Keeping up with the Times: Mon, Oct. 19, 2009

In a sadly ironic twist of fate, a woman who has made it her life's work to provide shelter for the homeless, has become homeless herself. "I had a house for homeless people," she said. "Now I'm homeless." The article, "From Foreclosure to the Car to a Shelter Bed," follows the case of Sheri West who surrendered her house to foreclosure, lived in her car, and with all options exhausted, eventually checked into a shelter herself. Its part of an on-the-rise issue in the economic recession of unexpected foreclosures and shelters playing a big part in housing the new homeless.

I couldn't help but be drawn in by the blurb on the front page to page A12 where Falcon Heene aka "Balloon Boy" and his story that transfixed millions of viewers over hours, was drawing up new headlines, saying it was all a "hoax." I remember watching the episode of Wife Swap. Watching the three rambunctious Heene boys jump over banisters and swing from ceiling fixtures with the father hollering red-faced over the noise, I wasn't all entirely surprised by the news that one of them had allegedly crawled into the homemade aircraft unbenknownst to the parents. I'd like to hear more specifically on the details that led investigators to believe it was a hoax after they had been so assured it was a true accident. But I guess we'll have to wait for those details to unfold.