I’ve taken a short break during the election to potty the dogs and vote myself. My assigned precinct currently has about 55% turnout. My home precinct has the same. Judging by past elections this would put us on target for a 85-90% turnout. Every is in pretty good spirits. I’m pleasantly surprised.
Make of it what you will.
The final 2004 edition of the Toast-O-Meter will be available this morning (link not available as of this posting). Check in at PoliBlog.
But Steven Taylor’s handy guide to state elections is available. A one-stop guide to all the state elections. This is the really important stuff, folks.
Posting will be light here tomorrow. I rise at the gruesome hour of 4:00am and I’ll be out the door before 5:00am to begin my election judge duties. These duties will last until roughly 9:00pm tomorrow evening. On Wednesday I’ll be sick as a dog and a single mass of pain from head to toe.
I’d like to live-blog the actual election process but it’s just not possible to get an Internet connection from the polling place. I will keep a journal and I’ll post that journal bright and early on Wednesday morning.
If we’re very, very lucky we’ll know then who the President will be for the next four years. I’m not banking on it.
Jeff Medcalf of Caerdroia has a very nice post on the true meaning of Halloween. Check it out.
In Catholicism Halloween is All Hallows’ Eve, the first day of a three day remembrance of those who have died. The second day is The Feast of All Saints or All Hallows’ Day. On this day we remember and honor all of the hallowed dead, the saints, known and unknown. The third day is All Souls’ Day, celebrated on November 2. In Mexico it is called Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, and is celebrated with the skull-shaped sugar candy you may have seen. On All Souls’ Day we remember our own beloved dead, particularly those who have died in the last year. There are many practices for celebrating this day. Some parishes keep Books of Life, in which they record parishioners who have died during the year or anyone the parishioners wish to remember. Another old custom is to pray for the repose of the souls of your deceased loved ones in a number of different churches.
Praying for the souls of the dead is a very ancient Christian custom with attestations as early as the first or second century A. D. It’s the source of the doctrine of Purgatory.
Our society is sadly lacking in rituals of commemoration of the dead and that, in my opinion, is a real loss. Such commemorations are extremely ancient, probably as old as the species itself, and the foundation of many religions.
One particularly good way to remember and honor your deceased family and friends is to do something that a deceased family member or friend would have liked to do if he or she were still here. And that is the very root material of Christianity. We remember Jesus of Nazareth by doing something He would have liked to do.
Of course, others have a different idea of the true meaning of Halloween.
On GMA this morning, they ran a portion of a taped interview of John Kerry by Peter Jennings. Jennings asked the following question: “Mr. Kerry, can you name three mistakes you’ve made in the course of the campaign? Things that you wish you hadn’t done or had done differently?” Kerry, of course and at some length, declined to answer.
Good on Jennings for asking this. This makes the point that it’s wrong and demeaning to ask a candidate a question whose only real purpose is to humiliate the candidate and give the candidate’s political opponents ammunition. And, best of all, Jennings made the point as a newsman should—by asking a question rather than by pontificating.
James Lileks is also semi-live-blogging Halloween:
Most amusing moments: three boys screamed “BUSH IS SCARY VOTE FOR KERRY,” whereupon I took back the bowl of candy. The look on their faces was priceless.
“Aren’t you going to vote for Kerry?” asked one.
“Your choice: I can vote for Kerry and you get one piece, or I vote for Bush and you get two.”
Total pieces dispensed: six
Be careful, James. They got Socrates for “corrupting youth”, i.e., making them think.
Centerfeud directs our attention to a pair of speculative Washington Post columns.
Michael Waldman on President Kerry’s first term.
Ramesh Ponnuru on President Bush’s second term.
Darn. I’d planned on doing this myself tomorrow. This makes a good bookend to my post below.
Ann Althouse is live-blogging Halloween. I wish I’d thought of it.
UPDATE: Another Halloween live-blog courtesy of Dean’s World.
IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
In the run-up to the election on Tuesday there’s a lot of hyperventilating going on on both sides. Does it remind you of the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as it does me?
I’m here to tell you it doesn’t really matter. Will there be differences if Kerry is elected as opposed to Bush being re-elected? Of course. But the Republic will go on and endure and thrive.
It’s ironic that the best statements of this have been by an Iraqi and and a Kuwaiti in an Arabic forum from the BBC, brought to us by Omar of Iraq the Model. I’ll just give you their words without any further commentary:
“There won’t be a big difference; the American policy has constants and fixed principles and there are institutions that decide America’s interests not a group of people (administration) who do whatever they want. It’s the congress who plays the major role in the decision making process.
America is staying in Iraq whether it was a democratic or a republican man in the white house, besides, we all know that the law of the liberation of Iraq was released in Clinton’s days back in 1998. The American interests in Iraq and in the region demand a permanent existence for American forces to protect these interests and also to help and support the Iraqi government which is still weak and depends much on the American forces in managing the security situation in Iraq.We may see only a reduction in the number of troops and this depends on how the security is going to improve in Iraq and on the Iraqi government gaining more control over the country and only then, the troops may be reduced but a total withdrawal is impossible.
The American vision about Iraq is that Iraq is the no.1 ally and the most important country for American interests in the region and consequently the American presence will remain strong and active”
Mohammed Al Khafaji-Babylon/Iraq.
“John Kerry cannot change the policies of the US in Iraq because the American policy (unlike the countries of the ME) is not monopolized by individuals. And no matter how high the price America is going to pay in Iraq, it will be for the best of the American people.”
Khalid Abdullah-Kuwait.
Lots of people use chestnuts over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Chestnuts for stuffing, roast chestnuts. A traditional Thanksgiving dish for us is braised chestnuts and brussels sprouts—it’s an excellent accompaniment for turkey.
Chestnuts can be a bit of a pain to work with. Removing the hulls is straightforward but tedious. It’s a real labor of love. Have you ever wondered why your chestnuts are hard to peel, why the pellicle (the inner shell) sticks so tight to the nut, or why so many of your nuts are moldy? I thought it was just part of dealing with chestnuts.
And then I learned the real truth. Most of the chestnuts in the market have been imported—mostly from Italy and Chile—and are old and haven’t been properly stored.
But there is a solution: buy your chestnuts straight from the orchard. Allen Creek Farms of Ridgefield, Washington is still shipping this year’s harvest. After harvesting they maintain their nuts in a climate controlled for both temperature and humidity so what you receive is absolutely the freshest nut available.
Before I started ordering direct from Allen Creek Farms I just didn’t realize how good chestnuts actually could be. They also have dried chestnuts, chestnut flour (from which you can make your own puree), and lots of other chestnut products. There’s still time so order your chestnuts now!
