Unfortunately for my candidates for school committee, I'm an honest fellow -- I returned one of the two school committee ballots they gave me unmarked.

Oh, neat -- the power just went out.

If you'll forgive a little football, this has been a good weekend for my teams, in that Miami (New England's leading condender for the AFC East divisional title) lost, Green Bay beat Minnesota (the top team, by quite a bit, in Green Bay's division), and New England just beat Denver. I read a comment a few days ago that Monday Night Football has seen several tight games this year; this was an other.

With about three minutes left, New England was down a point, and had a fourth and ten on their one-yard line. They lined up to punt and -- apparently deliberately -- snapped the ball out of the end zone for a safety. In essense, they gained 25-or-so yards in field position (after the safety, they kicked it from near their 20-yard line instead of from their end zone), but a field goal would only tie the game rather than win it. I suspect it was the right thing to do -- Denver would have received the ball near field goal range if they hadn't -- and it certainly worked out, since New England scored a touchdown.

It interested me that during New England's last drive, John Madden was saying that they should be going for a touchdown -- i.e., they shouldn't be aiming to just get the ball into field-goal range, going for overtime, but they should be prepared to settle for that if necessary. I found this interesting because, having followed the Pats for a few years, I remember the 2002 Super Bowl. Madden has long been a few yards short of a first down -- if you know what I mean -- but the incident that cements this most in the minds of New Englanders is the last drive of that Super Bowl, when the score was tied, the Pats had the ball, and Madden kept saying that the Pats shouldn't even try to score, that they should just wait for overtime and, I suppose, hope they win the coin flip, thereby putting themselves in exactly the same situation they were already in. It's not exactly the same situation, but it's analogous. Maybe he's learned something since then.

Next week, Green Bay gets the Monday night game. The Eagles at home. I can't say that it should be an easy win, and they're not completely out of the play-offs if they don't, but they don't deserve to go to the play-offs if they can't beat Philidelphia at Lambeau.

I got macaroni and cheese today. They were selling it -- Golden Grain brand, which I remembered liking -- three for a buck. I thought that was worth the hassle of getting the dairy mixers that it requires. I don't tend to get dairy, since I never use it up before it spoils, and I feel bad about wasting it.

Exciting, eh? Elections are tomorrow.

Friday night, Edward had his usual Friday-night "reading" group, which usually involves much conversation and little reading. Someone requested "The Telltale Heart", so I grabbed my Edgar Allen Poe book, which I usually reserve for occasions such as Valentine's Day. It turned out that Telltale Heart wasn't in there, but I did eventually find it on the web (why that website categorizes it as "humor", though, I can't tell).

Yesterday evening I visited David and Mary for their death-themed "literary evening." A group of ten read selections from Ovid, ee cummings, Elizabeth Dickenson, modern poet Billy Collins, and some factual accounts of the New York City morgue and the death of Shelly (or however his name was spelled). David had considered a section of the Iliad on the death of Hector, but I think I inspired him to go with Robert Service's Ballad of Blasphemous Bill after I brought The Cremation of Sam McGee. The reading ended with an agnostic guest playing guitar and singing a couple of religious songs.