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It's always been an objective of mine to try to be productive in some form or fashion everyday. Now, in my dictionary, productivity can be defined in many ways. There is usually always a checklist involved. As each task is finished, there's always a rush of adrenaline to mark it off. Even if a task is accomplished and it's not on the list, I will write it down, and then mark it off. Don't judge me.
Here's some of what I accomplished yesterday:
ate leftovers a.l.l.d.ay.l.o.n.g.
drank two root beers
watched Hillbilly Elegy...again
read New York Times editorial page from two weeks ago
watched 6 episodes of Holiday Baking Championships
warshed, dried, and put linens back on bed
picked up stuffing from toys Stella & PeekaBoo annihilated
In other words, I didn't do Jack Squat yesterday.
It was about 4:00 p.m. when my A.D.H.D. kicked in. Either that or the root beers. Or a combination of both.
"Where are those little pink plastic rollers I bought from Amazon after watching a video of some gal who used them and in a matter of minutes her hair was transformed into luscious, beautiful curls?"
Yes. Those rollers. You know. You saw the video and was amazed, too.
But, you probably didn't order them. Did you?
Well, I did.
So, I found them and I tried to roll up my hair just like that gal did on the Facebook video.
Funny thing is, I never saw her get her hair tangled up in any of those rollers.
Yes, I did consider having to cut a couple of them out of my hair.
After my arms felt like they weighed about 25 pounds each, I finally succeeded in getting the last pink stupid roller in.
Only to realize the first two had already fallen out, and PeekaBoo ran out the door with one of them in her mouth.
This did not happen in the video with the beautiful girl with the beautiful hair.
Nor did some wise a$$ guy keep asking, "What the hell are you doing?"
To which I softly and sweetly replied, "I'M TRYING NOT TO GO APE $HI+ CRAZY, THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING!"
There may or may not have been a couple more choice words in that reply. I really don't remember.
So, what else does one do when one is looking absolutely drop-dead gorgeous with pink plastic rollers tangled up in her hair, wearing a t-shirt that's had the neck cut out of it and has on no make-up on ?
She, of course, posts a selfie on Facebook.
It's either that or post a picture of your feet with a sandy beach and beautiful ocean waves in the background. But since that's not my venue, the best I could do was what you see at the top of this post.
Many of the comments on that Facebook post were requests to see the outcome of the Pink Plastic Magic Hair Roller Chronicle.
So without further ado . . . drumroll please . . . here's the result:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
I can hear my mother saying, "Your hair looks like a rat's nest."
I can also hear my daughter telling her daughter, " You have gnarlies and hinkey punks in your hair."
So, the choice is yours.
Which of the above do you think is how the Plastic Pink Magic Hair Roller Experiment turned out?
Correct guess wins these. See below . . .
Stay tuned . . . tomorrow I'll show you how a Navage works.
Yes, ordered that, too.
That's one of those battery powered Neti Pots.
You might think it's gross . . . but ItSnot.
This was a post from about six or ten years ago, but I thought it would be fun to post it again just to remember what snow looks like.
The way 2020 is going, I'm concerned that when it does snow, the snow will be flammable.
***********************
We have at this point EIGHT inches of snow and I have given up on keeping the driveway clear. Pictures will be posted as soon as my fingers and toes thaw out. And, to whomever is praying for snow, PLEASE STOP !
December 1:
Just arrived home and it's starting to snow ! Yippee ! Christmas is coming - biggest snow I've ever seen in my life - it doesn't do this in Okrahoma - took my hot chocolate laced with Peppermint Schnapps and sat by window, watching soft, downy flakes quietly drift down, clinging to the trees and covering the ground, A-h-h-h-h! The subtle scent of pinyon burning in the fireplace is heavenly. My dogs are curled up around my warm toasty toes, snoring in unison - farting occasionally.
