Tuesday, November 4

"The Mac Is Back!" -John McCain

As I mentioned before in my blog - well, one of my blogs - my dad really loves gambling; not in casinos, and never in the-deed-to-his-house desperation, but on sports, and all in good fun and success. He paid for my first year of college gambling on the 2004 NBA finals and championship.

His secret is betting on the underdog. Because odds are based on public perception, and history, and on which team has the highest number of hopeful superfans, you can usually count on the less-favored team to at least cover the spread.

On the website he uses to place some bets, there have been odds on the election since before the primaries. Yesterday, Barack Obama was favored 7 to 1 [so if you wanted to win $100, you'd have to bet $700], but today his odds are 10 to 1. And today if you put down $100 on John McCain, and he wins, you would win $550. My dad considered putting a small amount down on the underdog, but then ditched that plan.

Right now McCain is on CNN HD talking about how he's going to win.
"I sat in that cage and I ate fuckin' rats," my dad just said to the TV in a fake Arizona-POW accent. "Do you know what it's like to eat a cockroach when it's carryin' eggs?"

I signed up to work at a polling place from 3pm to 8pm today. I have to stand 100 ft away from where people are voting and hand out paperwork. I realize it's going to stop me from two things I wanted to do today:

The Los Angeles buses have little TVs in them. The TVs play 3 minute entertainment segments [cooking, BMX bike tricks, etc] so as to keep people occupied but not so much that they could miss their stop. At night, to keep the bus quiet, as its often filled with sleeping elderly people, the TVs just play news reels. One evening, on my way to the Smell, the bus TVs showed surveys that people had answered earlier online. A questioned that they had posed to people visiting Metro.net was, "Should it be illegal to vote drunk?" I don't remember how most people responded, but what a good idea!

I really wanted to make and wear a shirt that reads, "RALPH FUCKING NADER," but that won't be allowed within 500 ft of a polling place.

The good thing is that I'll definitely get an "I voted!" sticker, so I can collect free Ben&Jerry's, Starbucks, and first drink at every bar in WeHo.

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