[Your blood pressure just went up.]

CNN called the election for Obama.

My heartfelt congratulations to the people of the United States, and my best wishes for president elect Obama. He will probably not fix everything, but I hope for all of you — and us — that things will start looking up a little.

I have to admit that I couldn’t hold back a tear or two. All political possibilities, strategies and chances aside, this is a great day.

No, not that way, you freak.

It may not be Christmas quite yet (and, well, I may be a no-good atheist with no particular obligation to be extra nice for the holidays) but I have picked and supported my “feelgood” charity today.

My two little protégés are Whippersnapper and Poppet (I did mention I’m a British and American studies MA?).

Whippersnapper is a sweet little variety of of cherry tomato, so-called because it is the earliest to ripen. How could you resist?

Poppet is a variety of pea I picked for the name — sweet, patronising, and also the correct term for the original medieval European “voodoo doll” (i.e. a wax or clay model of your victim you can stick needles in). Oh, and as far as I could find out, Poppet has fewer leaves and more vines than the average pea.

I shelled out £20 to adopt these two from Garden organic, physically located in Coventry/Warwickshire, and the working name of the Henry Doubleday Research Association. A German promoting British veg varieties - whoda thunk it? The donation goes towards seed handling, storage and propagation, preventing rare, historical and simply underused vegetable varieties from disappearing altogether.

There are a bunch of reasons for supporting greater variety in food and organic farming and gardening: pest resistance without pesticides, less messing around with the local ecosystem, healthier soil, encouraging people to eat locally… and, of course, tastier noms for everybody.

Speaking of eating locally: If governments are serious about reducing our addiction to oil, rethinking the way we deal with food must be a top priority. Did you know that thanks to transport, oil-based fertilizers and pesticides, agriculture is responsible for the 2nd biggest percentage in oil use, topped only by the automotive industry? It’s not just the Kerosene used for flying in Strawberries in Winter, it’s the stuff put on your local produce as well. Farming regulations in Europe and the US, preventing variety in produce, compartmentalising, stopping the combination of livestock and produce farming and making it difficult to grow and sell “specialty produce” locally are ridiculous and must change. Soon. Otherwise, all those hydrogen-fuelled cars driven by hockey moms of the future won’t make a difference. Finding a way to reduce pesticide and fertiliser use and looking for alternatives is important, and that’s where organic farming (and gardening) comes in: many pests and diseases can be deterred simply by crop rotation, variety in plants and livestock benefits the soil… this is about you, too, not just about Birkenstock-wearing unwashed hippies.

So why am I donating to a British charity saving (mostly) British veggies, other than having a soft spot for our cousins?

First of all, Garden organic helps all of us by expanding our knowledge of organic gardening. Second, I have no garden, something I am frequently a little sad about — if I did, my options would be a little wider: a membership both with Garden organic or with my local variety-protecting-and-recultivating organisation, VERN, would net me access to seeds I could grow myself. Sadly, it’s not to be at the moment — neither is beekeeping or helping research at Berlin’s botanical garden by adopting a plant — 250 € is a little much at the moment.

In case you want to do something to discover your inner hippie, your inner omnivore, or your small-scale eco hero, here are some links to projects I think are cool:

• VERN sells a staggering variety of rare and historical organic seeds at 2 € a bag, 1.50 € a bag for members. If you have a garden, why not plant something neat and edible for a change? Check out their list of growing locations, too — there might be a place near you that is the only place in the world where you can still get a certain medieval apple variety, or victorian root vegetable, or whathave you.
• Same goes for Garden organic, which for a yearly membership fee of around 23£ lets you pick a selection of six seed packets for free. Alternatively, you can adopt a veg, helping to keep organic veg varieties viable (mmmh, alliteration!).
• Because plants are screwed (or not screwed?) without bees, you might think about adopting some of them, too: 29,50 € nets you a jar of organic honey, an artsy print, a newsletter and the satisfaction of knowing that a new generation of beekeepers is learning to help bees help plants to get it on with each other. Interested? Click here.
• To help the people who do the very basic research, you might think about supporting the Berlin Botanical Garden — or your local equivalent — by adopting a plant or making a direct donation. It’s not just there to look pretty: there’s some heavy-duty research going on in the herbariums, gardens and greenhouses. So heavy-duty, apparently, that adopting a plant is pretty pricey.

Because this sounds incredibly vegetarian (eeek), and because I notice that HRH the Prince of Wales is involved all over the place with this stuff, I’ll do a little “meat and you” post soonish.

Until then, eat your veg!

Since most of the world — well, those of us not busy canning moose — seems to be preoccupied with worrying about a Sarah Palin (vice-)presidency, let’s see what really could happen.

The following link will show you a very thoughtful, realistic, well-researched scenario:

palinaspresident.us

Okay, okay. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. But the whole thing is incredibly thoughtful — the level of detail for such a little toy is astounding. It contains over 30 jokes! Realistic? Let’s hope not. Well-researched? Hell yeah, what with the references coming thick and fast the second you move your mouse.

You probably couldn’t resist trying everything; but for the sake of completeness, there’s a list of all the stuff I’ve found below the fold. The little blurb saying “updated daily until Nov. 4th” is not a lie either — at least one item has changed and two have been added since I discovered the site. So, er… is this where I say “SPOILER WARNING”? Okay.

SPOILER WARNING. If you think you might’ve missed something (or want to see if something has changed), read on:

Read the rest of this entry »

So what’s going to stick in my mind after the final debate?

Mostly this: These are the Joes we know.

• Joe Sixpack
• Joe the Plumber
• Joe Biden.

Only one of ‘em is real, folks. *wink*

Both candidates reacted to the other’s statements with laughter, by the way — however, Obama’s seemed genuine while McCain’s seemed forced. And overly sarcastic. But maybe that’s my liberal bias.

By the way: to my great dismay, joetheploumber.com is already registered and has a site up — that of a real plumber. Boy, is he going to see some mysterious traffic increase tomorrow… also, I’ll bet that he’ll get interview requests.

So I’ve already replaced my MacBook’s standard dashboard clock with an XKCD-style one that factors time for me.

When Randall posted this, I remember thinking “ooooh that would be SO nice”:

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Well, whaddayaknow: YouTube done went and did it. While YouTube comments are one of the most pointless things on the internet, sometimes they’re hard to resist. So this is what popped up a few days ago:

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Win. The only thing that makes it a bit less than perfect is that the preview is voluntary.