December 2:
Awoke to a lovely blanket of crystal snow covering the landscape. What a beautiful white mantel. I shoveled snow for the first time ever and loved it. I completely cleared all the snow from our driveway, patio, and steps. Later a city snowplow came along and accidentally covered up the lower end of our driveway with compacted snow from the street. The driver smiled and waved. I waved back and shoveled again so we could get the pickup truck out and also get to the mailbox. Went inside, sat by fire, patted my dogs, and sipped more hot chocolate to warm up as I admired my beautiful new surroundings.
December 3:
It snowed an additional five inches last night and the temperature dropped to around eleven degrees. Not sure what the wind chill factor was. Most of the limbs on the juniper trees are bending over under the weight of the snow. A couple of cottonwood limbs snapped and fell to the ground. Hope they're the ones with bag worm webs. I shoveled two small strips down the driveway. The tumble weeds that stacked against the house earlier in the year have taken on a new look and character-much like what the Abominable Snowman must look like, only taller.
December 4:
Warmed up enough during the day to create some slush which soon became ice when the temperature dropped again. Realized that it was a solid sheet of ice when I fell flat on my back in the driveway. Opted not to go to the emergency room, remembering my last trek there. Don't think anything is broken but it does hurt while I continue to try to keep those two strips of the driveway clear of snow. Finally decided the snow is easier to drive on than the ice. Abandoned the snow shovel at end of driveway
December 5:
Still cold frigid. Still windy blowing like a banshee. Must go to store to buy milk, marshmallows, and more Schnapps. Thankful I have a four-wheel drive vehicle and wish that the lady who nearly slid into me also had one. Now I have a "crick" ( that's Okrahoma for pain in my neck) from jerking with fright when she did a 360 about seven inches from my rear view mirror. My vehicle is now covered in salt and brown ice. It's snowing again but at least I'm home safe and sound. Got out and shoveled snow off end of driveway deposited by the last snowplow run. Stupid snowplow came by while I was shoveling. I waved at him with one-gloved-finger.
December 6:
Five degrees outside, more white stuff predicted. More limbs have broken. Power was off most of the night. Built fire in fireplace to keep warm but so windy, smoke blew back into house. Smoke alarms work. Dogs freaked out and ran away. Must go look for them. Drove down driveway and nearly slid into that snowplow that continues to deposit mounds of ice and snow along the street, into my driveway. I didn't wave to him this time as I almost clipped the snowplow blade with my fender. The dogs made it back home before I did.
December 7:
The white $hi+ is now blowing parallel to the ground. I've never heard it snow before. Tried one more time to build fire but pinyon is frozen solid in the wood pile. Am using cottonwood branches that litter the yard. Batteries in smoke alarms are dead, so they are now just chirping about every 30 seconds. For some reason the 'Friends' episode of Phoebe and her smoke alarm comes to mind. Would go get mail but can't get to mailbox, thanks to the snowplow driver who is now depositing all the snow and ice from the street at the end of our driveway. Note to self: call city and complain.
December 8:
Not sure how much snow has accumulated. I think I'm going snow-blind. I can't move my toes. I haven't seen the sun in days. More snow is predicted and the wind chill factor is below zero. I'm out of Schnapps. Okrahoma may have tornadoes, humidity, losing football teams, but at least the winters there don't require one to enroll in an Arctic Survival Training class.
Unshoveled driveway !
Boxers in the snow (Lola Cherry Cola, June Bug, & Ginga-Boo)
June Bug: (top left) Old pro dealing with snow
Lola Cherry Cola: (top right) Has never seen snow
Ginga Boo: (foreground) Moved here from Texas and is not impressed
Backyard view from the balcony
Punkins chillin' in the snow
Does anyone have a broom ?
This breakfast is for the birds
Someone has stolen our steps !
Secret garden
Pinyons, jupiters junipers, sage...
Just checking to see if you're paying attention. At least it's not yellow !
Anyone for a picnic ?
Those of you who know HansMan or have been reading here for awhile, have witnessed a multitude of peculiar, perhaps eccentric, perhaps sui genris objects he has brought into this house. The latest was a cannon from Europe that he unloaded out of the back of a pickup-truck using some sort of 'MacGyvered" system that didn't work exactly how he had intended. (Video has been added below for your viewing pleasure.)
