Overheard

It's not every day you're able to witness a philosophical and poetic debate about the contents of a business sign.

Earlier this evening, Tim Gillis, an English teacher at Westbrook High School, faced off in a friendly debate with Peter Levecque, the owner of Burns' Fencing, about the slogan plastered on the latter's Rochester Street business sign: "Good fences make good neighbors."

Referring to the aphorism's genesis in Robert Frost's "Mending Wall," Gillis's contention was that Burns' Fencing is misintrepeting the poem's metaphorical message: Fences should be torn down, not built up. And Levecque, no doubt a believer that good fences also make good business, identified with the poem's neighbor, the utterer of the borrowed phrase.

Anyway, check out how these critics interpret the poem.

And check in next week as we debate whether Don's Lunch's boast of being the "Home of the Big One" complies with or contradicts the message contained in Michael Moore's little-known film (to me, anyway) The Big One.

- John C.L. Morgan