Thoughts at Large:

• I’m not sure she meant it this way, but Hillary Clinton was right when she said Indiana and North Carolina would be game changers.

• Great line I saw: Clinton’s hyper-optimistic campaign manager Terry McAuliffe has become Baghdad Bob.

• I give her credit for proving herself a fighter, but perhaps folks are worrying that even in the White House, that’s all she’d do.

• Have you ever seen a flatter learning curve than on the part of Barrington teen drinkers?

• I hear the police chief there is unpopular among some parents who resent his diligence, but he should know most folks think he’s doing an exceptional job.

• I’m thinking the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe went a whole lot better than the Bush plan to rebuild Iraq.

• A nickel now costs 7.5 cents to make and a penny 1.26 cents. That’s like GM making a car for $30,000 and selling it for $20,000. Only the manufacturing arm of the U.S. government would have such a profit structure.

• Does it mean you’re a low-rent household if you set your dinner table with leftover Pizza Hut napkins?

• I passed a store called “Goin’ Postal” on Route 44 in Seekonk and am trying to figure out whether it’s a mailing service or an anger-management center.

• The nuts at Brown University who threw pies at Tom Friedman of the New York Times — for not being green enough for them despite authoring a new book on environmental crises — is a fine example of alleged idealists keeping fascism alive and well on campus.

• When I become emperor, my first act will be to require all device chargers to be uniform so you don’t need 30 different ones.

• And why are they never labeled? All those who have a drawer full of unknown chargers raise your hand.

• An expert on TV said the women in that polygamist cult cover themselves in frontier dresses so that they’re unattractive to other men. I give them credit for succeeding.

• And why would you want to marry even one of them, let alone three or four?

• For that matter, isn’t one wife more than enough for any man?

• I got my own wife’s permission to print the above sentence — what, you think I’d say that without clearance?

• I would watch more golf if, as in hockey, checking was allowed.

• Remember when the video game Grand Theft Auto was condemned for being based on carjacking? Grand Theft Auto IV just came out and had $500 million in first-week sales. I’m shocked, disturbed and mostly, upset no one asked me to invest in the company early on.

• All these months later, I can’t accept that Providence’s Russian submarine sank — and is still down there awaiting salvage. Aren’t submarines supposed to sink?

• What is it with girls beating each other up on video?

• Don’t you love those ads pushing products for “today’s on-the-go families”? I guess that mean’s yesterday’s families didn’t go anywhere.

• Barbara Walters’ new book reveals she had an affair with former Massachusetts Sen. Ed Brooke, which raises a question. Why do women always tell?

• Is there some way Brown University could offer a required course teaching students not to cross on reds?

• News item: “Due to shortages, warehouse retail chains Sam’s Club and Costco are limiting how much rice people can buy.” Where are we, Bangladesh?

• Great Rhode Island story: Reader Edith Ziegler tells of her husband checking into Miriam Hospital soon after they arrived here from out of state. A nurse asked if he had a “hot monitor.” The couple at first thought it was some kind of heat sensor, until the nurse pointed to her chest and explained, “A hot monitor is for your hot.”

• And another reader told me of her husband, Duncan, coming here for a job, and finding upon arrival the company had already put a nameplate on his desk, spelled: Dunkin.

• Technology at its best: There’s now a cell phone program you can buy called “Fake call” that lets you trigger a ring to get out of a meeting.

• If you’re old enough to know what Dump-the-Hump means, raise your hand. Hint: Think 1968 Democratic convention.

• And finally, I just learned Tiger Woods’ caddy made $1.7 million last year, so if anyone has a golf bag for me to carry, let me know.

mpatinkin@projo.com