Song of the Day: Alice's Restaurant

What else could it be?

Song of the Day: The Thanksgiving Song

An Adam Sandler classic to get you ready for the Big Eat.

Facebook phenomenon

KJ from The Pointy Universe, which we've linked to before, has hit another home run with her post on Facebook last week.

It's an interesting experience, for many of the reasons she cites. It's cool to easily get and stay in touch with a bunch of people you've lost track of. But it's odd how people seem driven to accumulate "friends," even if they never had that relationship with some of the people they become friends with on Facebook.

Pointy Universe also has a "Random Quizilla" post from last month, if you like random, thought-provoking questions. My answers to the posed questions would be:
1--No.
2--Guitar Hero?
3--Pineapples go bad, but if they don't in this premise, I think I could carve them into hand shapes.
4--No. Absolutely not.
5--If Turkey Sandwich with stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo on lightly toasted bread doesn't count, make it pumpkin pie.

Check it out.

Your choice

Crisp and clear 25 degree day
Or
45-50 with pouring rain all day and night?
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Massachusetts to America: You're Welcome!

Obama raised $3.31 per Massachusetts resident and $2.91 per Vermonter - more than he took in from New York ($2.62) and California ($2.29), traditionally among the richest pastures for Democrats.

By Solomont's measure, Massachusetts even outperformed Obama's home state, Illinois, which contributed $2.42 per capita to his campaign.

Second story listed on linked page.

Sox to sign another Japanese pitcher?

So say some of the reports.

This one is differnet in that the pitcher, Junichi Tazawa, is only 22 years old and likely to start in the minors.

It's not just encouraging to see the Red Sox obtain another player that can help the team who is essentially a free agent. It's reported they didn't put in the highest bid for Tazawa. So it's nice to find out that they may be doing it in large part due to their success in obtaining Dice-K and their ability to develop pitchers and other players.

Libraries are good

They deal in books, which are good for your brain.

They reduce and reuse, which is good for the earth.

Now you can help libraries and promote them with a license plate for your car.

Song of the Day: Sparkle and Shine

Sounds a bit like Sprinsteen trying to be deep at first, but it's not. It's Steve Earle, who I know only from Sirius Coffee House. I did look him up on wiki in honor of his being featured here. I like to be able to impart at least one interesting thing sometimes. Here goes:
"Before Earle was signed as an artist in his own right, he was employed as a songwriter, writing songs for the likes of Carl Perkins, Vince Gill and Steve Wariner. His song "Mustang Wine" was due to be recorded by Elvis Presley in 1975, but Presley did not turn up for the recording session. The song was released as a single by Carl Perkins."
There's some more interestig stuff on him, including that he now hosts a radio show on the Outlaw Country channel on Sirius.

Working from home

Had to drop off mrs. noternie's car this morning for brakes. That put me well behind my regular schedule. And I was going to have to pick her up and bring her to get the car, which was going to cut short my day. Then, about 2/3 of the way into the office, someone called her and said her building had no power and the office was closed. Seems some exploding manhole covers took out a chunk of the city.

So we went to my office, picked up some things and headed home. Interesting experience working at home. The phone isn't ringing and there aren't people wandering in and out of my office to have conversations, but I'm not sure I could do this everyday. I don't think I'm disciplined enough. My father-in-law does it and seems to like it well enough. I can't help looking out the window to find out what "that noise" is in the neighborhood. I'm easily distracted. Would I be blogging this if I weren't?

Back to "work."

Song of the Day: Bruises

Sounds like Bjork, no? It's actually a band named Chairlift. You might recognize this as another really good song featured in an iPod commerical. Whoever picks these is pretty good at it.

Let's get into the holiday spirit

NEW YORK—In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition, more than 10,000 locals and tourists alike braved the cold Monday to watch the annual stuffing of the Rockefeller Center Turkey.

The nationally televised event, which has rung in the holiday season for nearly 80 years, began at 5 p.m., when workers propped open the skin flaps of the 55-foot-tall bird, and pushed an 11-ton mixture of bread crumbs, onions, and other fixings into its massive trunk.

