From the “Oh, That Explains It” Department: So, you’re paying more at the pump — as of Friday at The Big Store, regular cost $4.27 a gallon, plus cost $4.39, premium cost $4.49, diesel cost $5.08.

Now, as you reach deeper into your pocketbook to pay your gas bill, you should know that you’re not alone on the Street of Hard Times.

Take Exxon Mobil Corp. The world’s largest publicly traded oil company reported a first-quarter profit of $10.9 billion. Sure, that 17 percent more than first quarter of 2007 and the second-biggest U.S. quarterly corporate profit ever.

But, doggone it, Exxon Mobil’s profits still fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts and the price of the company’s shares fell nearly 4 percent.

So, let that fact be your salve the next time you drain your wallet to fill your tank. Need more? Buy electric. Or carpool. Or buy stock in Exxon Mobil. — Richard Walker, The Journal.

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From the “Yes, I Do Feel Better Now” Department: According to investment bank Goldman Sachs, oil prices will climb from $107 to $141 a barrel in the second half of this year.

“Supply constraints continue to push crude prices higher,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note Friday.

But don’t worry. Despite escalating fuel prices, the global economy continues to grow.

“The dire macroeconomic impact from the current oil shock has yet to materialize,” the note said.

Goldman Sachs had no comment on the microeconomic impact. — Richard Walker, The Journal.

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From the “Feel Safer, Now?” Department: I am really going to resent it if I can’t buy fireworks this Fourth of July.

As long as I can walk into a store and buy cigarettes, alcohol, handguns and drive a car — all of which are more likely to hurt me than a sparkler — I am skeptical of the goal of making me safer through this ban.

Sure, if handled carelessly, fireworks can hurt you but so can alcohol, handguns and cars. I don’t know that there is any safe way to use tobacco.

So why choose this way to make our community safer? Maybe because the people who sell fireworks don’t have the clout of the tobacco lobby? — Margaret Thorson, Waldron Island.

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Snarks in 25 Words or Less: “I am tired of our government being so apathetic and counter-productive in regards to the world’s environmental crisis.” — Frances Bacon, The Journal.

“It’s time our town gets rid of the L.A. freeway-style street lights that line our town roads. We are a tourist destination, right?” — Ron Bates, The Journal.