Why did SEPTA seem to give in on everything, but get virtually nothing in return? Gambaccini sought elimination of the no-layoff clause and the right to hire part-timers. He got neither.
All of which leaves us baffled. As we said Friday, when urging flexibility by both SEPTA and the Transport Workers Union to avoid a strike, "to get, you've got to give." Unless there's more to the agreement than meets our eye, it looks like Lou got got good.
The TWU was said to be willing to consider productivity issues, in return for wage and benefit concessions. But hey, it's not up to the union to give in on anything unless it has to. If management's going to blink - even put on a blindfold and ignore its own budget numbers - the union can and should walk away with whatever it can get.
That seems to be what happened last weekend, but the relief over avoiding this year's strike may be premature. SEPTA is running in the red - this year and in the foreseeable future - and no one has identified the Santa Claus who'll bail it out.
NYUK, NYUK NYUK
SHEMP STAMP?
Once again, the readers were right. If there is going to be an Elvis Presley stamp, it is only a matter of time before all kinds of things happen - a Barry Manilow postcard even.
Before the deluge, let us not forget a group of entertainers who have had as deep an effect as Elvis on the American psyche, and were considerably funnier.
We refer, of course, to the immortal Curly, Larry and Moe. The Three Stooges have for too long been prophets without honor in their own country. Unlike other prophets without honor, by the way, they do not carry the burden of being lionized by French intellectuals. French intellectuals, like everybody's mother, abhor the Stooges.
Moe, Larry and Curly deserve recognition just because they were. Pokes in the eye, blaps upside the head and gang saws under the nose weren't funny before the Stooges. They were comic geniuses who convincingly acted like idiots.
There's only one question left for this campaign to answer, the eternal Stooge question:
What about Shemp?
