Borders Books And Music admitted this morning to being broke and was forced to ask their largest stockholder, Pershing Square Capital Management, who agreed to loan Borders $42.5 million. Pershing Square will also receive options to buy a 19.99 percent stake in the company at $7 a share.

An emergency sale to Barnes & Nobel is being considered but Barnes & Nobel has yet to be approached.

Could this be good news for locally owned book sellers or simply another sign that the economy as well as the publishing industry are headed straight down the tubes?

Oh well, I've got the chickens and we're putting in the biggest garden ever this year. The weapons are all in working order and I've plenty of ammo. My motorized bicycle gets 200 miles per gallon. Time to tune up the solar hot water heater. I've probably got enough but need to store more rain water just in case. I guess I can survive without air conditioning this summer and I'll have the passive whole house solar heating system finished before next fall. Anybody need any steel bars welded up for your windows and doors? If you're not too picky I can weld them from scrap and barter them. If you want pretty you'll have to pay in cash... or gold.

Maybe I should switch to writing how to books and teaching urban survival classes?