Correspondences: "Whoo-hoo!"

It's hard to describe the pandemonium in San Francisco last night, a copacetic time that will be a joy to tell my grandkids about.

Here are a few of the text messages sent around the country - - since text messaging is a temporal art form, we're living in the middle of the golden age, I'll post some here for posterity:

From Seattle to Berkeley 3:14pm (all times Western):
"Kentucky was just on npr because of long lines in democratic louisville. If that's a toss up state tonight, the pope is a rabbi."

From Berkeley to Brooklyn 6:27pm
"They called Ohio! We're close. You online? I'm liveblogging alone."

From Santa Fe to Berkeley 6:36pm
(A historic moment, the first text message I've received from this number.)
"I love you."

From Berkeley to Santa Fe 6:37pm
"New Mex was just called for Barack. BILL LOVES YOU TOO"

From Santa Fe to Berkeley 6:40pm
"I just heard you are the fastest texter"

From Berkeley to Seattle 7:53pm
"Election party in the mission. Repubs can't steal it now..."

From Brooklyn to Berkeley 7:59pm
"VA. FOR BARACK!"

From Brooklyn to Berkeley (Now physically in San Francisco) 8:02pm
"CNN DECLARES OBAMA PRESIDENT ELECT"

From Berkeley to Brooklyn 8:03pm
"Ho!"

From Berkeley to Brooklyn 8:40pm
"I'm at an Irish bar, people are quiet & contemplative."

From Berkeley to Incline Village, Nevada 8:47pm
"Exciting night to be in San Francisco. There's dancing in the streets."

From Seattle to Berkeley 9:10pm
"Wish we were watching this together, dude."

From Berkeley to Denver 9:24pm
"Sophie! Sophie! Sophie! Sophie!"

From Incline Village, Nevada, to Berkeley 9:39pm
"Enjoy. We all voted for Obamam"

From Seattle to Berkeley 9:44pm
"Nevada's blue!"

From Oakland to Berkeley 10:02pm
"Rock, rock on! Here's to the new american century! -nn."

From Berkeley to a variety of places 9:59pm
"Good night to be on the streets of SF, We were just offering champagne to people in cars. God bless Obama's god."

And, here was my brief chat today with Miss Sophie L___ (campaigning for the last month in Denver):

12:10 PM Sophie: JAMES!

WE WON

I wanted to callyou but my phone died

12:11 PM me: Oriane & I called you.

Sophie: omg

me: We were in San Francisco, first at a lame party, then at a raucus Irish pub to watch the speeches. Then there was blocks closed off with percussion & dancing in the streets.

12:12 PM Sophie: omfg

that sounds amazing

me: Then I think she wandered off to a club in the castro, I kept dancing then made the last BART home.

12:13 PM How was Denver?

Or where are you?

Sophie: denver was amazing

12:15 PM for the pastfew weeks ppl haven't wantedto talk about the election--obama or mccain supporters but then we were all at a bar and everyone was screaming and running around the streets and cars were beeping and suddenly everyone was an obama supporter

i lifted up a homeless guy on my shoulders

me: Yes, it was like that here, but without the cryptos.

Are you headed back to Mass. Change your flight & come here!

12:16 PM Sophie: i thought about it but i'm not sure if i can

12:17 PM me: Do it. Yes, you can.

Sophie: haha

me: That's what we were saying last night.

Sophie: si sepuede

12:18 PM me: There were these people dancing on top of cars in the crowd, & someone was like "Are those people on cars?" & we were like "No, people can fly now that Obama is elected."

Sophie: yes. yes they can.

how amazing was his speech?!

me: Dude the whole bar was crying

12:19 PM Sophie: srsly???

me: With him at every word

Well, not the whole bar

LIVE we're LIVE Blogging! The Vice Presidential Debates! Here!

Yes, you might wisely point out, that, if we were real political bloggers, we'd be in St. Louis tonight in the internet-press room, instead of spread around in left-leaning enclaves of America watching this shit on Television. But I ask you! Do they have hookahs in the press room? I'm not sure if Missouri has banned smoking indoors, but I still doubt it would be smiled upon by the conservative blogosphericals.

It's time to ask ourselves: Who is Joe Biden? Does he drink white wine? Would he enjoy the hookah, if it wasn't a potential political liability. Does he eat like me or think like me? Is he ready to be president on day one, hour one? Is he just another east coast liberal? Is he just another weathered Washington politician, is that why he knows so much stuff about stuff?

