The first book that I thoroughly enjoyed is called The Glass Castle. This is an autobiography written by MSNBC writer Jeannette Walls. The story recounts all the mishaps of her early years growing up in the southwest. There were four Walls children -- three girls and a boy.

Jeannette's mother was an artist -- her father was a rip-roaring alcoholic who sometimes had jobs and sometimes not. The children did a phenomenal job fending for themselves. Growing up through mountains of hardships, they developed amazing resilience.

If you like stories of survival that help people develop lots and lots of character, you'll enjoy this book.

The other book that I'm in the middle of is The Innocent Man by John Grisham. I've enjoyed John Grisham's whodunits for about a year now -- have only read three, but plan to read the long list of his books (hint: check out resale shops first to see if you can get copies that other people have finished and are now selling for upwards of a quarter -- hard cash money). Sometimes there are pleasant surprises waiting in the book sections of these shops.

Anyway, this book is about two men who ended up on death row for a murder they did not commit. The story is about a young woman who was tragically murdered after she had been raped. DNA left behind in the real killer's semen finally exonerated both of these guys -- but not before they had taken up residence on death row for about twelve years!

The book is not a good testament for prosecutors who get in a hurry, nor police detectives who have a "gut feeling" about the guilt of people who weren't even near the scene of the crime. Every police officer in the country who does a good job of gathering evidence ought to be insulted by what these cops did to the reputation of all the good detectives who take the time to get real evidence.

So Quint and I are going "dude ranching" as he calls it. Three scraggly spruce trees are going to fall in Effingham. What our back yard needs is a lot more sunshine so we can plant some yellow squash, beans, peppers and tomatoes in the spring.

I'm in the process of writing a series of devotionals for this year's Advent season. Hopefully, the series will help all of us get ready for the Christmas season as a spiritual holiday, more so than a commercial mountain of cash.

Advent starts on December 3, 2006, this year.

 

FIRST, THE CLOWN SEASON:

The Trick-or-Treaters will be coming out in full force this weekend. Just in case you want to know, the #1 costume that's flying off the racks this year is none other than Capt. John Sparrow -- Johnny Depp's character in "Pirates of the Caribbean," as well as all sorts of pirate wenches for the female gender.

Then there's the ever-popular Chucky, Betty Boop in red-sequined gown with matching shoes -- George and Laura Bush to add a bit of glam -- and southern belles in strapless gowns and five-fingered gloves all the way up to here.

For the tykes, check out a variety of costumes all around the town. Target costumes are running about $15, while the Disney Store will cost a bit more at $80.

Then stock up with lots of goodies for this year's Fright Fest and lots of fun.

 

MONEY MONEY MONEY!

This year's midterm elections (we'll be electing the nation's 110th Congress) are estimated to cost a whopping 2.6 billion dollars -- that's an all-time record for a non-presidential election, folks.

And I thought the 2004 presidential election was a lot of money -- when the total tallies were in, some 4.2 billion dollars had been spent. However, this figure included the megamillions that both John Kerry and George Bush spent!

My my my! The elections in this country have become an industry all unto itself. If not an industry, then certainly big business. Too bad the voters don't seem to care enough to go to the polls. Our voter turnout is horrible.

In 2004, there were 221,256,931 voting-age people in the U.S., with 174,800,000 folks registered to vote. Of that number, a whopping 55.3% went to the polls -- or 122,294,978 people.

In 2000, the most previous presidential election year before that, 105,586,274, or 51.3% of the voters, went to the polls. And that takes care of Mr. G. W.

Mr. Clinton harnassed a few voters of his own -- in 1996 there were 96,456,345 who showed up at the polls. In 1992, for his first election, there were 104,405,155 voters.

In 1960, when Mr. Kennedy was elected, 68,838,204 voters turned out. But then, that was 63.1% of the voting-age population which was 109,159,000 at that time.

Here in Illinois, we have a governorship running neck and neck with Judy Topinka challenging Governor Rod Blagojevich (pronounced Blah-goi-oh-vich).

Then there's Todd Stroger who appears to be trying to hang onto Gov. "Blohjohs" coattails by co-appearing at churches around the Chicago area. However, at the latest feat which was to be a presentation to about 100 pastors at a missionary Baptist church, Todd Stroger was 2 hours late and the governor never did show up. The Gov. says he never really said for real that he'd be there and Stroger was just, well, late.

Even so, the group still said that Stroger was qualified to hold the job as Cook County Board President -- a spot held by his father until the elder Stroger had a stroke.

Oh, politics -- you are such a wicked maiden!