Today while putzing around in the kitchen, trying to organize ingredients for our Thanksgiving meal, he brings in an uninvited guest who looks like 'it' could be starving to death. I mean that literally.
Since this is a most unusual Thanksgiving for all of us, why not add another quirk to it to make it even more unusual.
I will just post photos, and let your imagination write the rest of the story.
Here's wishing you and yours a healthy, happy, and safe Thanksgiving.
You're welcome for the Thanksgiving Giggles. We all need to giggle today.
Happy Thanksgiving from the old pirate himself.
A Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter. . .
Photo below courtesy of Leigh Anne's little sister, Brooke that she created for her 40th birthday, which was a few years ago. But who's counting?
Below: Photo taken at Bloedel Preserve, Bainbridge Island, WA . . .
Below: This "loverly" picture was taken almost 4 weeks after she was due. She still tries to control everything. Either her dad and I had Omar the Tent Maker design our clothing, or we were both attacked by an awning just prior to posing for this. Not sure why I thought wearing my hair in a mullet looked good ??? This photo was taken a few days before my due date on October 31. She finally decided to come into the world on
November 25. (For those of you from Antlers, yes, that's my mom and dad, Bertha Lee and Eanon, in the photo on the TV.)
November 25, 1974. Pushmataha County Hospital. Antlers, Oklahoma
Below: A collage of pictures. . . our precious little girl. . .
Below: She didn't go anywhere without her yellow purse. . .
Below: Taking a bath in Grandmother's sink was a favorite activity. . .
Below: She loved her bikini from Uncle Greg and Aunt Lynn that showed off those legs. . .
Below: A collage of school pictures. . .
Below: She is quite the dancer and gymnast . . .
Below: She is also an athlete . . .
Below: She was ranked #2 tennis player in the state her senior year in high school.
Below: She is quite talented in many ways ...not sure where that Roll Tide cap came from...
Below: The photo on the right, documents that she started practicing this tongue maneuver early on.
Below: Are any of these people Big Tug or Little Tug ? Yes, she had two imaginary friends. I sat on Big Tug one time. I thought she would go into vapor lock before I could get off the couch.
A series of BOYFRIENDS follow:
There was some guy named Santa...
and there was Baby David...
Who is this...Capriati?
This guy was a little too thin...
This guy was a little statuesque...maybe the perfect man ?
This one. . . A Keeper !!!
She is my hero . . .
And a wonderful big sister . . .
The following is in no particular order . . . just typing away . . .
happy birthday, my darling - a microcosm of the feminine world...a world of insoluble puzzles - a mystery - an open book - smiles and tears, giggles, laughs, and guffaws - strong yet vulnerable - candid but serious - compassionate almost to a fault - sometimes pouty and spoiled - always a shy delight - energetic and sleeping... and sleeping - lyrical and graceful seldom stumbling - always a little girl but an adult from the start - an angelshine about you with a crooked little halo perched on an occasional horn peeking through - always my baby always my best friend - always the big sister defending like a mama bear - we've been to hell and back the three of us - we learned survival - we learned to enjoy the moment - we hold fast those memories - the bald and the beautiful - we learn from the mistakes - anticipate the future - we were a team - we still are - we were all entranced by you - fluffy lace with a boyish charm - we giggled when you called one of the twins a son-of-bitch - you had no idea what it meant - we cringed when you hit the tree on your bike playing Daisy Duke - you should have had stitches - your best friend and defender is now a Senator - because you pronounced the "TR" sound like an "F", visions of a sexual act in a burning building appeared when you saw a Fire Truck - you chose tennis over golf - 4 years on the road with suitcases, rackets, and a USTA card - well, we had the card most of the time - a #2 state ranking - not bad - especially considering you did the last year on your own - why did you beat your stuffed animals with a yardstick? - your group of friends included invisible ones - Big Tug and Little Tug - I know that Big Tug existed - I sat on him one day - your scream sent me through the ceiling - never did I sit without asking where Big Tug was - where are Big Tug and LIttle Tug now? - you are a never-ending source of pride - you set goals - short term and long term - you made a plan - Operation Infinite Hack - you worked hard and were persistent - you attained what you set out to achieve - it's difficult to stop writing because there is so much to say - I have to stop - just know that even though your dad and I had disagreements, there is one thing we do agree on, and I know I can speak for him - WE LOVE YOU !