"This year's stuffing is shaping up to be the best one yet," said Mayor Mike Bloomberg, addressing the crowd from a podium next to the giant avian carcass. "Look at that beautiful glistening turkey!"

Mayor Bloomberg rings in the Thanksgiving season.
"Let Thanksgiving begin," Bloomberg added as he ceremoniously picked up a handful of salted butter and coagulated grease from the pile and threw it into the cheering crowd.

The rest of the story...

Wow!

Would you believe that after I posted the Ray Lamontagne songs, The Coffee House played another one of his songs? Would you believe the next song they played was Sea of Love by Cat Power?

I'm not going to accuse them of stalking my blog, but they're definitely watching very closely. Very closely.

The spoils of victory

One of my vanquished adversaries paid off the bet for a free lunch. This was the one about whether Obama's electoral college vote would go over 300 or below.

In a week I'll get my Crumbs cupcakes which was based on whether he'd go over 290.

Song of the Day: Trouble

One of my favorite channels on Sirius* is The Coffee House, Channel 30. It plays "singer-songwriters", acoustic versions of popular stuff and stuff you'd expect to hear in a coffee house.

I love most of the stuff on there, but there are some clunkers. One of the clunkers though, has won my favor. Ray Lamontagne, a New Hampshire-born Maine resident is played on the channel quite a bit. Here's one of his better known tunes.



He's also got an interesting cover of the Gnarls Barkley tune, Crazy. Here it is as a Friday bonus.


*I'll call them SiriusXM fulltime when they do it themselves.*

I don't know what to say

This is kind of funny, kind of odd. It shouldn't reflect in any way on the woman in the foreground. She doesn't know the camera's getting a shot that includes both her and what's going on in the background.

Clean them all out

This kind of thing bothers me. I don't know how often it happens, I suspect less of it than other people might suspect. But it irks me more than I think it irks people, too.

I don't care whether it's an African American activist City Councilor in Boston or a 40-year US Senator from Alaska or the Speaker of the House in Massachusetts, there should be aggressive pursuit of corruption in government.

I know, way out on a limb there, aren't I?

Smaller point

Sure, taking luxurious private jets is not the best symbolic move when you're going somewhere to beg for money.

But to me, the greater irony to me is that they are representing companies that manufacture and sell transportation vehicles. It’s less than a 9 hour drive from Detroit to Washington, D.C. With a hired driver they could still get plenty of work done on the phone and internet while they traveled.

Hey, how about picking people up along the way for meetings? Take a guy from Detroit, meet with him until you get to Cleveland, leave him there and pick up another guy. Have that meeting, then drop him off somewhere else along the way. You could have rotating meetings from Detroit to Washington IN A CAR.

And you can make it into a positive PR story! I mean, if there's anyone that should latch onto and embrace the "my office is my car" thing, shouldn't it be the CEO of a friggin' car company?!?!?!

The movie Juno

Not only did I finally watch the Departed Tuesday night, I followed up by catching Juno last night with mrs. noternie through the brilliant service provided by Fios. I'm on a movie roll!!!

A few minutes into watching Juno, we discussed whether the movie was actually a comedy about teen pregnancy. At the end we decided it really was. Not a farcical or spoofing comedy, but a comedy never the less.

But now I wonder. It's a very funny movie. Much of the humor is unexpected and very blunt. They make jokes about things you wouldn't expect them to in a movie that really does treat the subject seriously. But that's what makes it so real.

Thinking on the way into work this morning, I started leaning toward classifying it as a drama. The jokes aren't the meat of the movie, they're a very well used device to connect the audience to the story. (For contrast consider Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman, father of Juno director Jason Reitman.)

