Election Eve

Like most of you, I'm too anxious about tomorrow's outcome to think straight (which doesn't explain the crooked thinking the rest of the time). I've made calls for MoveOn, I've donated small amounts of money, I've discussed issues with those who wished to discuss them and listened to alternate points of view. I have to resign myself to the fact that, if tomorrow does not go the way I and so many people I know want it to, it's NOT because I didn't do enough.

Ugh. This is a stressful one.

In lieu of belaboring points that have been belabored and then belabored some more since this campaign began, I am going to switch gears and promote a friend's beautiful work, proceeds from which go to another cause I strongly support.

Gary is a longtime friend, from those hazy, just-out-of-college days. He is also an excellent jeweler (and musician) and a former resident of New Orleans; in fact, he pretty much introduced me to the city, which I'd known little about, and when I first visited almost a decade ago, he armed me with a list of places to go and things to do. He and his lovely wife, Elyse, are animal-lovers and have over the years given homes to a menagerie of pets they've rescued from New Orleans (pre- and post-Katrina) and elsewhere. I can't drive down Tchoupitoulas Street without thinking of dear, departed Funky Tchoupitoulas, who, along with Zigaboo, were the first of their dogs whom I'd met.

And so, as we're gearing up for the holiday season, I want to turn your attention to a project Gary's recently embarked (woof) upon: with the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, he has created these gorgeous Fleur de Lis pendants, half the proceeds of which will benefit the LA/SPCA.

This year I've decided that my holiday gift-giving will contain an element of altruism ... money's tight for so many of us this year, and while I've long lamented how materialistic the holidays have become, I've also developed a steady habit of procrastinating my gift-buying, getting frazzled and caught up in the melee, and spending far too much money on gifts that don't mean as much as something like this would.

Okay -- now back to MSNBC and stress ...