AddieStan

It just gets better and better. Fate is taking your blogstress tomorrow evening to chronicle the election returns from Trenton, New Jersey. ("Trenton Makes, the World Takes," say the big, block letters mounted to the side of a bridge that spans the Delaware River.) So your Webwench will be making blog in Trenton, from which the world will take countless witticisms, no doubt. Sincerest apologies are issued by your cybertrix to those who had planned to wander through the Oppo Factory to be part of the blogstressing experience; your net-tête swears she'll make it up to you (though some are likely to get more made than others). So send those e-mails, and she'll endeavor to get them up. Douggie the Real Estate Maven; Nancy the New York Artist; Karen, Executrix of Jersey; Spirit Guide; SallieSixToes; the Internationalist; Beltway Breaker; Bai Lon, the White Dragon; Play Right; Lips Buzz; the Fabulous Frankie G. (your blogstress's partner in musical crimes); and...

As she did during the debates, your cybertrix will be blogging the election results and election night coverage in real time. For up-to-the-minute commentary, tune into AddieStan.com, and join the conversation. In addition to your beguiling Webwench, AddieStan.com on election night will feature a revolving cast of readers, bloggers and whichever characters choose to wander into your blogstress's Oppo Factory.

Though your écrivaine remains eternally mystified by the fact of the occasional sane-sounding voice on the other side, she reluctantly admits to having found one, or rather it having found her. Barry Johnson's take on the state of the Garden State is much the same as your Webwench's, though, for him, it's a state of affairs that suits his needs. (Mars, Venus: we got some very different needs.) From Barry's blog, The Hopeful Cynic , we learn: I don't think John Kerry has a reasonably probable electoral vote win path if he loses New Jersey to George Bush, and I don't think that's out of the question right now, especially on the heels of Osama Bin Laden's tape release on Friday... It looks like the Quinnipiac numbers out last week continue to paint a bleak picture for Kerry in NJ, and these were from interviews conducted before the Bin Laden tape on Friday. Read Barry on Jersey

As your blogstress frets about trauma, Osama and Jersey City, others have taken a broader view of the 2004 presidential contest. In his National Journal column, Off Message , William Powers calls us back to a time when we could all be afraid together, rather than blaming each other for facilitating fear: [B]y and large, atomic-age fear was a fear that united. We experienced it collectively, in effect as one big family. The most beloved kitsch images of the time are about domestic preparations for the big blast, and the families depicted always have a generic Norman Rockwell look. Powers goes on to remind us that the outcome of this election will not cause civilization to end (though some of us wonder if it hasn't already). A welcome corrective to an overheated environment. (What global warming?) Plus, if more enticement is needed, there's a delightful William Shatner sighting in there. (We hear he's recording another music album. And for that, we're very afr...