Starbucks is giving a free "tall" (small) cup of coffee today to anyone who claims to have voted.  (Actually, now, Starbucks giving a free cup of coffee to anyone today who asks for one, because they realized that they were bumping up against laws against paying people to vote, but whatever: they're not alone in this seemingly innocent mistake -- Krispy Kreme, Ben & Jerry's, and others have made similar offers.)

So just now, I was in one of the nine hundred Starbucks which are within walking distance of my office (the one, if you're curious, which you are, definitely, on Astor Place and Lafayette), and someone asked for their free coffee, and the cashier called out this guy's election-coffee order to the person in charge of pouring drip coffees by saying, "Can I get a tall election???"

I'm not sure what the difference is between a "tall election" and a regular tall coffee, but whatever: it's up there among my favorite Starbucksisms (for example, up there with "okay, but double-check your milks first," which is what I heard a supervisor say once to an underling who'd just asked if she could take her five-minute break; I thought there was something vaguely/inadvertently lewd about this request).

More important, the frantic tone of the "can I get a tall election???" request/demand was in harmony with the low-grade excitement in the air today here in heavily Democratic New York City.  After an extraordinary year of debates, caucuses, primaries, VP picks, conventions, more debates, non-plumber plumbers, and so on, it looks like things might go our way.  The chilly autumn* air and the passing of daylight savings time add to the subtly electric vibe around town (and "subtly electric vibe around town" isn't quite the phrase I'm looking for; the phrase I'm looking for expresses roughly what "subtly electric vibe around town" expresses, but in a less hackneyed way).

Or maybe it's just me.  Obama is not going to be the next president of the United States.  He might be the next president of the United States.  There's a pretty good chance that he'll be the next president of the United States.  If his future presidency were a foregone conclusion, I suppose that there wouldn't be this excitement in the air, if there is excitement in the air, if it's not just in my head.  "Cautiously nauseous" is how an Obama staffer described the mood within the Obama campaign to Politico this morning (the staffer probably meant "nauseated," but whatever; it's a mood/condition I can identify with given the evil, evil -- fucking evil, I'm telling you -- case of Montezuma's Revenge I picked up in Mexico, but more on that later).

So... here's to a tall election...

*I said "autumn" instead of "fall" because my friend SW, who is English, finds it annoying that Americans refer to the season following summer as "fall" instead of as "autumn."  She -- SW -- is sometimes given to generalization (but aren't we all, really); the truth, of course, is that we use both.  (And they -- Brits -- put Marmite on their toast and eat dishes such as "eggy bread," so who is/are she/they to criticize us about trivial things like this anyway?)  But whatever: SW, if you actually do read my blog, you're welcome to thank me for accomodating you.