And the Winner Is.......??

Minneapolis completed their municipal elections Tuesday. With low voter turnout, it was easy to determine the mayor was re-elected. They used the new ballot with ranked choices. Use your ballot to chose your first, second and third choices. They called it ranked voting or IRV aka instant runoff voting. The instant part is overstated. Results are not instant unless there is a clear cut winner. Winners of other races will be revealed in six weeks after the hand count is completed.

We don't get much of a break between elections. The Minneapolis mayor's re-election was announced on Wednesday and on Thursday he announced he was filing to be a candidate in the state's gubernatorial election of 2010. Does that make sense?
There were already 20 candidates running for governor. May as well have one more.

The state Independent Party which gave us former Governor Ventura said it has not found a credible candidate to run for governor. Does a candidate really have to be credible? That quality didn't dampen the spirits of one guy who ran for Mayor of St. Paul. His platform was to bring back the bus routes and fare prices of 1970. Go back to the good old days. He didn't win. That might be our loss but who knows for sure. The idea of candidacy is to find an issue that inspires voters.

The other night we watched a PBS program of Bill Cosby receiving the Mark Twain award at the Kennedy Center. Many comedians and famous people shared stories about Bill. Dick Gregory was on the program. I remember when he was a comedian but they introduced him as an activist and former presidential candidate. It gave me an idea. My 50th high school reunion is coming up in a few years. Wouldn't that be nice if I were introduced as a "former gubernatorial candidate"? It would even look good chiseled on my tombstone. You could put me in the section of the cemetery by Harold Stassen, perennial Minnesota presidential candidate of years ago.

I'm throwing my hat in the ring. My platform is; bring back the price of a Doctors visit to 1970 rates. Who wouldn't like that except, of course, the doctors. It would stop a lot of political fighting in this country and let congress figure out how to get our money back from Wall Street and Detroit automakers.

Bridge to Somewhere

Bridge seen at bottom of photo is existing 1930's Stillwater lift bridge. At top of picture is photoshopped proposed new river crossing. (new crossing not a new river)
We went to a community presentation on the proposed St. Croix bridge last evening. They showed animated videos of what the completed project will look like. When and if the new bridge is built, it will be part of a loop biking/hiking trail between bordering Wisconsin and Minnesota. The old lift bridge will remain as a pedestrian / bicycle bridge. The new span will have bike lanes and foot crossing lanes. It looks beautiful.
This morning I mused with a proposed start date lf 2014 I may not be in any shape to do the bike loop ride. Jon reminded me optimistically it may not be done for another seven years and I might not even be able to walk the loop. That sure puts things in perspective. We had a dear friend die today and it makes you even more aware that you are standing in that queue. This dear man was a believer and knew exactly where he was going after this life. Nice to have that assurance. Nice to have that bridge to somewhere better that doesn't depend on availability of federal funding. Enjoy your new life, Bill. We will miss you.

Blog Early, Blog Often

I know, I know. Too much blogging. Indulge me for one more time, please. I had to write about voting early and voting often. It is legal in Minneapolis where IRV is being introduced.

Today is municipal election day in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minneapolis is introducing a new balloting system. I can't determine a legitimate reason for this but they say it eliminates a primary election and saves money. We will see.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/68803867.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Voters will use a paper ballot that must be counted by hand. They cannot use machines to count with the new method. It is called Ranked Choice Voting. Pick you first, second, and third candidate choice. Here is the first problem. Who has three candidates in a race that they like?

When election judges in Florida and then Ohio were challenged on their determinations in the 2000 and 2004 presidential races, why do we want to make this more complicated? Imagine tallying columns of 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices and being mindful of hanging chads etc. Remember this is a state that didn't settle the 2008 Senate race for nine months. Factor in that Minneapolis has a large number of newly emigrated English is a second language citizens and we may be in for quite an interesting election.

On the positive side, while every group is financially challenged in 2009, candidates will doubtlessly save money on election night victory celebrations. It was announced we won't have the election results until some time in mid December. You heard me right---December.