It's a very, very good movie. Ellen Page, who I've never seen before, played the title character, Juno, a 16-year old that finds herself pregnant. The character and the actress are excellent. The fact that Page can carry the character and keep her from being outshone by the rest of the accomplished cast is amazing. Featured in the movie are JK Simmons as her father (Skoda from Law and Order, Vernon Schillinger from Oz, JJ Jameson from Spiderman trilogy) Allison Janey as the step-mother (she was in Private Parts and West Wing), Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the adoptive parents. Unknowns Micheal Cera and Olivia Thirlby as Bleeker and Leah also hold their own.

The thing that I liked most about the movie was it's unpredictability. You develop certain feelings about characters, then in some cases they're challenged and changed as things go along. The story is also unpredictable. You figure you'll get the happy ending, but you're not sure what it will be or how you'll get there. It's not just a simple problem with curiosity centering around how the main characters will solve it. Identifying the problems and their solutions is a bit more complex here. And that's good.

If by some chance YOU still haven't seen this movie and you're curious about a movie about teen pregnancy that rides the line between comedy and drama, I highly recommend it.

Song of the Day: Sea of Love (x 4!)

This one's been done a few times, each time very, well, I think. Phil Phillips did it originally in 1959 and it went to #2. Classic 50s sound to this one. Would rate listening even if there weren't three other versions.


In 1984, the Honeydrippers brought it to a younger audience, in a modern medium when they did the song and video. Many don't remember the name of the band, simply that it was fronted by Robert Plant. Jeff Beck and Zepplin partner Jimmy Page were also involved. A bit schmaltzy, frankly, but it was also a pretty big hit.


Tom Waits did a version of the song Sea of Love for the movie of the same title, which featured Al Pacino playing--what else--a talented, but somewhat burned out cop with an edge and Ellen Barkin as the love interest/subject of investigation. This version of the song is the most unique, as you might expect if you know even just a little bit about Tom Waits. It's darker, grittier. There's a bit of confusion or desperation in there. It fits the movie to a T. Good version of the song, good movie.


Finally, we feature the most recent prominent version. This one's done by Cat Power and was used in the movie Juno, which I watched last night. Brilliant selection and placed well in the movie. The love is now between a pregnant teen and her unborn child. Again, the voice and backing music matches the character and the story of the movie. Uncertain, searching, lonely, sad and hopeful at the same time. No complicated production, like the Honeydrippers. This one relies on simplicity just as the character tries to follow her most basic instincts to find her way through.


Credit to wikipedia for some details and confirmation of information. Visit them to see a complete list of the many versions of this song. Among artists who have covered it are Iggy Pop and Hawaiian favorite "Iz."

Song of the Day: All the Young Dudes

You'll know the song, for sure. But you may think it's David Bowie. Not so. It's Mott the Hoople's big hit. But Bowie did play a huuuuuuuge role in Mott the Hoople's success. According to wikipedia:

David Bowie had long been a fan of the band, and heard that they were about to split. He persuaded them to stay together and offered them "Suffragette City" from his then yet-to-be-released Ziggy Stardust album. They turned it down so Bowie wrote "All the Young Dudes" for them instead. Released as a single in July 1972, it was a success in the UK, with the band using Tippens - who by this time was their tour manager - to sing backing vocals during live gigs. A Bowie-produced album, also called All the Young Dudes, sold well. Late in 1972 they were going to record another Bowie song, "Drive-In Saturday"[citation needed], but their intended arrangement did not satisfy him and their professional relationship effectively ended.

More impressive is the fact that "All the Young Dudes" was the first performance by your humble narrator on Guitar Hero. My nephew received the Aerosmith version of the game at his birthday party on Saturday. After we waited out most of the rest of the guests and the house was nearly empty, he popped it in and few of us took turns. I did so-so practicing the intro to "Dream Police" by Cheap Trick. I think I had trouble because it was played at a significantly reduced speed.

When we went into concert mode, I was nervous about keeping up, but I did rather well, if I do say so myself. In only my second time handling the guitar, I hit 84% of the notes and had a streak of 134 straight correct notes. I didn't get booed off the stage. In fact, at the end it said "You Rocked." I think I could've done even better had I been a little more familiar with the fills and solos at the end, especially the notes that kick in off-beat.

