To Solace a Stickerless Sheep

Lovely, no? I opted for a somewhat different design for the center panel than Mr. Habit with his Barbie shawl, but then, to be a copycat is rather gauche and, well, just not very knitterly.

And If That Wasn't Enough To Make You Smile

The Republicans have been pretty well trounced in House races, and control of the Senate is coming down to two seats where the Democratic candidates appear to have the edge, albeit only slightly. I'm particularly pleased that Pennsylvania is cleaning up that big Santorum stain. I was unfortunate enough to spend three years as one of his constituents that he spent much energy trying to hurt. I won't be sorry to see his smarmy smirk and evil, evil ways go away.

Of course, Maine re-elected our senior Republican senator by a large margin, despite my vote for her liberal progressive Democratic challenger. As Republicans go, we could do a lot worse than Olympia. She has not been afraid to buck her party's line from time to time (though she did recently vote in favor of the torture bill). She is still, however, a Republican, and that makes a big difference in terms of which party chairs the commitees that decide which items of proposed legislation see the light of day (long sentence, I know, but when the machinations of the Congress are under discussion, verbosity is to be expected).

My own personal recollection of Olympia is the commencement address she gave at my graduation from the University of Maine many years ago, when she was still in the House of Representatives. She prefaced her remarks by saying, "I know none of you wants to hear a long speech, so I'll make this short." By short she apparently meant somewhat short of a filibuster, as it was one of the most interminable and boring addresses I've ever had to sit through. It was an outdoor graduation on a hot, sunny day, too. I still blame her for the sunburn.