Reporter's Note: President Obama is preparing to be back in the office after his week off. I’m preparing to send him another letter.

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Tom Foreman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

With all the kids going back to school, I suppose it is time to take stock of how our gardens have fared, and I must say the report from my backyard is none to good. But let’s get to that in a moment. What happened with your wife’s big garden?

Seems like there was such hoopla when she planted it, I thought we were going to hear more updates along the way on what was being harvested, and when it was being served; that sort of thing. I read a few lines in the newspaper about how you had some sort of problem with sludge in the dirt? I’m not sure what that means precisely, but I can’t ever recall hearing the term sludge used in a positive sense, so I’m assuming it meant tough days on the gardening front.

Well, take heart, we had the same sort of fate. Only I don’t think we can blame it on anything as exotic as sludge. Our aspirations were modest. We had a single tomato plant, a sprig or two of basil, and an anemic cucumber vine. Actually, “anemic” is a little generous. It spindled out across a little terrace of bare dirt with the listless enthusiasm of a seven-year-old boy leaving the baseball field for violin lessons.)

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