(Sunday Paper, Volume I, Issue 24)

It seems like early voting in Massachusetts has been a raging success.

I see why - there were some Election Days in the past when I would leave for work before the polls were open and would be cutting it close to closing time by the time I got back home at the end of the day.

And my wife - who has a commute similar to what I had and whose hours sometimes kept her from conveniently voting - definitely enjoyed leisurely voting in this election.

But I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to cast my vote early.

I'll be going on Tuesday.

First of all, with some of the crowds I saw at the early voting locations this past week, I have a feeling voting on Tuesday is going to be a breeze.

But secondly, and more importantly, it's a day off for my kids. So on Tuesday we can sleep in, then they can come with me and experience democracy first-hand. (And then they'll hopefully be fast asleep while we sweat out the results later Tuesday night.)

Political persuasion isn't really my thing. If you want to hear my opinions on my votes...I have pretty strong feelings on all of them, and I'm happy to share them with you if you want to talk about them. But I'm not going to write about them here.

And if my daughters ask on Tuesday who and what I'm voting for, I'll definitely talk to them about it.

But if they don't ask...it doesn't matter.

I'm just glad they'll be able to see me cast my vote in person.

Writing

*Pleasant surprise this week where one of those pitches I've been telling you about the past couple of weeks, which I was about to give up all hope on, led to a phone conversation about potential contributions to a magazine. Nice to at least know the e-mails I send are read and to get a response. I'll, of course, keep you posted on what happens.

Comedy

*There will be a big comedy update coming up in next week's Sunday Paper, ahead of the Cleveland Comedy Festival. So for now, know that that's pretty much all I'm thinking about when it comes to comedy. Tonight I'm going to be at Improv Boston at 9pm, tomorrow night I'll be in Abington, and nothing else scheduled until the festival, so I'll just be hitting open mics and going to watch shows.

What I've Been Enjoying

*If you're a regular reader you know I listen to a lot of podcasts. One of them is This American Life. If you know me at all you know I'm a big Sara Bareilles fan. A couple of weeks ago those worlds collided: This American Life did an episode in which they asked Bareilles to write a song which imagined what Barack Obama would say about Donald Trump if he could be entirely honest. The song, in the context of the show, was great. And outside of the context of the show it was a good Sara Bareilles song - you could hear her style in it. She did not perform the song, though - the singer is Leslie Odom, Jr. - and you see him in the video below. As good as the song came across in the radio show (if you're interested in listening to the whole show it's "#599 - Seriously"), the video feels ten times more powerful. Check it out.

Notes

*A quick final thought on the World Series - I was really pulling for Cleveland, and I'm not sure I knew exactly how much I wanted them to win until the Cubs won. I felt kind of bad. (But, really, any time a team that's not the Mets wins the World Series there's a bad feeling.) But I do feel happy for a bunch of guys on the Cubs. (And it's probably best-case scenario for the Mets in the future because now that the Cubs have had their shot the Mets might get sympathizers to root for them if those teams meet again in the post-season, instead of the whole world rooting for the Cubs.) But I was reminded of one thing watching Game 7: In July of 2007 Kathy and I took a road trip that took us through Cleveland and Cincinnati. When we were in Cleveland we saw a Red Sox game. It happened to be Jon Lester's first start in 2007 after he was diagnosed with - and then overcame - cancer. It was cool to be there for that. And I couldn't help but wonder if that crossed Lester's mind when he came on in relief of Game 7 on that same mound to help the Cubs win the World Series.

*Saw this story about the relationship between Lester and Anthony Rizzo as I was fact-checking my Jon Lester memory. It's pretty good. You have to think there's a part of Terry Francona that doesn't mind that he lost the World Series to those guys, as well as Theo Epstein.

*I love going to bed Saturday night at 11:30 and then all of a sudden it's 10:30...but that's pretty much the only thing about the time change I like for the next few months.

*And one final thought on Election Day - the girls are off because of a professional development day, not because it's Election Day per se. I really think Election Day should be a national holiday. I suppose the early voting helps make sure people get to the polls...but giving everyone the day off would help more. I've heard some people suggest Election Day should be on a Saturday too - that's not a bad idea either.