Thoughts for the week’s end

This is the first presidential election in which there will be people eligible to vote who were born after the first presidential election in which I was eligible to vote.

I’m learning that your 40s are full of fun stats!

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I didn’t vote in 2000, probably because I was lazy. One of the reasons I was probably lazy is because I thought Al Gore would carry Illinois anyway.

I did vote in 2004 for write-in candidate Ralph Nader. I knew Kerry would carry Illinois anyway, I wanted to try and support a more-than-two party system, and I generally liked Nader and the Green Party.

Nader is the last white male candidate I’ve voted for in a presidential election or primary.

• 2008: Obama, my Senator from Illinois. So much hope! I don’t remember voting in the primary.
• 2012: Jill Stein, as a poorly researched protest vote against the Obama administration’s drone use. But hey, it was the Pacific Green Party! This was before she (maybe?) became a foreign agent. And Obama was going to carry Oregon anyway.
• 2016: Hillary in the primary, which apparently didn’t count because Washington democrats still held caucuses even though the state sent out primary ballots. Hillary in the general election.
• 2020: Warren in the primary—I sent my ballot in a little over a week ago; the primary happens on March 11. That vote will count this time, though Warren dropped out this week, so any delegates will go elsewhere. It appears I’ll be voting for either Bernie or Biden in the general election.

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“I stood in that voting booth, and I looked down at my name on the ballot and thought, ‘Wow kiddo, you’re not in Oklahoma anymore.’”

That’s a pretty endearing statement from Warren. I’m looking forward to the good work she’ll continue to do.

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These illustrations of one star reviews in US National Parks (via Doug) are great. I have been to (I think) 8 of these parks and endorse none of the “reviews”—Capitol Reef bland!?—though I do appreciate the accurate description of the (also stunning) Grand Canyon as a “very, very large hole.”

In Stephen J. Pyne’s How the Canyon Became Grande, he covers how much of a wasteland the Grand Canyon was considered to be and how everyone pretty much avoided it for many, many, many years.

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We subscribed to our local print paper for the second time since moving to Pullman. The website is just so not conducive to reading and, unlike larger metro area papers, you can get through it in 15 minutes over breakfast. And now I know the fire truck activity down the street the other day was a stove fire.

Bonus: our landlord writes a frequent opinion column and it’s good!

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The espresso machine is on the fritz, so I’m using the moka pot for afternoon coffee while we wait for a replacement silicone steam ring. I was very happy to see I had written up a working recipe when we moved into this house a couple years ago and were blessed with a gas stove.

And sure enough: same coffee, same grind, same amount, perfect result!

☕️