Welcome to Winter!

It's only mid-November, and already we're getting snow and frigid temperatures. Looks like it could be a long winter here in Philly.




Photo 1: Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Pavillion, November 21, 2008
Photo 2: Tom is wondering where the 72 degree weather from a week ago went

Return Day in the First State

Down in Delaware, they have this fantastic tradition called "Return Day" on the Thursday following the Tuesday election in Georgetown, the county seat of Sussex County. With its origins dating back to 1791, and including such rituals as the ceremonial "burying of the hatchet" by the county chairpeople of the Democratic and Republican parties (the hatchet arrives via horse-drawn hearse) and the horse-drawn parade of winning and losing candidates, Return Day is quite the civic festivity. You can get your fill of Return Day at its official website: www.returnday.org.

Lest anyone forget that Joe Biden was not only elected Vice President of the United States but also reelected to the United States Senate, we have this photographic evidence:



I cannot tell you how ***happy*** this photo makes my die-hard-Democratic, equine-loving, top-hat-wearing, carriage driver self. And look, the VP is going green already! Tee hee!

Photo 1 from returnday.org. Photo 2 from flickr by Wilmington University.

A poem for this election

Walt Whitman (who hails from just across the river in Camden):

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:
This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating - America's choosing day...

(Editorial cartoon by Bob Gorrell)