Bland bean soup

Bean soup: onion, celery, a lot of great northern beans, parsley, *some* kind of meat for flavor.

If the meat used is salt pork, the soup turns out to have absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Seriously, this is the blandest thing I've tasted in a long time.

I'm sure some herbs and spices could save this. Beyond the obvious cracked black pepper, what would you add?

Bailouts and buyouts

Bear Stearns got a government-orchestrated purchase.
Fannie and Freddie got a Federal takeover.
Merrill Lynch got a government-orchestrated purchase.
"The free ride is over", people said as Lehman was left out to hang.
But today AIG got an $85 billion Federal bailout.

What's with Lehman? Did Dick Fuld piss off Henry Paulson or something?