'Only' 11,000 jobs lost in November? Baby, it's still cold out there

My family and I drove through the deepest, darkest, most toothless regions of central Virginia to visit my Mom's place for the Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm not exaggerating about the rural nature of the landscape. We passed through a town called "Bumpass." (I'm not making that up.) Next to the "Pohick River," this is easily one of the most, well... stereotypical place names on the Virginia map. They might as well be called "Redneckistan" and "That Kid from Deliverance River."

There's nothing wrong with this, of course, other than the fact that there's a nuclear power plant a mile or two from Bumpass. Thoughts of "Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel" from The Simpsons operating the radiation controls made me sweat a little, but congratulations anyway, Cletus, for finding work.