Allyson, have you read Under the Banner of Heaven?

Awesome book. And scary too, as maybe half to 2/3rds is the history of Mormonism and the rest is about two guys who were commanded by god to murder a woman and her baby.

I really liked pulling the lever and hearing all the gears in the machine move around. I was so disappointed when I was old enough to vote and they replaced all those older machines with electronic ones that just beeped.

They still had these in Philly at least through 1996, the last time I voted there. And they definitely have a romance to them that filling in bubbles with a pen does not.

Thirding or fourthing the recommendation for Under the Banner of Heaven.

NYC had the old school voting machine still in full use last year. I am not piositive that they will be gone by the next election. I've heard from several born and raised NYers that the votig machines are tied in with organized crime groups in the city.

Oh, Trudes...so sweet, so naive.

Yeah... I hear that a lot.

We have a snow day. I got the call at 5:30, turned off my alarm, and slept till 10. I have to go up to school at some point and get the cat, who, I'm sure is sure she's staaaaaarving.

Pfft! Time to learn to mouse.

NYC had the old school voting machine still in full use last year. I am not piositive that they will be gone by the next election.

Man, if my primary doesn't have a ch chunk machine I think I'll cry -- it'll be the first time evah I haven't used one.

I've heard from several born and raised NYers that the votig machines are tied in with organized crime groups in the city.

Isn't everything?

I have to confess to liking the Philly voting machines better than the New York ones, because in the NY ones, you have to push your way through the curtain -- in Philly, casting your vote opened the curtain.

I still support paper ballots, though!!

Fwiw, Jessica, I understand how you feel. I always preferred the snow to the cold rain in the winter. Rain is so much more depressing.

Exactly! Must be an East Coast attitude.

I declined to read Under the Banner of Heaven because I already get sufficiently creeped out by Mormonism every time I stay at a Marriot. Open the Book of Mormon to almost any random page, and you will find at least one sentence that is frighteningly (and often violently) anti-Semitic. Now granted, I've never had any individual Mormons threaten (offer?) to cleanse my soul with blood, but still. Ew.

I've heard from several born and raised NYers that the votig machines are tied in with organized crime groups in the city.

Isn't everything?

No! Just restaurants, garbage collection, snow removal, union membership, toll collectors, broadway ushers, illegal gambling, legal gambling, prostitution, strip clubs, auto body repair, window replacement, construction, road repair, federal landscaping contracts, most plumbers, and those shitty sound walls along the highway that don't block sound and keep the snow from melting for a week.

I have to confess to liking the Philly voting machines better than the New York ones, because in the NY ones, you have to push your way through the curtain -- in Philly, casting your vote opened the curtain.

Come to think of it, that was the case with the ones in Jersey -- certainly preferable. Though I would argue that the curtain function is secondary to the ch chunk in the satisfying voting experience.

When I start my book club, Under the Banner of Heaven will be our first selection. Hell, I thin I should start a book club with Local-istas!

I love Evanston. When it's time to plow the side streets, they send a Parking Enforcement vehicle with a loudspeaker telling everyone who's parked on the South side (or whatever) to move their cars - or else....

When it's time to plow the side streets,

At least you get your street plowed...

not that it's ever going to snow here again evidently.