Photo from BBC News.Yesterday, I had ants in my pants. The day had finally arrived, and we voted early, but not often, and then I had to hang out until my class met at 7:00. Hard to concentrate on anything.
Significant Other picked me up a little before 9:00 with the news that New Hampshire had gone for Obama. Yes. The time, the work, the sore feet, windburn, being the butt of condescension (sometimes) and the effort had paid. Yes.
Then Ohio was safe, and finally even Pennsylvania, and the clock ticked on. For a while, nothing more, then New Mexico and finally, California, and victory. It was sweet. We broke out the cognac, effete Eastern elitsts that we are.
McCain's speech was very gracious, and again we saw the old McCain who had been usurped by the mad old man and now the real McCain was back again, offering cooperation and congratulations. A class act.
Obama did not gloat, and seemed very inclusive, very, well, presidential. The "yes we can!" being the only rejoicing. Seeing Jesse Jackson with tears in his eyes, well, who would have thunk it? A long time coming, and everyone thinking of Dr. King's dream, and some of us old farts remembering another night in Chicago, in 1968 where things were very different and the Mayor was Daley then, too, and that was another war and the "whole world was watching" then, as last night and isn't it almost too unbelievable for words that last night when the world watched, all of us could be proud.
So I will not gloat but am working on another poem about you-know-who, and then I'll shut up about politics.
Last night in class, listening to people read, I realized that I employ mostly simple words, now, and big academic words have left my vocabulary because you can't write crime fiction using words like that and now I don't use them at all. Sort of sad, and yet interesting. Intriguing. Thought-provoking. Where did the big words go?
Onward. How sweet it is.
Grapeshot
Significant Other picked me up a little before 9:00 with the news that New Hampshire had gone for Obama. Yes. The time, the work, the sore feet, windburn, being the butt of condescension (sometimes) and the effort had paid. Yes.
Then Ohio was safe, and finally even Pennsylvania, and the clock ticked on. For a while, nothing more, then New Mexico and finally, California, and victory. It was sweet. We broke out the cognac, effete Eastern elitsts that we are.
McCain's speech was very gracious, and again we saw the old McCain who had been usurped by the mad old man and now the real McCain was back again, offering cooperation and congratulations. A class act.
Obama did not gloat, and seemed very inclusive, very, well, presidential. The "yes we can!" being the only rejoicing. Seeing Jesse Jackson with tears in his eyes, well, who would have thunk it? A long time coming, and everyone thinking of Dr. King's dream, and some of us old farts remembering another night in Chicago, in 1968 where things were very different and the Mayor was Daley then, too, and that was another war and the "whole world was watching" then, as last night and isn't it almost too unbelievable for words that last night when the world watched, all of us could be proud.
So I will not gloat but am working on another poem about you-know-who, and then I'll shut up about politics.
Last night in class, listening to people read, I realized that I employ mostly simple words, now, and big academic words have left my vocabulary because you can't write crime fiction using words like that and now I don't use them at all. Sort of sad, and yet interesting. Intriguing. Thought-provoking. Where did the big words go?
Onward. How sweet it is.
Grapeshot
Posts
I think defenestration is a great word for a crime novel!
ReplyDeleteDefenestration is an old Czech way of ridding onself of one's enemies. One of my colleague's once encountered this word in a computer program. A routine was named "defenestration." Of course everyone in the office was amazed that I actually knew what the word meant. Why an unknown programmer had used it in a COBOL program mystied all of us. The usual "clever" stuff in a computer program was usually "add gin, vermouth giving Martini." Gin and vermouth being variable that might stand for anything, and "Martini" being their sum.
ReplyDelete