Do cutbacks in government spending have silver linings? They do for some people in Utah. Utah is the first state to switch to a four-day workweek for government employees. Although state police, prison guards and employees of the court and public universities aren't included in the one-year experiment, 17,000 employees will be working 10-hour days Monday-Thursday. This will enable lights, heat and air conditioning to be turned off in 1,000 buildings, providing an estimated savings of $3 million. Thankfully for the government employees now celebrating 3-day weekends, employees of state-run liquor stores will still be working on Fridays.

A group of 500 small manufacturers in the Cleveland area are experiencing a silver lining in spite of selling mostly to an automotive industry experiencing record loses. As oil prices go up, shipping cheaply made products from China has become more expensive. Add to that the slowly rising Chinese labor costs and American car manufacturers are rethinking buying parts overseas. Because of the increased demand for their products, these Cleveland companies are making something else needed in America - jobs.

Even being in the brig at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina has had a silver lining for a few marines. They are participating in a program to train service dogs for fellow marines wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of the more than 70 tasks they will be teaching the dogs are opening the refrigerator, turning on and off light switches, putting clothes in the washer and completing ATM transactions. For these marines being able to train service dogs has given new meaning to being in the dog house.

Finally, according to a panel of doctors headed by Peter Roland, an ear/nose/throat specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, our ear canals also have a silver lining. It's called cerumen - or earwax. Earwax is a self-cleaning agent with protective, lubricating and anti-bacterial properties. It starts as a watery substance made in tiny glands in the outer ear canal. As jaw movements move this substance through the canal, it mixes with bits of dead hair and skin and becomes earwax. In turn, the earwax moves through the canal and removes dirt, dust and other small particles. To avoid interfering with the wax and blocking the canal, we shouldn't put anything smaller than our elbow in our ears. Actually, the doctors' advice was more detailed than that; but ENT doctors tend to wax on.