So proud that she graduated with honors from Oklahoma University and received her Masters Degree from Tulsa University.
*****************************
While perusing through my stacks of photos, I came across one of my mother, my daughter, and my granddaughter.
As hard as it might be to believe, these were not posed to look like my mom. In fact, when the ones of LA and Pippa were taken, no one knew that the one of my mom even existed.
My youngest daughter created this collage.
Happy. Happy. Birthday, Leigh Anne !
Unfortunately, Rudolph didn't follow Chuck Berry's advice to 'run, run Rudolph.' HansMan gave the fur-babies a stuffed Rudolph which was about the size of the palm of my hand. At one time, its nose blinked and it sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.' (You're welcome for the 'ear-worm' if you happen to watch any of the following videos.) In the second video, you'll notice the Rudolph morphed into two, but as always, they wanted the same toy.
I'm not sure how long it took Stella and Peeka to destroy the toys, but it was evident the reindeer weren't designed to survive a tug-o-war.
But I do know there was an enormous amount of stuffing in those tiny toys.
It's hard work eviscerating a reindeer.
So, there you have it.
Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer didn't have a chance at this house.
One of my very special memories of my mom is baking cakes and brownies with her. Especially the chocolate variety. She had one of those Sunbeam electric mixers (I still have it, by the way), that was white with a black handle on top and an black twisty-turny-thingy to change the speeds with. It had two clear bowls that came with it. It was the bowl that I was most interested in. That's because the bowl would contain the remnants of the batter of either the cake or the brownies. My mom was very adept at getting out most of the batter with one of those rubber spatulas. But, then there were the beaters. These usually had quite a bit of batter dripping from them, and I was very adept at getting off most of the batter with my tongue. I would always ask her to leave more batter in the bowl, but she carefully explained to me that if she didn't use all the batter, the cake or brownies wouldn't bake correctly.
Fast forward to when my daughters would stand on a kitchen chair at her counter waiting for my mom to hand them the bowl and the beaters. It was always a mystery to me as to how those cakes and brownies turned out just fine when my mom would leave about a cup of batter in the bowl for them to 'lick.'
Really ? They could drink the batter from the bowl. When I questioned her about the amount of batter she left in the bowl and the fact that the cake probably wouldn't bake correctly, her reply was, "WWWWEEEEELLLL . . . and then pat the granddaughter on the head and hug and kiss her.
Really ?
My girls have special memories of my mother, and one of them is baking brownies with her.
That's why when I'm with Little Miss P and Baby Dub-Ya, we always bake brownies.
Then we lick the bowls and the beaters and the whisks and the spatulas . . .
Here is a series of photographs taken while the brownies were baking . . .notice that each lick has a special technique . . .
The "I Really Need to Concentrate on This - Lick. "
The "I Think My Tongue Can Reach That Little Drip Right There - Lick."
The "Make Sure You're Looking Where You're Licking - Lick."
The "I Think I Can Get This Whole Whisk in My Mouth - Lick."
The "Lackadaisical-Daydreaming - Lick."
The "This Is Really Decadent - Lick."
The "Where Do I Lick Next - Lick ?"
The "How Far Can I Stick Out My Tongue - Lick ?"
The "I Can Do This With My Eyes Shut - Lick."
The "I Think I'm Getting Sleepy - Lick."
The "I'm Finished and Can Wash My Face with My Tongue - Lick."
Now, you may be wondering where Little Miss P was while her little brother was licking away.
She was there.
