — take your pick, everything's in a state of something, which, speaking of states, our own is running on empty.''

"It sounds as though the biggest state of all is your mood,'' I said. "Take a hit at a track somewhere?''

"If things were this bad at the tracks, I'd take up bingo,'' Freddy said.

"Oh, come off it,'' I said. "We have one major thing going for us with the economy. We're the biggest market in the world. We're the come-to place of the dispossessed. The rest of the world needs us.''

"And a lot of it comes here to wind up adding to the unemployed,'' Freddy said. "We're up the bazzoo in debt with China that's eating our lunch with cheap labor. We're between the rock and the hard place in Afghanistan. Karzai gets sworn into office for a rerun from the Taliban because the opposition read the tea leaves and packed it in. Pakistan's playing games with us but really wants us out of there. North Korea's still North Korea being run by a nut-cake who could raise Billy Hell no matter what we do. The cost of groceries at the supermarkets are going up all the time. Washington can't give away billions to Wall Street fast enough to turn the economy around. And you want I should come off it?''

"You left out health care,'' I said.

"It's the nation that's sick, not us,'' Freddy said. "You want a health program that really works, bring jobs back and everybody's going to feel a lot better.''

"This isn't like you,'' I said. "It's always been the game — the inevitable, wonderfully predictable game of politics for you.''

"And it still is,'' Freddy said, "but we're not playing it smart. You want to win in this game you've got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, know the odds, count the cards, build your know-how base and know where the other guy's coming from so you can play to his weakness.

"What we've got is a bunch of over-educated know-it-alls who live in a world of numbers, most of which have dollar signs in front of them, thinking if they grease the chutes the right way from the top down, everything's going to be OK from the bottom up. That's because they never had to climb one.''

"So what do we do about all of that,'' I asked.

"You and I don't do much more than watch it all over again,'' Freddy said. "The unemployeds sweat it out like always. It's always those at the bottom of the economic food chain who do the heavy sweating; small businesses owners trying to hang in there worrying about what Congress is going to come up with on health care that could push them over the edge, the 8 to 5 and 9 to 5 workers on unemployment help that's running out, and college grads with tuition loan debts trying to find a job — any kind of a job.''

"Hey, Freddy,'' I said. "Have a happy Thanksgiving.''

"I'll have happier ones if those economic hotshots in Washington don't have to eat crow, because if they do, that means the rest of us will be eating Spam again,'' Freddy said.

¢¢¢

Bill Plante is former executive editor of Essex County Newspapers. His e-mail address is plantejr@comcast.net.