Four reasons to smile today

It was nice to enter cyberspace today and find four reasons to smile.

(1) Bush’s Convention Bounce. Could be just a modest two percentage points, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. Factor in the margin of error and it could be nothing. I believe a few other post-convention polls found a bigger bounce. Given that most people already seem to have a firm idea about who to vote for, two points sounds more likely to me. Anyway, this is good news for recently down in the dumps Kerry supporters.

(2) Lion Tops Tiger. You have to love it when Vijay Singh, whose last name means “lion,” finally tops Tiger Woods and becomes the #1 golfer in the world. Yesterday I watched the lion and tiger duel on the last holes of the Deutsche Bank Championship and was pleased when Vijay won comfortably. Five years is plenty long for someone to be #1 in anything. After that, its time for a change. When it comes to the current #1 leader in the quasi-free world, I’ll make that four years.

(3) I’m Not in North Carolina. I was supposed to speak at a “Science of the Soul” get-together in Fayetteville, North Carolina over the Labor Day weekend. The meeting was cancelled last Wednesday because of Hurricane Frances. When Frances stalled and weakened, I began to wonder if maybe it would have been OK to head off to North Carolina. But watching the weather channel this morning made me happy to be home in warm, sunny Oregon. Lots of rain/thunderstorms and some tornados in the Carolinas today. I was scheduled to fly out of Raleigh this afternoon. Probably would still be sitting in the airport waiting for the skies to clear.

(4) New James Wolcott Weblog. A friend, Randy Smith, sent me an email provocatively titled: “Nominee: best new blog.” I couldn’t resist clicking on the link and was pleased to be led to James Wolcott’s freshly minted weblog. Wolcott is a Vanity Fair writer with a keen eye and appealing style. I particularly liked his “Squeamers” posting about how liberals have become such political hypochondriacs, and his “Angry White Man Wigs Out” posting about (who else?) Zell Miller. Wolcott aptly asks: “When did it become customary for speakers to give a speech and then make the rounds to be first responders to what they just said?”

Comments

[RS]

Glad you liked it as much as I did.