How did USC miss this guy?

"Yale captain Bobby Abare earns Harvard's attention" says the subhead of a story on boston.com today. Attention? He should earn their fear. Look at the picture: the guy doesn't have hands, he has claws.

Sgng of the Day: What's Love Got to Do With It

Tina Turner will be 69 a week from Saturday and is one tour. And you know she's not doing some Barbara Streisand/Celine Dion kind of show, featuring a lot of standing around. It got a great reveiw in the Globe today.

So here's to Tina Turner. Today we'll feature the song that kicked off her comeback in the 80s. Imagine that her "comeback" was about 25 years ago!

What's a blog?

Sabutai, autor of Quriltai on the Shore, is celebrating a full year of blogging. Congrats to him for that, and for his excellent explination of what this blogging is all about for some of us...

"It's the online equivalent of talking to yourself a little too loudly in the hope that people around you will be impressed by what you're saying. And i'm not good at shutting up."

Song of the Day: Let me clear my throat

Without endorsement or compliment of any kind, I give you the opening to an article feature on wikipedia. I certainly didn't know this. Follow the link for more of the story.

Nazi Germany initiated a strong anti-tobacco movement and led the first public anti-smoking campaign in modern history. Anti-tobacco movements grew in many nations from the beginning of the 20th century, but these had little success, except in Germany, where the campaign was supported by the government after the Nazis came to power. It was the most powerful anti-smoking movement in the world during the 1930s and early 1940s. The National Socialist leadership condemned smoking and several of them openly criticized tobacco consumption. Research on smoking and its effects on health thrived under Nazi rule and was the most important of its type at that time. Adolf Hitler's personal distaste for tobacco and the Nazi reproductive policies were among the motivating factors behind their campaign against smoking, and this campaign was associated with both antisemitism and racism.

The Nazi anti-tobacco campaign included banning smoking in trams, buses and city trains, promoting health education, limiting cigarette rations in the Wehrmacht, organizing medical lectures for soldiers, and raising the tobacco tax. The National Socialists also imposed restrictions on tobacco advertising and smoking in public spaces, and regulated restaurants and coffeehouses. The anti-tobacco movement did not have much effect in the early years of the Nazi regime and tobacco use increased between 1933 and 1939, but smoking by military personnel declined from 1939 to 1945. Even by the end of the 20th century, the anti-smoking movement in postwar Germany had not attained the influence of the Nazi anti-smoking campaign.

Try this...

Pork Chops (4, pounded thin)
Small can of evaporated milk*
T dijon mustard*
3 green onions, chopped*

Pan fry some pork chops in a little olive oil. Remove them from the pan, but keep them warm in the oven.

Lower heat and add evaporated milk to the pan, stiring to loosen the bits left from the chops. Mix in in the dijon mustard and green onions. Once mixed, add the pork chops back in, turning and stiring until sauce starts to thiken slightly.

Serve over rice.

*We often double the evaporated milk, mustard and onions to create more gravy.

That reaction

Those wonderful folks at Fios gave us free HBO and some other stations for the first month. When mrs noternie called to cancel them after the 30 days, they said not only could we keep them for another two months, but we were going to get Showtime and a bunch of others, too. Seems the promotion they were running had been upgraded, so we were given the upgraded promotion.

Anyway, having HBO allowed me to DVR "The Departed" and "Mystic River," two movies I've long wanted to see. As much as I look forward to watching them, I'll enjoy no longer getting the reaction I've been getting from people when they reference the movies and I tell them I haven't seen them. You know that shocked, how can you do without oxygen "what do you mean you haven't see it/them" reaction. Yeah, I can do without that.

I read Mystic River, along with all the other Lehane books. I even got to see the movie for "Gone, Baby, Gone" and loved it.

So in the next few weeks I hope to find the time to squeeze in a viewing of these two movies. Then people can just be shocked that I don't watch "The Office" or that I haven't seen "40 Year Old Virgin" or one of the newer Batman movies.