Maybe Minneapolis should just have a big Tea Party and vote by aye or nay. That would simplify things. Well, Minneapolis is a pretty liberal-politiced town. Make that a Koffee Klutch.

Chairs Don't Drive Drunk, People Do

Last week I blogged about our locally famous DWI chair. A Proctor, MN guy was arrested trying to drive home from a bar after a few beers. His motorized (formerly known as La-Z Boy) recliner hit a parked car. Cops confiscated the chair and put it on eBay.
When a crime is committed police may confiscate property used by the criminal. When a drug dealer is driving a flashy Escalade or Corvette, later you may see an undercover man-in-blue pulling you over for a traffic violation while driving that vehicle.
Apparently none of the Proctor police wanted to drive the Motorized "La-Z Boy" recliner while on duty. Proctor is in northern Minnesota where it gets very cold and the chair didn't have a heater. They put it up for sale on eBay. The bids were due to close soon and had exceeded $40,000. Today I heard they took it off the market due to trademark infringement. La-Z Boy must be defending their good name. You can almost hear the weeping from city officials in Proctor. $40,000 would go a long way in a small towns law enforcement budget.
La-Z Boy, have a heart. I was pretty impressed with the customized chair. Was there a problem with too many people trying to buy one like it from you directly? The furniture market is in the crapper due to a sour economy. Perhaps you should lighten up and offer to sell some special order chairs at a discount. Think of the profit if you could produce one for $10,000 and cut out the middle man. Just remind people that chairs don't drive drunk. People Do. Use it responsibly.

Word Games

I picked the Family Circle artwork off the net gratis. We have been good customers in past years. Our daughter Mary collected Family Circus cartoon books when she was a kid. We still have them for her to give Zoe & Roman when they are big enough not to eat them.

I looked for an image about dictionaries this morning after I read our grandbabies blog and left a comment. I am always amused by the words you have to retype so the computer knows you aren't another computer. The letters are twisted and the words are nonsense. At least I always assumed they were nonsense. Today I questioned whether or not they were real words. One was tremsum & the other anutshi. Just because they aren't familiar to me doesn't mean they aren't definable words.
Years ago we were introduced to the word game, Dictionary. You need paper, pencils, a dictionary and a quoram of people with a good sense of humor. Players take turns looking up words in the dictionary that no one at the table can define. If it is your turn you write the selected word and correct definition on a piece of paper. Everyone else concocts a daffynition and writes that. Then all the slips are read and you vote which you think is correct. Object: fool the most people and get points. Downside. You hear a new word and never learn the real definition because you only remember the funny ones. I still remember some incorrect word definitions from past years. Ex. Llamasary: a place where you keep llamas. Nope. Look it up yourself but chances are you will always think it is a place to keep llamas.

Pansy

I love pansies with their many colors and cute faces. They are cool weather hardy but don't bloom when the temperatures escalate. Ours have bloomed continually since spring. They didn't wilt in July or August. They are still blooming and we have had multiple frosts.
We devote more time to weather reporting in our state than other areas of the country. California may be an exception but they have to keep track of droughts, flash floods, mudslides, earthquakes and wildfires.
Maybe because we have to tolerate such extremes we fixate on weather. After the TV people tell us the 5 day forecast, they often do long range predictioins about how miserable we will be in a few months. Yesterday they were talking about the return of the White Bear Lake ice fishing contest. We have already had a taste of snow. Just enough to remind us that even the pansies aren't tough enough to stay outdoors blooming forever in Minnesnowta.
Calling someone a pansy is a disparaging remark. It signifies wimpiness. Although these flowers don't like very warm weather, they are tough. Tough like our Vikings who managed to beat the Green Bay Packers yesterday. They are not pansies this year either..

Robbin the Hood

I'm enjoying such a nice, leisurely Sunday morning. Plenty of time to read the Sunday paper before church and even get dinner in the crockpot. I am thankful. Thankful to the government which has given me an extra hour of time. Time. Earlier sunrises. Leisure. Aren't we lucky. Oh. OH. They took an hour away last spring and just gave it back. It was MY time. They just decided how it would be metered out and used by the people. Kind of like taxes. The government giveth and the government taketh away or viceaversa.