This is the post-election coma I’d been expecting. That, and really trying to hunker down and get some novel-writing done. But my Thanksgiving Day Resolution is to get back on the wagon here. In the meantime, you can again be thankful this year that you’re not Chris Duhon:

• Change.gov, the official site for president-elect Barack Obama. Feels good to see it made official like this, doesn’t it? Under “Upcoming Events”: Inauguration.
• I was sad to see that critic John Leonard died on Wednesday. I never read him during the apparent heyday of the New York Times Book Review, because I wasn’t alive yet. But I enjoyed his “New Books” column in Harper’s. I remember reading a story a while back about which critics publishers enjoyed the most, and a lot of them cited Leonard’s column. He struck me as old-school in a way that not many critics are anymore (like James Woods, for instance). They seem to be part of the old guard, the new guard being novelists reviewing for extra pay, and the even newer guard jokers like me.
• Solid game for Leon last night. I want to launch a Powe for Sixth Man of the Year. Who’s with me? (This guy)
• Stephon Marbury is talking about practicing with his old high-school team. Maybe I’m alone here, but that’s just about the coolest remedy a benched NBA player could propose.
• What else has the election stolen from me? Fantasy basketball. That was remedied yesterday with the drafting of my new team: Fat Leverage. The roster, in order drafted, is below (I know D-Will is hurt. I don’t care.) Fat Leverage is going all the way this year:

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.

I’ve been trying to put something a no-politics post today—on the subject of football’s dominance in our culture and how it’s a symptom of something much worse. But today’s not the day. Incidentally, it was inspired by the bartender at the local pub last night switching off the Bulls/Magic (It’s gonna be tragic!) game and turning on the Monday Night Football game. What?! Post-Jordan era support for this team is weak, not that they don’t deserve it. Still another post for another day.

Then Ball Don’t Lie posted a new pro-Knicks video by Q-Tip. It reminded me of all those hip-hop/hoops videos that came out in the ’80s and ’90s. They felt like two new art forms reaching prominence at the same time. Here are a couple selections.

Kurtis Blow—”Basketball”

The real, unembeddable (Why, Universal? Why?) video is here.

And the amazing basketball scene from Wild Style:

I told you I would be a sucker for stuff like this. Good thing I can’t concentrate at work:

Today, I’m going to be a sucker for stories like this one.

Last night, I told my wife the story of how, in 1990, shortly after my twelfth birthday, I went into the voting booth with my dad. It was a heated gubernatorial election that year, between former US Attorney Bill Weld (Republican) and former BU prez John Silber (Democrat). My dad let me punch the ballot for him, and when it came time to choose governor, I accidentally punched for Weld. I remember my dad letting out a stifled “No!” and then taking the stylus out of my hand.

That night, the ongoing joke in my family was that if Silber lost by one vote, it was going to be all my fault. I remember being very nervous that night that just such a result would play out. It was the first election that I stayed up all night to see the end of. Weld did narrowly win, but by about 76,000 x 1 votes. Of course, in an election settled by even 76,000 votes, one vote is more symbolic than it is game-changing, so I to this day feel bad that I altered my dad’s. But Weld ended up not being so bad, in the end. Though he did beget Cellucci (eh) who beget Swift (Holy hell what a trainwreck), so maybe it was worse than I thought.

The next time I stayed up deep into the night to watch an election unfold was, of course, 2000. I was working at Pioneer Press at the time, and my pal John and I were in the basement of the County building downtown, calling in results to our editors back in the offices. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had during an election, getting the print-outs of county-by-county tallies, racing out to a phone bank in the hallway and calling them in. Yes, even in 2000 this was how it was done. I remember watching on the giant screens in the basement as Florida was called for Gore. And then as the call was rescinded. I later went home and fell asleep on the couch, watching Tom Brokaw lose his mind.

In 2004, I was up in Milwaukee with my boy Sosenko, canvassing for Kerry. On election day, it was mostly about driving to various polling places, and giving snacks and juice to voters in line, to make sure they stay there. By the time we headed home, we’d gotten word from the Kerry Wisconsin office that it looked good for him in the state. It was such a satisfying experience, to work all day (not to mention previous trips) and at the end have it look like we were going to win. But on the long drive home, listening to the radio, it became clear that we weren’t going to win nationwide. Again, I fell asleep on the couch, reluctantly hoping that Kerry would challenge the vote in Ohio.

I’m not going downtown to the rally tonight. I sort of feel like an idiot for not being in Grant Park when Obama gives his speech, but M and I decided it’d be better to be around friends. We’re going to hit a couple of election night parties and, once again, get ready for a long night.