WoooooOOOOOoooo!!! Election!!

In previous election years, I've had restaurant dinners on election night. I've sometimes considered cooking something, but that's difficult on a work day, and in recent years I wasn't feeling optimistic enough to put in the effort. (I.e., I didn't have a recipe for crow pie.)

I decided this year would be different. I took the day off. I had a nice restaurant lunch, and now I've got vegetables roasting in the oven, and there's a Dogfish Head 120-Minute IPA chilling briefly in the fridge.

I was prepared for a long night, but the way things are going, I might still be drinking that IPA during someone's victory speech. (Of course I'm not going to mention any names. Don't want to jinx it.)

And now, a grab-bag of miscellaneous thoughts:

Palin was extremely creepy on SNL last night. I don't know if she even thought she was being funny.

The Day the Earth Stood Still remake starring Jon Hamm ("John Ham! If it feels like ham, don't wipe your ass with it!") is scheduled for release on December 12. I don't know anything about this movie, but I do remember the original: the planet Earth acquires weapons of mass destruction, and the worried spacemen show up right away to nip it in the bud. Hmm.

Last night I witnessed the second arrest to take place in front of my house within the last six months. I'm not sure what's an average number of times for most people.

I was watching The Horror of Dracula last week when that guy, Van Helsing's friend, picked up a wooden stake off the floor and prepared to drive it into some vampirella's heart. All I could think was, "dude, that's really unsanitary."

There's this cereal called Smart Start. The woman in the TV ad really emphasizes those Rs. Smrrrrrt Strrrrrt. I'm sure she's pronouncing those words correctly, but to me it just sounds like burping. They should consider redoing those ads with another actor for those of us who live in the Northeast. Actually, they need two: one to say "Smawt Stawt" and another to say "Smat Stat."

My parents voted today. Both of them. Color me shocked. I didn't ask who they voted for. I know they used to really like McCain; I don't know what they thought about Palin. (We cannot discuss these things civilly any more.) Or maybe they were motivated to vote because of one of the ballot questions. Search me. I was just really shocked to hear that they had voted at all; I didn't think they would.

I got a catalog that purports to sell healthy products. Most of the items are new-agey, pseudo-scientific crap which have already been thoroughly debunked, but there are some exceptions. Some of them are just plain crazy. There's a digital jellyfish lightshow - basically, something you could get as a screen saver for a couple of bucks, but instead you pay $40 for this thing. The writeup references "remarkable health benefits attributed to home aquariums." It also urges you to "watch your child's face explode with delight" when they see this thing. (The catalog doesn't give any dimensions or have other things in the picture for comparison, so it could be as small as a night light, or as big as a freezer.) My question: how much would you pay to watch your child's face explode?