Well, while everybody in the US obsessess over the power outage in NY and surrounding states, Phoenix's own crisis has been virtually ignored: gas is in short supply, due to a broken line in Tucson.

For the past few days, it is more common to see gas stations roped off, out of gas, than those with gas. And when they do have gas, there is almost certainly a long line of cars waiting to fill up. I myself was in one of those lines this morning, hoping to fill up my tank so I had more than just enough to make it home tonight. After 20 minutes of waiting to pay $2.05 a gallon, just when I was next in line to get gas, the station owner came around and said he had to close down - he was out of gas. I went out again at lunch and in a 20+ mile drive (to pick up my contacts - I wasn't out joyriding during a gas shortage!) I saw a total of three stations that had gas - and very long lines - along a stretch of roadway that is very heavily travelled (meaning, obviously, that there are gas stations on nearly every corner - many dozens of them.)

Prices two week ago were hovering around $1.50/gallon. I actually paid $1.43 at one station. By last Monday, when word of the broken gas line got out, prices had raised to $1.75 or higher, and Saturday morning, on a mission to fill Alissa's car, I actually witnessed a price change of $0.10 in less than one hour. But that's not the worst. In the article linked above, a gas station owner raised his prices to $4.97 a gallon - yes, you did not read that incorrectly, that's nearly $5 a gallon - not because of the shortage itself but because he was sick of angry customers (an action which obviously results in more angry customers. The concept of "vicious circle" apparently is unknown to this man.) And, of course, with the 115 degree daily temperature, tempers are flaring - fights are breaking out at gas stations over people cutting others off, and a coworker of mine said there were reports of seeing buyers armed with baseball bats.

And this is just the beginning - fixing the pipeline isn't the biggest problem (which may be fixed already, according to some sources), it's getting government inspectors to put the donuts down and come sign off on the repair. The report I continually see is that this could take two weeks. TWO WEEKS. (This report claims "at least" 7 days - we'll see.)

If I were a betting man, I would put money on someone being killed during that time due to (my self-coined term) "gas rage." Because everyone knows it's not an issue until someone dies because of it. Gas rage, you heard it here first.

(For more intrigue and suspense, you might try unproductivity. It's probably not all that intriguing or suspenseful, but give it a shot anyway.)