Song of the Day II: Manic Depression

Mitch Mitchell's worth two SOTDs. There's some fine drumming (and guitar, of course) on this tune, Manic Depression.

UFC--Boxing

I like the UFC. For those who don't know much about it, UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship, and organization that puts on MMA fights. MMA is mixed martial arts, a style of fighting that includes boxing, wrestling, judo, grappling, kickboxing, jujitsu and other fighting disciplines.

Where boxing matches go 10-12 three-minute rounds, UFC fights have three five-minute rounds. Championship fights go five rounds. The mixed disciplines and shorter fights lead to more action, generally. Fights can go the distance and end on decisions, but they can also end by knock out or when one fighter gets another to submit by putting them in a hold that puts pressure on a joint or deprives them of oxygen, through a choke hold.

The gloves are much thinner in MMA, so fighters get knocked down quicker. And because fighting on the ground is allowed, when one guy gets knocked down, the fight doesn't stop for a count. While it sounds more barbaric than boxing, there isn't the accumulation of punches that do long-term damage, as there is in boxing. If an MMA fighter gets stunned and can't defend intelligently, the fight is over. In boxing, with the bigger gloves, it's harder to land a punch that has the impact to knock a guy loopy for 10 seconds, so they take many, many more punches.

I also like boxing. But the multiple sanctioning organizations and the continuing frustration of fighters taking big, guaranteed paydays rather than fights against other top fighters makes it tough to follow.

The recaps of the Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik fight described it as a one-sided trouncing. And while it was that, when I watched the replay, I kept marvelling at how little actual action there was and how few clean hard shots were landed over the course of twelve rounds.

So the buzz about the UFC (and smaller MMA promotional organizations) has been growing. Some say they have passed by boxing. Boxing purists call MMA a sideshow fad. But as this article points out, the UFC has been going pretty strong for a while and has some elements that could enable it to continue taking a significant slice of the fighting pie.

Song of the Day: Fire

There aren't many drummers in rock history that everyone can name. Not as many as their are lead singers and guitarists, anyway. They may rate a touch higher than bass players.

Mitch Mitchell was one that was known by name. He played for Jimi Hendrix during the brief, brilliant, legendary stretch at the end of the 60s. If you haven't gone through a period where you immerse yourself in Hendrix and listen obsessively to everything, you should. Hendrix himself was tremendous, but the entire band and the music they put out is well worth some time in your ears.

Why not now? Mitchell can't do it anymore. He just died.

Mmmmmmmmmm, Meat Pies and Laben

Spent the day yesterday down at mom and dad's with my sisters--one is in from out of town. Lunch was a special surprise (to me): dad was sent out to pick up an order from Sam's Bakery in Fall River.

Included in the order were the standards meat pies, laben (meat and yogurt) and spinach pies, along with some sweet pies. There were also some things that I don't remember us ever ordering: open cheese pies and chourico pies.

It was a huge order. So much so that after everyone had lunch, my brother in law and I were ordered to split up the remains to take home. I don't know if they had planned on eating it the rest of the week, then plans changed as they headed up to Freeport today or what the deal was. But I headed home with a big bag of stuff, some of which I'm enjoying for lunch right now.

Yummy in my tummy!

Song of the Day: Money

Could be song of the year.

One of the nation's leading shopping mall owners is going under, just in time for the holidays.

Discussion continues on how the feds will spread down that $700 billion corporate welfare/bailout/loan fund. Turns out the original goal is not the current goal. Funny how that works. Funny also how this stuff--however necessary--is not called socialism, but a progressive tax system is.

The Red Sox have announced ticket prices are not going up. First time in 14 years that's happened. What triggered ticket price freeze last time? A strike that led to cancellation of the World Series.