6:03pm Western Time! Look there they are! Joe & Sarah! On Stage! Sam du Groing here blogging in red.

Joe is an honest, blue-eyed irishman.

Is it just me or does miss alaska look a little deer-in-the-headlights?

6:08pm How unfair, Biden is rattling off about all the things he's done in congress. Also, speaking of unfair, isn't it a little biased to have this debate moderated by not just a black person but simultaneously a woman person, sort of biased towards BOTH Obama & Palin.

yeah, she only hates Biden, the white guy. Sarah has said "darn right" 5 times so far.

6:12pm She seems extremely polished & confident. I hope they ask about the terrible issues plaguing Eritrea. And watch her stumble stupidly over the pronunciation of President Isaias Afewerki's name. She's never even been to Africa!

6:15pm Holy shitzoids! She really is talking straight to the American people!

6:19pm Biden's calling out McCain-Palin on their lies about Obama & raising taxes, but do you think people really believe the Democrats anymore, no matter how many times they point this out? Hey Grainne, looks like we're here alone so far. Where's Seattle? Where's Bulgarious?

Bulgaria always ditches us. is it because he's engaged? is it because bulgarian kids are hogging the computers? is it because it's some godawful hour in bulgaria? has he forgotten how to write in english?

6:26pm Text message from Brains: "How's it going? Any trouble, gaffes? I'm running home."
I told him they're both talking real fast. Biden stumbles over the word "characterizes", my God, he's toast.

"toxic mess on main street" ????

6:30pm I'm glad she cares so much for Main Street & hates those Wall Street greedy fat cats.
No one seems to be around anywhere. My roommates should be home by now to watch all this, I have eggplant parmesan (Democrat food) in the oven, & expecting a few others over as well. No word from anyone, everyone's missing in action. Of course, my glasses were STOLEN a few days ago, so everything's been a bit blurry any way.

sweet yummy alaskan oil will solve everything and give us all orgasms and eternal life.

6:33pm Okay, now she's sounding a bit dumb & wishy-washy on Climate Change. This is what we've been waiting for, creating crazy run-on nonsense sentences a lot like Tina Fey's impersonation last week.

6: 35pm Text message from Brains: "Listening on radio during walk home. Yeah, they're talking fast. Sarah doesn't attribute it to man."

"wonderful, you agree on gay marraige" - good on gwen.

foreign policy....yay!

"your plan is a white flag of surrender" - that's weak.

NEW POST UP THERE! move on, move up, MOVE!

Peter Piper Picked a Pack o' Players

Alliteration (begin-rhyme) has pretty much lost out in favor to rhyme (end-rhyme). Though it has still been used sparingly, Edgar Allen Poe, "While I nodded, nearly napping..." or Dr. Seuss, "Horton Hears a Who!"

Here is a list of soccer teams that use alliterative names to very memorable effect:

Wolverhampton Wanderers (England)
Alemannia Aachen (Germany)
Figueirense Florianopolis (Brazil)
Seattle Sounders (USA)
Cracovia Krakow (Poland)
Kemi Kings (Finland)

The transition to rhyme and end of alliteration in the West took place between AD 750 to AD 1050, coinciding, more or less, with Christianization. I wrote a little more about it this week in my blog.

From the Archives: Poem written at dawn on the docks of Seattle, (Summer 2003?)

There is a time for Thomas Stearns Eliot
& a time for my middle name,
& with a clear sky in a breathless flame,
In the early morning of a Seattle flashlight,
Unfortunately, she’s not grown in the ways in which she might
(i.e. her mutable teenage romanticism),
& she has in the ways I thought she’d never fluctuate
(i.e. her stomach used to be so flat,
& where her chest was once – we’ll leave at that.)
My memory not my soul these changes irritate
& all my fantasies that left more future to create.
On that sunlit fish market her progeny’s dispersed,
& with a cup of sugary coffee I feel quite reimbursed.

There will be time to murder what three years have hid
& time to invent the shame,
& on a northbound bus without a name,
On that train a madman revives Poor Tom’s lost refrain;
With fortune, we’ll recover in recurrent pain
Her mutable teenage romanticism.
He sings to gluttonous hags as if they’d never slept,
(So where was pretty in them lunatic eyes
If angel sun a gilded guinea buys?)
New shadow to new substance all these changes irritate:
To see the moon, one must his head rotate.
The solid past & liquid fantasy exchange saliva now,
& air to air tomorrow melts like white milk from a chocolate cow.