I left my friend Jake's apartment on Capitol Hill at 8:45am, clutching my hard-won "silver section" inauguration ticket. Hat, gloves, long underwear, wool socks, sunglasses--perfectly equipped for five hours of 32 degrees, mostly sunny. We wound our way around the Capitol, exchanging anti-Bush witticisms with the passerby. At first, there were big, friendly signs: "Silver section -->." The signs happily directed us where we already knew we were supposed to go.

It's finally over. Just sayin'.

Today was long. We (my cousin and I) started our day outside of Allentown, PA, and drove south, stopping briefly to pick up Genghis near Philadelphia. Having never driven in DC before, I was glad to have someone in the car who knew where he was going. So, thanks G.

OK, so I didnt find a way to scrounge up an Inauguration ticket. I'm certainly not going to spend one of the most beautiful and meaningful weeks in recent memory being bitter. At least A-man and the Big O are making me feel like I'm there with their insanely comprehensive coverage (although how about a little more multimedia please!). In the meantime, as my own little contribution to the week's festivities, I hereby offer up a special Inauguration version of my Questions column. Now these are no fun without reader participation, so you need to contribute by answering!

In honor of the 44th President, this week I went looking for some songs about the good ole US of A. There’s actually a current ranking of patriotic songs, which I must admit seems a little bizarre. But people listen to the nose flute, so who am I to judge?

Crying update. Yesterday, I was overcome with emotion about Obama for the first time since November 5th. I've been searching for the video of Pam, who introduced Obama in Philadelphia at the kick-off of the whistle-stop tour. When I find it, I'll post it. Until then, you'll have to take my word for it. She was fantastic and my eyes filled with tears.

Since November 4th, serious Obama detractors have gone underground. Not as far underground as I would like them to be (think center of the earth), but they've been pretty quiet on the airwaves. Sure, there's still Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders bleating about one thing or another and there's still that guy that insists Obama was born in Kenya, but all in all, the negativity surrounding Obama has been with regard to the shit sandwich he is inheriting rather than the man himself.

I read The Audacity of Hope a few years back. Before that, I heard Barack Obama's 2004 convention speech and I followed his Senate campaign. I had only been gone from Chicago for two years at that point, and I still felt like Illinois politicians were my politicians. 

So I was watching next-day coverage of the Hudson River airplane crash on CNN today and at some point one of the anchors brings up God and says something to the effect, "And if you're not already religious, something like this may make you believe."

And it made me wonder,

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You know the recession is getting deep when we are creating interactive Monopoly games mocking it. After all it was the Great Depression which served us up the original top hat, monocle and thimble (or so one dag blogger so falsely convinced me).

It doesn't take much for a bank to make me happy. Give me online access, a good interest rate, a bunch of branches, and I'm all good. Heck, lately I'm just thrilled when my chosen banking institutions don't implode and go boom.

Are you the type of person that reads the last chapter first? I never, ever do that. Why ruin the ending? But to every rule, there must be an exception. At least that's what I'm telling myself today.

In the book, The American Presidency, edited by Alan Brinkley, I'm stuck in chapter 3, with Thomas Jefferson. There are just too many distractions and, well, it's not like Jefferson's story isn't going to be there when I decide to get back to it. 

To understand why the New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday's upset, we must first understand how they became the top-seeded NFC team in the first place. In the fall of 2007, the Giants were 0-2 and had gone 1-3 in the preseason. But in their third game of the season, they upset the Redskins and then kept on winning, ultimately defeating the Patriots to win the Superbowl. In 2008, they had another strong season, which earned them the top NFC seed.

So earlier this week, we discovered that several daggers - perhaps even a majority - do not believe Curb Your Enthusiasm is funny. One of my co-bloggers was perhaps the most strident of the Curb-haters, calling the show 'an atrocity' and Larry David the 'least funny on-screen performer ever given a screen on which to perform.' This made Mortimus mad, and trust me, you won't like Mortimus when he's angry (I've put the big green guy on tilt at poker several times and barely survived to tell the tale).

Our resident Czech, Codegen86, tells me that I should spend several weeks sampling Czech music before reaching any sort of general conclusion, and I think he is probably right. But I just don't have that kind of time! I've at least been able to identify what I would consider three different broad categories of modern Czech music, though I'm sure I'm leaving many out.

Is an evangelist!

I see playing football at Florida as a ministry and opportunity to share my faith even more. It's a chance to be a missionary without the title. (Tim Tebow)

Oh yeah, he's also coming back for his senior year.

At least now, there never has to be a movie with Rodney Dangerfield playing the president.

OK, I'm about to reveal - at no charge to you - the secret of success, in all aspects of life.

Pay close attention ... No, that's not the secret, I'm just letting you know you should pay attention because I'm about to reveal the secret.

You ready??? You sure?? Are you sitting down?? Notebook in hand???

Ok, ok, alright already, here it is (commence drum roll)....

------------->>>>>> REJECT REJECTION <<<<<<-------------

Near the start of the military offensive against Hamas, Orlando sparked a spirited but civil debate with the question, "What is Israel thinking?" I argued one strategic goal was to drive a deeper wedge between the West Bank and Gaza, by forcing Egypt to open its Rafah crossing to refugees and wounded and take on the task of supplying food, fuel and medicine. If all Gaza's lifelines ran through Egypt, Israel could make the claim it is no longer the occupying power.

It's good to see Krazee-Eyez Killa branching out.  Maybe you've seen his subway ads for the Eye Bank of New York.

What's next Michael Chiklis for the Hair Club for Men?