Song of the Day: Travelin' Soldier

The Dixie Chicks do the Veteran's Day honors for Song of the Day. I'm a half-hearted fan of the Chicks. The beating they took for critical comments of the President were exaggerated and mean-spirited. Their answer, Not Ready to Make Nice, was a courageous and worthy response. I've since heard lead-singer Natalie Maines on the Howard Stern show and like her quite a bit. On the other hand, besides a select few, I'm not a fan of their songs. Country music doesn't really do it for me.

Anyway, thank you to all the armed service veterans that have sacrificed to serve our country. The mission isn't always what it should be, maybe, but that shouldn't reflect on those who do their best.

Maine's good, go there

mrs. noternie and I went to Kennebunkport, Maine for a few nights this weekend. Highly recommend a visit if you get a chance. It's a great place to spend a day or two. There are some very good restaurants--from high end establishements to joints--there are some good local, independent shops to peruse, there are lighthouses and beaches to explore, even in the colder weather, and it's a quick run up to Portland or Freeport if you want to do that.

If you're not an invited guest of the elder Bush--and mrs. noternie and I certainly were not--you can still take Ocean Drive, stop on the paved shoulder and take a glance at the family manse on Walker's Point. They've added a windmill to the property, which continues a trend of the old man becoming more likable to me the older he gets.

Accomodations
King's Port Inn--In style it was half B&B and half motel. We had a B&B type room in the main house, that was appointed well with a CaliKing bed, double shower and jacuzzi tub. Breakfast was continental with optional waffles. Very good value within sight of town center.

Food
Allison's (bar and pub fare, good stuff)
The Ramp (joint, great steamed mussels in garlic broth)
Hurricane (upscale, leisurley paced yumminess)

More details if I get a chance, but I wanted to give the basic endorsement.

Song of the Day: At Last

7!

Song of the Day: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

George Thoroughgood falls into two categories: he's got more better than average songs than you might think and if you haven't listened in a while you might forget how good some of them are.

This is a really good one. I hear it on one of the Sirius channels every week or three. Great tune.

"Everybody funny. Now you funny, too"

McCain said he had no regrets

Not even the selection of Palin. I don't think his staff agrees.

Song of the Day: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

Boomp3.com

McCain-Palin: The split will be faster than the vetting, I'm sure.

It was close after all

Well, relatively speaking. In practical terms, McCain would have had to do a great deal better in a lot of places to win. But compared to other recent presidential elections, in terms of the electoral college vote, this race was very close. I found these numbers surprising.

Number of electoral college votes won by victorious Presidental candidates.
2008, Obama--349 electoral college votes (ish)
2004, W. Bush-286
2000, W. Bush-271
1996, Clinton-379
1992, Clinton-370
1988, HW Bush-426
1984, Reagan-525
1980, Reagan-489

Source: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/votes/index.html,
via http://www.usconstitution.net/elecvotes.html

Ladies and Gentlemen, President-elect Barack Obama

In case you didn't get to stay up to watch his speech last night or, like me, fell alseep part way through and woke up with all the Obamas and Bidens on stage...

Song of the Day II: What a Wonderful World

Boomp3.com

Satchmo, Louis Armstrong

Song of the Day: A Change is Gonna Come

Boomp3.com

This is a brilliant, soulful song by Sam Cooke. I think it is the most fitting song for the results of last night's election.

The lyrics are as follows. As good as they are, Cooke's singing and the backing music easily matches the quality. Really a tremendous song all the way around. It's worth following this link to the Wikipedia page on the song and reading the origins of the song.

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees

Ohhhhhhhhh.....

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Welcome to the new America

An African-American President of the United States of America? That's a pretty big deal.

It's true! It's true! It's true!

I just got back from early morning lit drops in NH, stopped to vote and then got a free coffee at Starbucks. You get a choice of bold, mild or decaf.

Good for them. Good for me. I'll be up watching returns tonight. I may post while watching, but posting should be light tomorrow.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Song of the Day: Better Way

Did you vote today? You're going to, right? We don't have to get all Schoolhouse Rocky on you, do we? (I would've anyway, but I couldn't get one in the right format.)