And she was licking, too.
She just had a different technique.
And it was not nearly as messy
Assignment: Complete this sentence...
Thanksgiving 2020 will go down in history as probably being ______________________.
As difficult as it was, Hans and I agreed to tell our kids that our house was closed this year for Thanksgiving. As for us and many of you, it may be the first time there won’t be kids and grandkids and other family members sitting around the table on Thursday.
This post has a three-fold objective.
1) To reminisce of Thanksgivings-past
2) To give advice about how to thaw, clean, and cook your turkey
3) To give you some idea about what it’s like communicating with HansMan or in other words: Welcome to My World
This will be accomplished with bits and pieces of conversations over the years between HansMan and myself. Of course, there are photographs to prove what I'm saying. Four-letter words have been omitted or disguised. Please keep in mind that HansMan has always been ‘in charge of the bird.’ You would think after 20+ some-odd-turkeys he would figure it out. Or not.
One Thanksgiving . . . quite some time ago:
K: You will need to take the turkey out of the freezer before Thursday so it can thaw. (This was on Monday.)
H: Okay
K: You will need to take the turkey out of the freezer so it can thaw. (This was on Tuesday.)
H: Okay
K: You will need to take the turkey out of the freezer so it can thaw. (This was on Wednesday.)
H: Okay
K: Did you take the turkey out of the freezer? (This was Thursday morning about 6:00 a.m.)
H: No. Did you?
K: You had ONE (*insert 4-letter word(s) of your choice here*) job !
H: But I thought you would do it for me.
(Yes, this is a hot tub. Yes, this is the frozen turkey.)
Another Thanksgiving:
K: Did you take the turkey out?
H: Yes
K: Be sure to put it somewhere so the dogs can’t reach it.
H: Okay
(Junior, Bubba, & June Bug...and the turkey he placed out of reach)
A Different Thanksgiving:
K: Did you take the turkey out?
H: Yes
K: Be sure to put it somewhere so the dogs can’t reach it.
H: Okay
(Junior cleaning the bird that Hans put out of reach. Please enlarge this photo and notice the size of that dog's tongue.
His eyes are saying, "I think I can get this whole thing in my mouth.)
Last year:
H: Turkey’s stuffed and in the oven.
K: Wow! That’s great.
H: It will cook 4 hours at 160 degrees.
*several seconds of silence* and *several looks of disbelief*
K: 160 degrees???
H: Yes. That’s what the directions said.
K: I don’t think that’s the correct temperature.
H: Yes it is. It’s on the directions.
K: That bird will have to ‘cook’ until Christmas for it to get done.
It is at this point I need to control my controlling self/mouth.
Do I get the directions and show him what they really say?
Do I just turn up the temperature myself without him knowing?
Do I continue to argue with him?
Nope.
I know there is another bird being fried outside. So, we will have a turkey. It just won't be the one warming in the 160 degree oven.
This is the turkey after 'cooking' for four hours.
I wish you could have seen the look on HansMan's face when he took the lid off the roaster and saw the raw bird.
Want to guess what he said ?
I'll tell you.
He said, "Kathy, there's something wrong with YOUR oven."
Of course, I had the directions in my hand at this point. and read them to him . . . the turkey is done when it reaches AN INTERNAL TEMPERATURE of 160 degrees. To which I added, "You don't cook it at 160 degrees!"
Should you have any questions about how to thaw your turkey, clean your turkey, or cook your turkey, The HansMan Turkey Hotline is open 24/7.
Just call him at BR-549. (If you know the significance of that number, you’re old.) Or, just post your questions/comments here.
But, if you’re not very much interested in having a case of turkey food poisoning or you don't like your turkey being cleaned by a Boxer, you might want to call the Butterball people. They’ll talk to you on Thanksgiving, at 1-800-288-8372 from 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and normal hours are from 9:00 a.m.- 7:00 p.m. daily. Butterball has also added the option of texting. Now through Thanksgiving, you can text the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line experts 24/7 at 844-877-3456.
