profiles of voters from middle america

it looks like tomorrow's election could boil down to the great state of ohio. that means, the next four years are in the hands of people like the ones we met on our trip this weekend.

cat woman: when we knocked on this woman's door, her cat ran out. she explained how it was bad now that her cat had learned about going down the stairs in the apartment building. so far, a normal interaction. in fact, normal in all counts except one: while we were telling her about where her polling place was and reminding her to take her id, she was licking her cat's ear...over and over again.

watching the game: this guy turned off his blaring tv when we knocked on the door. it went from "so loud the neighbors could hear it in their apartment" to dead silence. we knocked again after the silence. he didn't answer. you can't pretend you're not home when you have been blasting the game. now, i can't blame the guy for not coming to the door, but who does he think he's kidding??

bernoulli's principle mom: one way to get your kid to stop playing with his drink is to tell explain to him that the reason his red cream soda moves across the lid of his cup when he blows air out of his straw. now that you've managed to stop his shananagans, you can move on to fight with your presumed sister and father about why you're voting for bush and they should do the same. you tell your father that you're voting for bush because kerry is a poltical machine, and this scares you. all the while, your son has resumed spitting red cream soda at the people at the next table.