Yesterday, 9/12, the Cafe had 467 visitors and 1496 page turns. This includes boycotters :-) .Admin

You can have my pen…when you pry it from my mentally acute, morally principled, intellectually revolted, cold dying hand. JL

Some will probably mock this but I took my own poll yesterday while standing in the rain from 6AM to 7:15PM (I took two 1hr breaks). I had 2 tall, narrow glasses that I used to document how the election was going. This activity along with acknowledgment of passing voters (averaging about 26 per hour) as they came to the polls kept me focused and busy. For every potential voter that smiled and waved with gusto, I placed a pinto bean in one designated glass; and for every voter who glared, stared, or just looked away, I placed a bean in the other designated glass. There was one fellow, who shall remain nameless, who gave me the thumbs down so his bean went directly to the negative glass. By the end of the day I knew the outcome before the vote was announced. About 188 voters were friendly and cordial, but a very significant 173 were on the negative side, so I concluded that I had lost. Obviously you don’t have to be unfriendly to someone you are not voting for, and over the last month I have met many friendly Woodstockians who didn’t share my views including some of my own colleagues in the Democratic party. So if there were that many uncordial voters then I was bound to lose.

I enjoyed the debate on WINY, meeting the few people that stopped to talk to me at the transfer station or during the garbage treks around town, making new friends among members of the DTC, and meeting Republicans and the unaffiliated who voiced their support for me. I also appreciated the cordial “Good luck” from Chan Paquette, Chair of the RTC, at the polls. Finally, the 11-plus hours I spent in the rain at the entrance to the Town Hall yesterday was a very positive experience for my elitist self and I don’t regret one minute of it. I wish to thank my wife Becki, Darryl Hartman and Dean Whitehead, Joe Breen, Bill Andrzeicik, Bill Loftus, and Robert Stucky for standing there with me. Read the rest of this entry »