Doings

Last night we had an old friend over to dinner. I grilled a strip steak and made a mixture of roasted root vegetables (potato, parsnip, carrots, turnips) and chou-fleur au beurre noir (cauliflower with brown butter sauce) on the side. Simple, classic preparations. I’m very much into portion control so the three of us split a one pound steak. That means about a quarter pound of prepared steak per portion. Nobody went hungry. Our friend had brought some florentines from a good bakery in Evanston which we had for dessert. Those had been a favorite of another mutual old friend who is now deceased so it was a sort of sentimental choice.

This morning I went to the training class for election judges for the upcoming election. That’s something I’ve been doing now for 24 years. Little had changed but you never know.

I did learn a few things—most of them sort of inside baseball. For example, Chicago has reduced the number of precincts. I approve if only as a cost-cutting measure. Illinois has apparently shortened the period of early voting which sounds like it’s bucking the national trend. Early voting will begin on October 22nd and end on November 3. That’s a week or so shorter than it used to be. I wouldn’t mind if most of the voters voted early. Indeed, I wouldn’t mind so much that I’m nearly tempted to get out and persuade all of the voters in the precinct to vote early.

The election itself promises to be a mad house. There will be two ballots: one for offices and the other for a variety of referenda. If, by some quirk, the precinct in which I serve is a split precinct we could potentially have as many as four different combinations of ballots. I also anticipate that some voters will be coming in angry.