There’s the ideological divide between Republicans and Democrats, which seems to be wider than ever. Then there’s the divide between what Americans say they want and what elected officials in Washington give them.

In the normal course of events, the visit to Jeddah of Turkish President Abdullah Gul recently and his talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah would raise little attention. Relations between the two countries are excellent and have been for a long time. There is no reason whatsoever to imagine that they will do anything other than continue to grow.

There may be plenty of strong arguments against turning 70,000 acres of Maine’s northern woods into a national park, but the arguments against using research to put the park idea to a test sound weak.

Maine did not fare well last time it applied for funds from Race to the Top, a federal competitive grant program designed to jump-start school reform efforts.

American self-esteem has taken a beating lately so we could use some good news, and now we have some even though it arrived from 36 million miles, maybe more.

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s op-ed piece in the New York Times on Monday provided a neat bookend to last week’s Republican presidential debate.

It is perhaps overstating the situation to say that Congress is not suffering so much from a lack of bipartisanship but a lack of alcohol, a social lubricant of proven efficacy.

For anyone who remembers the aroma of a grade-school classroom on a hot day, this will come as no surprise: Fawaz Almansour, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin, reports that more than 90 percent of the lunches carried by preschoolers had reached unsafe temperatures long before lunchtime.

It might all go back to a 1973 hit by Tony Orlando and Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” though historians say yellow ribbons, handkerchiefs and scarves have long been symbols of awaiting a loved one’s return.

Maine lawmakers trying to get answers this week about how a top state employee was able to negotiate the purchase of valuable state property found the effort essentially fruitless.