I was thinking yesterday about how strange McCain’s rallying cry had become, particularly the moment where he shouts, “We don’t hide from history, we make history!” It sounded to me like a tacit Obama endorsement. Really, which candidate’s election would have “made history”? The one from the incumbent party? And what does that even mean that “we don’t hide from history”? I guess it means that we learn from and face up to our mistakes, like, say, 200 years of racial oppression.

My point is this: McCain was right. History was made. Everything has changed. Even after everything last night, that was really driven home to me when I was watching Oprah this morning (don’t judge, I took the day off to bask), and she showed clips from around the world. Celebration. It was all celebration. For all the talk (sprung accidentally from Biden, of course) of the world itching to test Obama, I think it’s fairly clear the world has been waiting for Obama.

Another quick thought: When I was in the long line at the polls on Tuesday, I read the latest Harper’s, which ran a sort of symposium on how to fix the economy, with essays by economics professors and authors from around the country. It’s fascinating stuff, much of it I can only grasp at. And then last night, I realized that for the first time in eight years, we have an intellectually curious president, who would probably read that article, and consult with those experts. Just the idea of that hasn’t been present for at least eight years. What a rush! That’s why, in a speech full of great lines, this was my favorite:

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.

What an enormous change.

A lot of things to discuss, so I’m going to do it, lightning-round style. We’ll go politics, sports, personal. Enjoy:

• The McCain campaign’s incoherency problems are astonishing. Watch this video in which he defends his use of robocalls. He claims that he “doesn’t care” about Bill Ayers while pausing to point out that his wife (Bernadette Dohrn) was on the FBI’s top-ten most wanted list. If you’re going to pretend that your campaign isn’t going negative on the Ayers front, then don’t interrupt yourself to go even more negative.

• So now, reportedly, the McCain camp is thinking about bringing back Jeremiah Wright to stir up negative feelings with 14 days left in the campaign. Matthew Yglesias has a smart post about how it isn’t credible that the GOP has avoided bringing up Wright based on some sort of principled stand. But I think he misses the most obvious point: The campaign was always saving it for the end. That way, McCain could pretend to virtue by not touching on an “obvious character issue,” and then let it all go at the end, before a proper backlash could amass.

• My friend Jake Austen has a great article in the current issue of Harper’s about the bootleg Obama T-shirt boom in Chicago’s black neighborhoods. You have to subscribe to read it online. But you should, because Harper’s is the best mag in the country, I think. The article reminded me of a time this summer, when M and I went to a block party on the West Side, around Chicago and Pulaski. The Jesse White Tumblers were in full effect, and nearly everyone was wearing homemade Barack for President shirts. This was, it’s worth noting, before the end of the primaries and just a week or so after Jesse Jackson, U.S. Ambassador of Class, said he wanted to cut Obama’s nuts off “for talking down to black people.” It seemed the party had sided with Obama.

• The Red Sox lost to the Rays in game seven. What can be done? My heart wasn’t really with the Red Sox this year, largely because I felt like they were a team built for last year, which is fine by me, since last year worked out pretty well.

• I just bought Paul Hornschemeier’s amazing WherewereyouWolf T-shirt. Ten bucks!

• I turned 30 on Friday. Everyone seems to think this is a milestone, but to my mind, getting married was 2008’s topper, and turning 30 is a boring epilogue. Still, my wife and I had dinner at Green Zebra, a once-every-couple-of-years occasion, and it was a reminder of just how wonderful vegetarian restaurants are. You can eat anything on the menu! Meat-eaters have no idea what complicated joy this is.

• On Saturday, my friends threw me a surprise Dollar Store, in which the items were taken from my life (embarrassing photos, karate trophies, sports memorabilia, etc.). Of course, it was the best kind of humiliating.

I got stuck on a CTA train this morning for two hours. In a tunnel. So we got out and walked. In the tunnel. I wrote the whole thing up for Time Out Chicago, the quote below will take you there:

I’m as big a fan of visions of post-apocalyptic America as you’ll find, but what I learned today is that being a part of one isn’t that fun.

Ah, to be in college again:

Today is featherproof’s third birthday. No, no no. It’s fine. Seriously. We didn’t expect you to remember. We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want to make a big thing of it. But we do have an itch to celebrate something, so we’ve declared the upcoming end of week Susannah Felts Weekend. She deserves it, having earned praise around the country, and now stopping in Chicago for a three-day spree. Here’s the calendar for her whistle-stop tour:

Small Press Month Showcase
Friday, March 28, 7pm-10pm, Free
SAIC Ballroom, 112 S Michigan Ave.
With readers from Answer Tag Home Press, Cracked Slab Books, Dancing Girl Press, Fractal Edge Press, March Abrazo Press, Puddin’ Head Press, Switchback Books

The Brian Costello Show with Brian Costello
Saturday, March 29, 3pm, Free
The Empty Bottle
With Mark Bazer and “Dan the Fan”

Author Coffee
The Writers’ Workspace
Sunday, March 30, 3pm, Free
Discussing anything you like over coffee and homemade, baked feathergoods

THIS WILL GO DOWN ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD Release Party!

March 30, 2008 07:00PM
The Hideout
1354 W Wabansia
$5

With readings by:

Susannah Felts

J. Adams Oaks

Patrick Somerville

Eileen Favorite

And music from:

Judson Claiborne

and The Pawners’ Society

But while you await the weekend, help us celebrate the birth of two beautiful new mini-books:

All My Homes, by Paul Fattaruso (author of the forthcoming, mind-blowing Bicycle, as well as other awesome books.)

and

Sunday Morning in 1982 by Susan Petrone (you may have recently read her in Glimmer Train)

And while we have you here, we’ll just let you know quickly that Saturday at 1pm, you should tune in to Re: Sound on WBEZ, 91.5 (or wbez.org), to hear one of featherproof’s two dads, Jonathan Messinger, discussing The Dollar Store and reading a story. And on Saturday, April 5, the other daddy, Zach Plague, will read as part of the Oops! series at Heaven Gallery. And then on April 9, Messinger will read from Hiding Out and some new work at Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery at 5pm.

Happy Susannah Felts Weekend, everyone. And happy birthday, us!