Halloween

Kids were in good form this year, plus the weather was warm, so we ended up with tons of candy. I was, of course, a mad scientist, my hair up, many pens in the pocket of the lab coat, and I was swigging Coke from a beaker.

The nicest people to trick-or-treat are gay couples - by far! And there are few in our neighborhood.

I passed by a few fathers who went out with their kids, well-dressed yuppie businesmen and obvious Republicans, and I overheard one say:"At this point I don't really care any more if he wins or loses....". I am pretty sure he was talking abour Bush....

NPR went around interviewing people who are going to vote for Kerry and asking them if they are anti-Bush or if they are really pro-Kerry. It was about 50-50, I'd say. Of course, many of us are both - so how do we answer such a loaded question? Telling answer from an African-American woman: "I am voting for Kerry because I LOVE John Edwards!" I guess, away from the gaze of cameras, Edwards quietly did the job he was picked to do....

Another NPR moment, a couple of days ago in the morning. A story about Cambodia. Apparently their young King does not like to be King, so they are having a nationwide discussion about the future of their monarchy. In the end, a statement by a "regular Joe (Jong?) on the street": "King is a king. A nation without a king is like children without parents". So it seems that the understanding the state in terms of family is not restricted to the USA. On the other hand, I do not remember, growing up in Yugoslavia, even with the personality cult of Tito, any specific references to the state as family. No term seems equivalent to "sending sons and daughters to war", or "Founding Fathers", or "Father of our Nation",.... There was also a slogan of "Brotherhood and Unity" of the various ethnic groups. On the other hand the whole world was often called the "family" and all men and women on the planet were supposed to be brothers and sisters. Does the communist ideology expand the notion of family to the whole world?