Some pix from our latest outing.

Today 6 of us drove to Northeast Philadelphia to help the local Republican Party get out the vote. As we walked up the driveway after parking our car, we saw a group of scruffy urban young adults also walking toward the HQ. Turns out they had taken the bus down from NYC and were going to stay overnight. They were from the NYU College Republican Club. NYU, guys! Don't ever make assumptions about what Republicans look like or where they come from.

It was a warm day for the end of October, and it threatened rain but never quite did. We pounded the pavements and worked the phones, and then drove back. We're going to do it all over again tomorrow.

One of our founding members, Rob McGee (now living in Baltimore I believe) started a blog recently, and has some interesting things to say about Ayn Rand's ambivalence about her Jewish heritage which I may comment on when this $%$$## election is over.

And all that was left was a red smear on her laptop monitor . . .

I watched the full eclipse of the moon in front of Westerly Natural Foods on 8th Ave., with the newly-pregnant vitamin supplement consultant (who snuck out every 15 min. or so to check on the progress of the reddish shadow). It was a very clear warmish night in Manhattan, the moon framed between two tall apartment buildings. Pedestrians would pass us on the sidewalk, notice we were looking up, and stop and look with us for a few minutes. Some miles away on Long Island, Michele was also looking and taking odd photos.

PS. I voted on Friday. Now I am obsessing about my little ballot in its sealed envelope in a box somewhere on the 10th floor of 200 Varick St. Will it be lost? Destroyed? Counted accurately? You might ask, why should I care? I'm in New York. But I want Bush to get a popular landslide as well as the electoral vote. I want Kerry to know he squeaked by in NY and CA.

UPDATE: While our team walked suburban Philadelphia a second time, Susan and Scott GOTV in Hackensack NJ. Yup, they met through my email.

BTW when we got to the Philadelphia HQ on Academy Road around noon, we walked into the big basement room just as none other than John McCain was starting a pep talk for the troops, flanked by TV cameras. It was boilerplate BC04 talking points about Iraq, but he quoted the Declaration of Independence about inalienable rights, and stressed how Bush's policies were bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Contrast to Kerry's cynical opportunism.