can you find the 44th president??

loucypher wondered if his 11-year old daughter appreciated the historic importance of this day.
- do you know what today is, annie? why it's so important for our country?
- cos a man from delaware will be in the white house?
das what i'm sayin'.

cokie roberts mused on Morning Edition how this peacefully staged transfer of power, literally from the hands of the outgoing POTUS into the new, is unique to this country. john adams was one of the few outgoing leaders who bailed on on the inauguration -- he slunk out of town the night before his rival thomas jefferson assumed power.

in situations like these, the whackjobs will inevitably surface. this weekend i waited for 15min in a checkout line at EMS as the woman in front of me racked up over $1200 in freeze-dried food and a 2-person tent. making small talk while scanning the 50th bag of Mountain House beef stroganoff, the cashier asked the woman where she was camping. in her backyard, turns out. why?? because she's convinced bush will not cede the presidency and instead will declare a state of emergency and put us all under military rule while he crushes the obama insurgency. our lady of perpetual stroganoff plans to hunker down in that tent with her 10yo german shepherd and stendhal's The Red and the Black which she's always wanted to read.

i'm all for a long sit with a good read but let's hope our lady's off her weetabix and in 3hrs we begin to wipe away the shit of the last 8 years. and the bees come back.