What This Election Means

From today's New York Times OpEd page, two views of what President Elect Obama means, to Arabs, and to African Americans.  While this historic election means something different to everyone, this glimpse into other peoples' points of view is very moving.

Political Humorists Worry

They fear they are entering years of nothing to make fun of in the administration.  

Jon Stewart has warned that we should all be aware that if he makes jokes that refer to Barack Obama's race, they should no more be taken as jokes about all black people than the jokes he has made about George Bush should be taken as jokes about all mentally challenged people.

This morning on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, they were able to find some good humor -- talking about how "Barack Obama gets to be the guy who cleans up after eight years of a drunken frat party".  And how "Sarah Palin was defeated on Tuesday along with the old white guy who kept following her around."  And, my favorite, since she has four years now to cram, "Sarah Palin is moving her family to a new house, this one with a view of a library."

But actually, all the above jokes are still about the lame duck administration.  

Yes, it could be a dry time for the comedians, but what a great time it will be for the rest of us.

YES WE DID!

What a magnificent night!

And Florida is blue again!

The party is on at our house Friday night!

We will be celebrating our new blue county commissioner too!

VOTE tomorrow if you haven't already

and have a free cup of coffe on Starbucks. Just one more reason I like this big corporation that does so much good.

A Chilly, Rainy Fall Day

The boys got groomed this week just as it was turning chilly.  And we could not remember where we had put their Tshirts, so we had to get some new ones.  To our surprise, they love putting them on, they get just about as excited when you mention the shirts, as they do when you talk about treats.

What I Will Miss About President Bush

Really, I will not miss him at all, no how, no way. But I just finished reading Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel, American Wife which has me thinking about Laura Bush in a different way. I can finally understand why she fell in love with George, though I can't understand why she didn't make more of an effort to change his mind on some issues.
Anyway, Sittenfeld's part in this combined Op-Ed piece in today's NY Times was particularly meaningful to me, but I was better able to appreciate the other contributers here as well, especially Scott McClellan and Robert Draper.

Happy Halloween!

We decorated our new wall for Halloween this year. The pumpkins you see here are our second batch, put out just as dusk settled in on Halloween night. The first batch, put out a couple of nights early to decorate in anticipation were gone the next morning. When Mark went back to the high school pumpkin patch on Halloween afternoon with the stolen pumpkin story, they took pity -- he bought the big one and they threw the others in for free.Then Mark got dressed for some trick or treat door opening. He has experience with this costume, having worn it earlier at school for the "book character" parade (since you can't officially celebrate Halloween in the schools and libraries of the south). The boys, having just been groomed, decided to pull up their little "I've been groomed" bandanas and became little old Russian ladies.Daisy didn't want to be left out. She's the big babushka.