Good luck, America.

This is the obligatory plug for democracy.

If you are American and you have a vote, use it. That right has been bought and paid for, in lives, for hundreds of years, and is still bought and paid for today by other citizens around the world.

It's no secret who I hope wins, but that's less important today than just getting out and voting. Pay the poll tax of the long lineup. Take a camp chair and a book or some knitting. But vote.

And once your vote has been counted and your government changed, start the political process that will force your state's election machine to address those long line-ups. Every year, I have parents tell me they can't afford to take time off work to come to a parent-teacher interview. Parents who tell me that are being disenfranchised by lineups hours long. That's a poll tax, and it's unconscionable. And as a Canadian who has never waited more than five minutes to vote, I can tell you - it doesn't have to be that way.

Waiting.

What time do polling stations start closing in the great U.S. of A.?

I think I need to get out Elizabeth's hat and start frogging it to reknit on a circular needle, just to keep myself busy.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings. . .

But the title of the song is printed in the program.

If Obama picks up Hawaii and California, as he's projected to do, then he needs only eleven more electoral college votes to win. Any one of the states still hanging on the last votes back in the east would do that for him, as would Washington, which I understand usually goes blue.

I think I can actually sleep if I go to bed now.