Just sayin’. . .
Land Doesn't Vote . . . People Do . . .
Have you ever been in a committee meeting for what felt like forever? Of course you have. Did it possibly end up with the members deciding to agree on something that had a little bit of everyone’s idea, just to get out of the meeting?
It may have resulted in ridiculous projects that were quickly forgotten.
But there was one time it resulted in a system that chose a president that lasted for more than 200 years.
That’s right — the Electoral College was a last-minute “hydraulic balancing act” by a group of tired people who a history professor says were “puzzled” after working all summer without a model for what they wanted to do.
The winner of the presidential election was determined this way: You really didn't vote for a president, but for a slate of electors from your state (or D.C.) to join the Electoral College, who then go on to vote for a presidential candidate. The size of each state’s slate of electors is based on its congressional representation — how many House members it has, plus two more for the two senators each state (except D.C.) has.
Clear as mud ? It gets muddier.
The Electoral College goes on to meet December 14 to cast the REAL votes for president, which are counted by Congress January 6, in time for Inauguration Day January 20. And of course, there is plenty time for legal challenges in between each of these steps. Really?
This is, naturally, not the way virtually any other election in the U.S. is run. And as we’ve seen, it can result in a president who got fewer votes than another candidate, which really isn’t the principle most American elections run on. So why is it this way, and why hasn’t it ever been changed?
But, let's first try to figure out why we have the Electoral College in the first place.
Alex Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the author of author of “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?” explains it in two words: FATIGUE & HASTE
When he looked back on the work of the framers of the Constitution, “James Madison, writing in the 1820s, himself, observed that the Electoral College was not the best work that they had done.”
The framers had been working all summer on the Constitution, and it was August in Philadelphia when they decided they needed a break, Keyssar said. So they left the question of how to pick the president, as well as a few others, to the aptly named 'Committee on Postponed Parts.'
The Electoral College was what they eventually came up with, adding two other provisions: If no candidate gets a majority of the Electoral College, the election goes to the House of Representatives, with each state getting one vote. It’s also not written in stone anywhere that each state’s electors have to go to the winner of the vote; a state’s legislature can pick the slate.
So who thought that was a good idea?
Keyssar said the framers considered a national popular vote — Madison’s preferred option — as well as having the governors choose the president.
But the leading idea — “the default position” — was that Congress would choose the president. The problem was, that opened up the possibility that the chief executive wouldn’t be truly independent — “you wouldn’t really have separation of powers.”
In the end, they created the Electoral College to reflect the Congress idea: “In effect, the Electoral College is a replica of Congress,” Keyssar said.
It also was in line with their previous thinking. “It imported into the presidential selection process the compromises that they had worked out earlier in the summer with respect to representation in Congress — that’s to say, the compromises between large states and small states, and between slave states and free states,” Keyssar said.
While the effect of the establishment of the Electoral College was a proportional overrepresentation of small states, and that included slave states, Keyssar said, “I’m not as convinced, as some people have been, that slavery was integral to the intentions of the framers when they designed this system. They had already decided to make their peace with it, so to speak, and they used the same system for presidential elections.”
The framers got two things very wrong, Keyssar said: They didn’t realize that political parties would exist, eventually crowding the presidential field into a two-candidate race, so some of them thought the House of Representatives would end up picking the president anyway.
It’s also possible they didn’t realize how much it would matter: “They all knew that George Washington would be the first president,” Keyssar said.
That was in 1787; by 1800, people were already clamoring to change the system after that year’s election took 36 tries to resolve in the House, as well as after the 1824 election, when the House again ended up deciding the election, this time a free-for-all among four candidates from the same party!
Of course, changing or deleting the Electoral College requires an amendment to the Constitution, and that isn’t easy: Two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then three-quarters of the individual states’ legislatures. Hundreds of amendments to eliminate the Electoral College, or basically render it meaningless by ending the winner-take-all system for states to award their electoral votes, were offered in the 19th century, and four times it passed the Senate, Keyssar said.
