After spending the better part of the week decrying and deploring any resort to the courts and urging all Presidential candidates to act in a statesmanlike and responsible manner by avoiding the use of the courts to resolve the issues, if any, remaining to be resolved in connection with the selection of members of the Electoral College, George W. Bush and Richard Cheney filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Fort Lauderdale Division) on Saturday, November 11, 2000. As an independent observer, one can only wonder why the typically skillful Bush-Cheney public relations machine chose to portray Al Gore and Joe Lieberman as responsible statesmen while establishing the Republican ticket as a pair of irresponsible politicians salivating at the prospect of selecting members of the next Administration.

After putting all manner of documents and statements (from the mundane to the ridiculous) on their campaign website over time, the Republicans sowed additional confusion and cause for wonder by failing to put the text of their complaint in federal court and a supporting legal brief on their website. This leaves one wondering if they are confused, unable to run a mere website (calling into question their ability to run an entire government), or lacking in pride in their effort to thwart and obstruct as accurate a determination as possible of the actual vote. Listening to Jim Baker (a man who had, and presumably still has, such severe conflicts of interest with the interests of the United States of America that President George H. W. Bush thought it necessary to grant Baker (then Secretary of State) a waiver on August 8, 1990, of Baker's conflicts of interest so Baker could participate in decision-making concerning the Gulf War) explain about the allegedly infallible nature of vote counting machines at least some were left to wonder if either Baker or Bush had any understanding that the machines were created and programmed by human beings who had to be able to do the job at least as well as (although not necessarily as fast as) and probably better than the machines, or else they could not have built and programmed the machines in the first instance.

The best foreign comment may have been from Russia where the humorists said one Vladimir Putin reportedly said he could work with either Bush or Gore if the United States ever decided who actually won.

We have the sons of consuls as the candidates this time. Have you read your Seutonius lately?

When your coffeepot starts sending you email reminders that it needs servicing (or just a new supply of grounds), then you know that things have gone to a new level of connectedness.

My conservative friends are telling me what a pissy loser Al Gore is for contesting this problematic vote in Florida. So it's worth noting that the Bush campaign was quite prepared to contest an election if (as widely predicted) he won the popular vote but not the electoral.

Quick correction -- Pam and I just got back from Billy Eliot like 20 minutes ago -- the family was from the northwest or east of England -- not Ireland.

> ... But at least their principals are intact.

I was sad to learn recently of the (not-so-recent) death of Russell Davidson, the clever and talented principal of John Page Junior High School in Madison Heights, Mich., who encouraged my earliest journalistic and satirical endeavors. He was the first adult I ever met who loved Monty Python as much as I did.

But I don't think that's what you had in mind when you wrote that Carol Marin and Hank Price left WBBM-TV in Chicago with "their principals ... intact." It seems that misused homonyms may mar our "impeccable" journalism and writing credentials from The Tech!

It was really very fun. My plane ran late, but that turned out to be a good thing because Stacey was running late and forgot to bring my flight information to Cleveland with her. On her way to pick me up she backed into a dumpster, which wouldn't have been so bad, except that there was a pole sticking out of the dumpster that went right through her rear windshield, completely shattering it. Luckily Emily was with her and Emily has her own car, so she drove Stacey to the airport where she apparently ran around for an hour before I got there trying to figure out where the hell I was. She found the right gate number just as I arrived. She was still rather wound up but she managed to relax after we had dinner at the Macaroni Grill (not as bad as it sounds, really) and got back to Oberlin.

…All of the dorms seem to be pretty close together. The campus is a lot more horizontal than Columbia, but it still wasn't all that big since they only have about 3,000 students (small enough where you recognize almost everyone, but big enough that you can avoid people you don't want to see, in Stacey's words).

…The day we went it was tofu and pasta, I think I've been too harsh on tofu. I've had some very good tofu of late. When it is cooked properly it can have something like taste...

…Stacey says I have to come back so she can show me more of Ohio than just the campus that we were basically restricted to by a lack of car. When we got back on campus I got the royal tour. It is really a pretty campus with a lot of interesting architecture. I don't know if it was really that outstanding or if I just had low expectations because it was in Ohio.

…After dinner we went to the lab for Stacey's Shakespeare in Film class. We watched the Orson Wells film "The Chimes at Midnight." It was terrible. Only about a quarter of it was even vaguely intelligible. We both fell asleep.

Sunday I went with Stacey to her bowling class. She bowled 100, I bowled 114. I really hope I get to take bowling here, it was fun. Stacey says that class centers her for the rest of the day. When she takes the second part of the class next semester she'll get a ball drilled specially for her. The instructor was a big dork, but I mean that in a good way. He's bowled several perfect games, he gave me some pointers that seemed to actually help.

We went out to lunch with Emily and then Stacey showed me the Oberlin Museum. It's quite impressive. They have Lichtenstein, Monet, Warhol, and other artists including a wide collection of prints and Asian art and an area for travelling exhibits.

It was just a very nice, chill trip. I really liked Oberlin…

…Everyone there is very liberal. The campus debates were over Gore/Nader; Bush didn't even enter into the equation. The whole experience was very much anti-Columbia. No city, no people wearing make-up to class, a lot more the sense of a community since people don't have the same options to leave campus for entertainment or internships, etc. Not that I don't love Columbia, but I think I really needed this break.