"Better Way"
by Ben Harper

One, two, one, two, three

I'm a living sunset
Lightning in my bones
Push me to the edge
But my will is stone

'Cause I believe in a better way!

Fools will be fools
And wise will be wise
But i will look this world
Straight in the eyes

I believe in a better way!
I believe in a better way!

What good is a man
Who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic
With no better plan

I believe in a better way!
I believe in a better way!

Reality is sharp
It cuts at me like a knife
Everyone i know
Is in the fight of their life

I believe in a better way!

Take your face out of your hands
And clear your eyes
You have a right to your dreams
And don't be denied

I believe in a better way!
I believe in a better way!
I believe in a better way!

My ballot

For President and Vice President--Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Barack Obama was not my first choice. He wasn't my second choice. I was first for John Edwards and then Hillary Clinton. But I'm not unhappy with the Democratic nominee. No candidate is perfect; not this one, not the other two I preferred before him. Still, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who I've always liked a lot, are far and away the best choice in today's election. If there were nothing to consider by temperament and style, Obama's optimistic, positive and to some inspiring campaign would have it all over McCain's bitter, divisive effort. But Obama also seems to have and celebrate an appreciation for the intellectual efforts, where McCain-Palin seem to think anything not from the gut is elitist. I am a Democrat and a liberal, it is true. So ideology and policy preferences turn me to one party naturally. The Obama-Biden ticket though, gives me confidence that they will seek solutions and fairness, not just success of the party line.

For US Senate--Blank.
I like Kerry, but I don't think he does enough for the state. He started pushing harder on national issues leading up to and since his Prez run, but I don't think he ever really "gets it" when it comes to representing Massachusetts and doing constituent services. i don't think he'll notice all the blank votes cast for this race, but I will. I wouldn't mind him moving on to a Cabinet position. I think he'd do better in the rarefied air. We might get a less influential member of the Senate, but i think they'd work harder and get to the level Kerry got to much quicker, Prez run notwithstanding.

For US Congress--Blank
I'm not a big fan of Stephen Lynch...or his wife, not that it should matter. But there's something off putting about seeing her double and triple parking the car with the US Congress plates to run into a store only a block or two from the house.

Mass Ballot Questions
1--No. Until the infrastructure fairies, education fairies come along.
2--Yes. Is weed worse than alcohol? Not in my book.
3--Yes. Not very strong feelings on this, but strong enough to vote on it.

Early to rise

I'm on my way. It's 3:44 and I've already got coffee and ten minutes on the road.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Worried about staying up for election results?

Starbucks is offering free coffee if you vote.

Song of the Day II: Take off

Boomp3.com

I'm heading to the battleground state of New Hampshire tomorrow to place door hangers for Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen. I'll be reporting to a field office at 4:50am, for 5am deployment.

You should do something. Here's a list, in order of importance...
1--Vote
2--Tell a bunch of your friends and family to vote.
3--Make calls to get out the vote (GOTV). In many cases now you can sit in your house, log onto a website and use your phone (many have unlimited long distance) to call voters in battleground states.
4--Go to a busy place and hold a sign for your candidate.

I'm going to write and pre-post the way I'm voting on everything in tomorrow's election. I'll schedule it to post at 6am.

Song of the Day: What's going on?

The great Marvin Gaye with the title track off of one of the greatest albums in my collection.

Reminder

October accomplishments

Congratulations to me.

October 2008 saw a new high mark set for posts on this blog. I hope you enjoyed more than you disliked. And if you did, I hope you'll recommend the site to a friend...or two...or three...or to as many friends as posts you read here that you like. The number of daily visitors is growing steadily, but we're not in danger of blowing out any servers just yet. I'll let you know. I know what traffic is like here because, as I announced in song, I installed a hit counter sometime ago.

Seriously, if you enjoy the site, share it. If you enjoy a post, forward it by emailing someone a link or copying the post and sending it along. I also enjoy the thought that some readers may forward posts of mine because they think it will get under someone else's skin. So please feel free to do that.

October was also the month during which the site featured it's 500th post.