Efforts to get rid of the Electoral College really took off during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Keyssar said, for several reasons — including the democratizing influence of the civil rights movement.
“There was a series of Supreme Court cases with respect to Congress and state legislatures that say ‘You know, the principle of democracy is one person, one vote,'” Keyssar said. “And then, even though they weren’t talking about the Electoral College, well, people turned around an hour later and said, ‘What about the Electoral College? So that leads to mounting support.”
There were also some crowded elections — four viable presidential candidates in 1948, three in 1968.
“In both of those circumstances, there was fear that nobody would win a majority of the electoral votes, and that the third candidate in 1968, [the segregationist] George Wallace, would become a kingmaker and would basically be able to trade his electoral votes for concessions in policy.”
A proposed amendment to abolish the Electoral College passed the House easily in 1969, with 83% of the vote, but was filibustered by a group of Southern segregationist senators.
“Southern segregationists have pretty much always been opposed to national popular vote,” Keyssar said, “because of a feature of the Electoral College that we don’t often think about — the Electoral College gives states influence and electoral votes in proportion to its population, not in proportion to the number of voters.”
That feature made its first appearance in the notorious “three-fifths compromise,” which counted a slave as 60% of a human being in terms of congressional seats and electoral votes.
But in the post-slavery, Jim Crow South, the situation was actually worse, Keyssar said — Black people counted fully for representation and electoral votes, but were still kept by law from voting for the people who would fill those seats and cast those votes. He calls it “the five-fifths compromise.”
“Those patterns, those convictions, those ideas, persisted into the late 1960s and contributed strongly to the Southern filibuster,” Keyssar said.
For decades, political observers believed that a “wrong result” electoral vote — one in which the popular-vote loser gained the White House because of a more efficient electoral distribution of his votes — would lead to a crisis of legitimacy for the new president, and an instant groundswell in support for reform.
But after two such results in the last five elections (with only one in history before that), that hasn’t been the case.
It’s sort of self-defeating: “Misfires of the Electoral College produced political crises,” Keyssar said, “but political crises often produce partisan rancor, which then makes it hard to amend the Constitution.”
While advocates of leaving the system alone claim that smaller and rural states would be left out of the presidential electoral process without the Electoral College, Keyssar pointed out that many reform leaders come from smaller and rural states. In reality, the Electoral College prioritizes swing states — states whose popular vote could go either way. In 2016, the group National Popular Vote said two thirds of campaign stops by the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns were in the same six states.
And in 2015, Republican Gov. Scott Walker, of Wisconsin, said, “The nation as a whole is not going to elect the next president. Twelve states are.”
After the 2000 election, where George W. Bush won the presidency despite getting fewer votes than former Vice President Al Gore, “The Republicans were absolutely firm that they wouldn’t go along with it,” Keyssar said, while “the Democrats were by no means unanimous in favor of Electoral College reform. I think Al Gore was not in favor of Electoral College reform. And people did not want to spend a lot of time and energy trying to promote something that was a sure loser.”
Nowadays, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is seen as the attempt at reform that has the best chance: Under the Constitution, state legislatures decide how to award their electors; since the mid-18th century, they’ve always gone to the state’s popular-vote winner, but they don’t have to. The compact an agreement among states that they will give their electoral votes to the national popular-vote winner, basically obviating the Electoral College. States totaling 270 votes — the majority needed to win — need to sign on; so far, the total is at 196.
“It’s an attempt to try to reform the system without passing a constitutional amendment,” Keyssar said.
Pat Rosenstiel, of National Popular Vote, said his group, begun in 2006, comprises “Democrats, Republicans, independents, conservatives, liberals and moderates who believe we should elect the president by national popular vote.” He said the problem with the Electoral College goes past the possibility that a candidate who gets fewer votes could become president.
“It’s about how every presidential election, there are battleground-state voters who have all the power and the rest of us are mere spectators.” He said that since this year’s presidential nominees in each party were decided, all campaign visits have been concentrated in 15 states and seven-eighths of all campaign spending has happened in 12 states.
