What a great contest! I wish I could think of something really clever, but maybe you, my readers, can figure out a campaign slogan for your favorite literary or historical character.

My Boss Is a Jewish Psychiatrist! Vote for Sigmund Freud! He’ll Psychoanalyze Kinky and Grandma!
(For those of you who don’t live in Texas, both Kinky and Grandma are running for governor. And Kinky Friedman’s bumper stickers say: “My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy/ Vote for Kinky”)

Writing and Living on Appliance Group Dynamics. Maybe Anne’s dryer has delusions of grandeur and plans to run for mayor instead of continuing to serve the Writing and Living family. Even I couldn’t think of a campaign slogan for that!

There is a different kind of election going on at The Cybils award site. A couple of bloggers came up with the idea of initiating The First Annual Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards, aka The Cybils. We’re giving awards in several categories, and nominations are open now through November 20th. Anyone can nominate any books published in 2006; bloggers and non-bloggers both are welcome. And I get to be on the judging committee for Middle Grade fiction—because I volunteered. So, if you’ve read any children’s or young adult books published this year, go over and nominate your favorites. Then, watch to see who wins.

“Really, it makes me feel rather melancholy for the state of postmodern humanity that people nowadays would tend to assume that anyone singing in a non-performance setting must be practicing for a performance later. I mean, why bother to sing if you aren’t performing?” So muses the Queen of the Beehive in her post on singing just for the fun of it. Is communal singing a lost art?

Author Lars Walker has a conspiracy theory—and a link to some potentially world-changing recordings.