It's just about June ... which means we're just about halfway through the year ... which means there are only about six months to Christmas ... which means I can start putting together my wish list.

So, here goes.

I wish that ...

- Al Gore and George W. Bush would decide they really don't deserve the presidency, and drop out of the race.

- Somebody like Harry Truman would take their place.

- I wouldn't have to hear about Hillary Clinton anymore.

- We'd start producing more gasoline in America so we wouldn't have to pay such outrageous prices at the pump!

- People would get bored with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" so it would go off the air.

- The Oscar for best picture would go to a film that wasn't weird.

- A new car or truck didn't cost almost as much as a new home.

- West Virginia would get smart and get rid of its lottery. Many of the people who spend money on the lottery are the ones who are least likely to be able to afford it. They're also the people it's supposed to help. Seems kind of like a vicious cycle, doesn't it?

- Laws would be passed at the federal and state levels curbing the powers of lobbyists. Right now, their abuses are among the biggest problems with our system of government.

- Campaign finance reform could be passed that would make it possible for talented people to have a chance to win office even if they didn't have the ample financial backing of big business or big labor.

-They'd update Gilligan's Island with an all-new, sort of hip set of castaways and a more believable plot line for today's kids, but still keep most of the innocence and all of the goofy fun that made the original such a treat.

- Fast food workers would listen more carefully and get my order right more often.

- Computers, cell phones and other high technology items that are such important keys to the future truly would get cheap enough that most everyone could afford them.

- The gap between our country's very richest and poorest would diminish. It's OK for people to be rich, but it's not good for our country to have so many people struggling through 40-hour weeks at $5 or $6 an hour. History shows too wide a gap usually results in a social revolution.

- Mark McGwire would hit 71 home runs.

- Sammy Sosa would hit 72.

- An incredible new pitch would be invented by a cabal of frustrated hurlers that would cut home run production back to 35 or 40 for the top sluggers in 2001.

- Dale Earnhardt Jr. would just be another, run-of-the mill NASCAR driver, instead of a great one. Suffering through one era of Earnhardt dominance is enough.

- And finally: They wouldn't start the Christmas blitz until after Thanksgiving, instead of in September or October!

But who am I to talk?

Assistant Managing Editor Matt Harvey can be reached at 626-1449.