“And, you know, if it was just about money and events, that’d be one thing. But it’s clearly a proxy for political influence with the president. And if you don’t believe me, Google ‘Joe Biden’ and ‘President Trump’ and ‘fracking’ and you think we were running a campaign for governor of Pennsylvania and not for president of the United States.”
He dismisses the argument that the Electoral College preserves the power of small states, saying it empowers only certain small states, and points to how governor’s races are conducted nationwide.
“Think about George Pataki, when he was elected and reelected governor in the state of New York,” Rosenstiel said — “he wasn’t doing that by winning the major population centers. He was campaigning all across the state of New York, which is obviously the model in every statewide election in every state. And we believe that will transfer over to a national popular vote election.”
He added, “In a national popular vote election, those smaller states, the rural voters, they represent one-sixth of the voters in this country. And it’s roughly equal to how many Americans live in urban centers. And so under a national popular vote system, it doesn’t matter if you come from a small state, big state, city, rural area, suburban, exurban — every American voter will be valued.”
Rosenstiel said he’s “increasingly optimistic that we’re suffering under the last campaign” with the Electoral College. That remains to be seen. But for now, the Electoral College system — the result of a long, drawn-out committee meeting in the 18th century — continues to influence our politics in the age of smartphones and space travel.
“There are numerous features of our political system that are imitated elsewhere in the world,” Keyssar said; “the Electoral College is not one of them. And in fact, it bewilders people from abroad — they don’t understand why we have this system.”
Lame Duck period = time between Election Day and the presidential inauguration
While ten weeks may seem like a long wait, past presidents had to contend with a much longer delay before taking up the mantle, historical records show.
Prior to the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1933, every new president was expected to take office on March 4. There were exceptions, such as if a vice president took the oath after the death of a sitting president.
The Continental Congress initially set the first Wednesday in March to be the date of the first presidential inauguration, in 1789, which happened to be March 4, according to Jim Bendat, author of "Democracy's Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President, 1789-2013" (iUniverse, 2011).
"Back in the early days of the country, it took a long time to travel, particularly from the West Coast to Washington, D.C.," according to Bendat, "of the need for both Congress members and presidential transition teams to relocate to the capital. "So they needed a long period of time between the election and swearing in of the president to get everything in order.
In fact, that first inauguration, in 1789, did not take place until April 30. Bendat said Congress couldn't get enough of its members to show up for the inauguration of George Washington, so the ceremony was pushed back to the end of April.
Following Washington's inauguration, Congress decided to keep March 4 as the date for all future ceremonies. In research for his book, Bendat said, he found that part of the explanation for this choice of date (beyond the time needed for the transition between presidencies) was that Congress' study of future calendars revealed that this date was least likely to land on a Sunday. The most religious of politicians wanted to avoid official business on Sundays whenever possible, Bendat said.
Today, if the inauguration date falls on a Sunday, there is a private swearing in on Sunday and a public ceremony on Monday — as was the case for Barack Obama's second inauguration.
By the 20th century, advances in technology and transportation meant people could travel around the country more quickly, and there was no reason for the "lame-duck" period between Election Day and the inauguration to be so long. Also, in times of national turbulence, the lame-duck period proved to be too long a wait.
This long delay was particularly difficult during the middle of the Great Depression, said the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law's "Exploring Constitutional Law." During President Herbert Hoover's lame-duck period in 1932, Hoover and then-President-elect Franklin Roosevelt barely communicated, leaving the country waiting on the government to take action to curb economic devastation. In response, Congress proposed the 20th Amendment.
"There was a debate on when to change it, because it was decided pretty universally that four months was too long to wait," Bendat said. "The Senate originally wanted to change it to January 15, and the House of Representatives suggested January 24, and January 20 was reached as a compromise."
Therefore, the 20th Amendment dictated that the president's term would begin at noon on Jan. 20.
Historians say that during the Lame Duck period America is extremely vulnerable.
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