You've got to hand it to officials at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. They're tough.

Yep. You wanna have some koi fish around as pets, you're gonna pay. Of course it may take them 15 years to find out that you have them, but then watch out!

Like the poor Freeport restaurant owner Cuong Luy. Real criminal he is.

After considerable ado (mostly about nothing) the DIFW has decided to allow Ly to keep his ornamental fish, but only if he does so away from public view.

Which to Ly kills the feng shui of it all.

Further, Ly's koi must have microchips implanted in them for future tracking, he must submit to regular fish tank inspections and must notify the state within 24 hours of the demise of any of his koi.

Brilliant!

Yet more evidence of why more and more people are losing faith in their government at all levels.

How much has this charade by state fish and wildlife officials cost to date? How much will this ridiculous ruling cost in the future?

Mr. Ly says he has suffered "great unhappiness" since his precious pets were conficated by the DIFW.

Funny, I'm suffering great unhappiness too, given that the DIFW is wasting an inordinate amount of time and money on this silly issue and is making themselves look pretty foolish in the process.

Take Mr. Ly at his word. An honest man's word. Give him his permit and be done with it. No strings attached.

And the next time I go for a plate of cashew chicken at the China Rose in Freeport I want to see those fish happily swimming around, entertaining hungry diners and filling the room with good feng shui.

A special Halloween aside (and why you should never, ever, ever say you've seen it all):

Portland attorney and former gubernatorial candidate Thom Connelly was arrested along I-295 this AM dressed as Osama bin Laden, waving a fake rifle and carrying a sign "I love TABOR."

I swear when that news flashed I came pretty close to needing some Depends!

It's quite a world we live in, ain't it?! Hardly a dull moment. Especially here in dear old Maine...