I'm the first person in my immediate family to go to college. And I make vastly less than any of them. Why? While I was paying the big bucks for fancy-schmancy degrees, they were plying their trades.

Dad's a pool-man and manufacturer of pool tools. Brother Dave is a sign-painter. Both are hard-working, entrepreneurial, and prosperous as a result.

Sometime in the Go-Go '80s, it seemed that the archetypal American worker lost cache. The hard-working tradesman got overshadowed by the flashy, money-making executive. All you ever read about was how to get an MBA, how to get a white-collar job. Where Rosie the Riveter was once the symbol of honorable American Labor, she was replaced 40 short years later with Gordon Gekko. (And you see where the bankers have led us.)

Not everyone can or should go to college. You can make a better living working as a tradesman than you can in any number of jobs that require a four-year-degree (I'm thinking, ah, journalism...for one). How much Joe-the-Plumber actually earns notwithstanding, skilled tradesmen can and do earn a robust living, and in many ways have more control over their incomes than any corporate middle manager.

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There are two main breakfast options in my neighborhood: A charming but perpetually-crowded bistro, known as much for its quiche and muffins as for its hour-long waits; and the local '50's-style diner, which features no nonsense food with no nonsense service.

I always choose the diner. And apparently I'm in the minority.

In the age of bistros, cafes, cucinas and ristorantes, where is the love for The Great American Diner, that bastion of jukeboxes, polished steel and vinyl stools, grill jockeys in a white t-shirt and apron, and good old-fashioned American grub at prices the average American can afford? Although the diner has enjoyed a long tenure in American culinary history, The diner, the precursor to fast food, is fast becoming just another American memory, gone the way of the New Deal and the '57 Chevy.

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But I argue that the diner is one of those few American traditions that will never entirely go away. Because at bottom, Americans love their no-nonsense value meals as much as they still love their cars, the fading of Detroit's Big 3 notwithstanding.

Especially these days, with the restaurant industry hurting along with everyone else. Now, more than ever, Americans must appreciate the neighborhood greasy-spoon, where a two eggs sunny-side up, hash browns and a cuppa joe sells for $6 and the waitresses always know your name. With higher gas prices, the neighborhood joint has an instant appeal for those Sunday morning breakfast jaunts. A good diner has something for everyone, from the Senior Citizen special to the kiddie menu to the pie and coffee catering to the late night crowd.

When the dust eventually clears, the diner will still be standing, thanks to the value they provide and the sense of community they foster. It's where I'm getting my breakfast most Sunday mornings, anyway. Anyone care to join me?

Imagine that, for $31 a year, you could buy a membership that gave you access to all human knowledge, written or recorded. Story books for your children, story-telling presentations. Car manuals for your grease monkey. Tunes for your teenager. Cookbooks for your chef, movies for Saturday night, novels for the beach, how-to videos for your gardening, poems for quiet reflection. What a bargain, eh?

You can. $31 is the cost, per person, for America's public libraries, according to the American Library Association. For this small tax burden, Americans checked out over two billion items from public libraries last year, including an average of seven books as well as DVDs, tapes, and CDs.

Libraries have also become the de facto internet access point for those without a computer. In my hometown, the banks of PCs are routinely overbooked with retirees and immigrants staying in touch with loved ones. Many libraries also serve as a neighborhood gathering place for those between jobs, retired, or working from home. During a recent extended power outage, my local library also became the source of local information, electricity for recharging cell phones and laptops, and a place to congregate and share war stories.

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For my money, there is no institution that better illustrates democracy than the library. Our conviction that improving one person makes us all better, that knowledge shared will be returned in kind, that feeding the brain is as important as feeding the body, that a strong nation depends on a educated electorate, that the right to information guaranteed by the first amendment needs a vehicle for its delivery, is all manifest in the nation's library system. It is, in my opinion, worth its weight in gold.