Whew!

Let me tell you what I did for election day. No I didn’t watch the results until well after the last ballot was counted and the last smudge was erased. Word has it that the Republicans took over the house (Nancy will have to give up her big fat gas guzzling jet), and Harry Reid, (who made his acceptance speech with all the warmth that emanates whenever he makes a public appearance (this time on an stage unfettered by enthusiastic support), is going back to his leadership role in the Senate. So now you know what I didn’t do. Let’s see how I passed the time.

First thing this morning I went to the fitness club where I worked out on the elliptical and then lifted weights. Now that (as opposed to the election) deserves a big whew. Next I showered dressed and ate a cupcake, some Italian Wedding soup, and a peanut butter granola bar. It gets worse. While I did not eat any dinner, I did eat an entire dish of French fries from “The Edison Café”, which is in the old Edison Hotel –a place that remains old, but has hand cut French Fries and great soup. It was not my intention to go to the theater, but as I passed “the board”, in Times Square, “Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse” was available at half price. It was too much to resist.

We are big Pee Wee Herman fans but David was out of town and Jordan is in LA, so I went alone. It was cute, but not a show you should see alone. After the show, I walked home, cleaned up the apartment a bit, and ate three vanilla Oreo cookies –my favorite new sweet. It’s 3am and yes, I have looked at the election results. Russ Feingold lost. That was a shocker. He is a good Senator and, has been responsible for big cuts in government spending. His absence will not go unnoticed. And Rosa DeLauro was reelected, now that’s a whew!

Oh, and here’s a birthday shout out to Joe Cowart and Stevie Kaufman, in whose honor I turned on the radio and jumped on and off the couch. Perhaps I should say leapt from sofa to sofa –but given my age, that would be a slight exaggeration.

Every pundit is commenting on the election so my opinions are less than pithy. All I can say is, unfortunately, I don’t think it will make any difference. The Administration will not take any responsibility for the loss, and now there will be even more people who do not understand the rules or the bureaucracy trying to make change without understanding how to do get anything done.

That being said, I wanted to mention that the Capital of our great nation just can’t get it together to function like a big city -- with grown up coordinated decision-making ability. If you are unfamiliar with the greater DC area, it includes DC, and ‘close in’ Virginia and Maryland. The metro system is shared by these two states and one district. When there is a big event, that’s how they urge you to travel.

During the inaugural (President Obama’s), people were thrilled with the results of the election and it seemed, everyone in the world was credentialed to attend. Getting a ticket for something, and being able to actually get there are two different tasks. People got credentials through their Congressmen, who never want to say no to a constituent. Based on the number of people who tried to get to the Capital, very few elected officials refused to say no to anyone who lived in their state or Congressional District. The results, even when a large crowd anticipated, is total disaster, It happened during the inaugural and it happened again last weekend for the Stewart/Colbert rally. Not enough cars on each train, and not enough trains. When you encourage people not to drive, and to “take Metro,” there is an implicit understanding that there ought to be enough space on the cars for FOR THE PEOPLE TO STAND! Not a big, complicated, Einsteinian theoretical. Just make the trains 8 cars instead of 6, and send them every five minutes in stead of every ten. Then it might actually be able to deliver a couple of hundred thousand people to an even, whether Sanity is the theme, or not.
nary a place to stand!
So what’s the good news? The election is over. Those ads are over. Take the phrase “and I approved this message because the people of ----fill in your favorite location---- deserve better….” and file it away. We will not have to watch, think about or listen to any campaign blathering for two years. Whew! We’re just sayin’…. Iris