Tonight was Owen's night to shine once again. Last night he performed with the middle school bands at the mall, and tonight he performed with the middle school chorus at Eisenhower School. He sang a brief solo beautifully -- just a handful of measures, really -- the only boy to do so tonight. A year ago he would have been singing his solo an octave higher, but as a seventh grader he is approaching the low end of the tenor range.

The grandmas, Radley, Jami, Taylor and I all attended, arriving early enough to secure seats on the first and second rows. Owen stood front row center throughout the performance, moving to a mic at the front of the stage for his solo. We moved Taylor to the second row to prevent any shenanigans he might conceive to break up Owen's composure while he was singing; however, I think that Owen has begun to develop very good composure before an audience and I don't think that Taylor would have disturbed him.

Today's election decided whether Manhattan City Commissioner Karen McCulloh would be recalled for her vote favoring the removal of the ten commandments monument from a prominent place before the main entrance of the remodeled city hall. The local radical religious right lost tonight, 2600 folks voting for her recall, and 4400 voting against. That should be a sufficient margin to discourage recall attempts against the other two commissioners who voted as McCulloh did, but we'll have to see.

I think the time has come to learn more about the county attorney's decision to forward the petition, and then to learn who in the county clerk's office was responsible for the wording of the ballot. The wording on the ballot did not limit the reason for the recall to the specific charge of misconduct alleged in the petition (a fatuous charge, by the way), but instead permitted anyone who didn't like her hair color or the make of her car to vote against her in good conscience. If the recall election was to occur at all, my thinking all along was that the ballot should have been worded not simply "Karen McCulloh should be recalled from the position of Manhattan City Commissioner," but should have specified the reasons set forth in the original petition. Of course, many who didn't like her "just because" (the actual, mindless campaign byte of her opponents) would have voted against her anyway, but more precise wording of the ballot motion might have prevented a few folks of conscience from voting her out for unspecified reasons. But perhaps the pettifoggery of the recall proponents did as much to alienate undecided voters from the pro-recall side.

The wording of the ballot motion might have been important in a closer election. She won big. Maybe it's time to let the matter rest.

Am I using "maybe" and "perhaps" too often tonight? Maybe.

After the choral performance, Taylor and I played a few games of chess before his bedtime. From his grandmothers, he has wheedled a magnetic travel set and a book that outlines the rules and describes some strategies. I added the usual advice to novices to get the strong pieces into play early, control the center of the board, and castle the king, and then I kicked his scrawny, little butt three out of three times.

But beware: while I sleep, he practices and grows stronger.

The piles of papers that I must grade have started to grow, but many of the papers are journals that require only a cursory review from me, so the task might be less daunting than the height of the piles indicates.

Today's recall election was the first election in which Joshua, the eldest, was eligible to vote. He did vote, and he voted correctly. I'm sorry that his first vote had to be in such a sorry and divisive campaign, but I'm glad he saw things as he did. Hell, I'm glad he voted! Do you know how unusual that is for an eighteen-year-old kid to vote?

The actual tally in the election as reported by the Mercury: for recall, 2649; against, 4400.