Apparently tonight was also "Idol Gives Back", which basically meant the night was one big telethon. I don't really do telethons. Jack Black was funny. For the most part we fast forwarded.

The only real "hook" for the show was that Ryan promised a *shocking* result to the end of the vote. Based on how calm everybody was, and how they didn't really focus on the bottom two as the show progressed, you sort of knew what was going to happen. When it came down to Chris R and Jordin as the bottom two and Chris was safe, I told Kerry, "The shock is going to be that no one's going home." Sure enough, that's exactly what they did. This week is about the telethon and the money, not the elimination.

Next week, though, *two* people are going home. That's going to be brutal. I'm waiting to see Chris R go. It bugs me that he's probably going to stick around long enough to knock out somebody who I like (like Blake).

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Yeah, hotel was pretty lousy too. If there were only a web site of some sort where I could go and give my review!

So while in DC I stopped at a few gift shops (hotel and airport, 'natch) to grab some stuff for the family. It's interesting to play the game of political souvenirs, because for every "Clinton in 2008!" shirt there's a "Dear God, Another Clinton??" shirt. Repeat for all presidential candidates, as well as the current president. I was wondering if you could survey the feelings of the shopkeeper based on the amount and distribution of the merchandise. That is, do all the pro-Bush items get the best displays?

Anyway. At the hotel gift shop, next to the cash register was a basket of candidate buttons. You know, the "Edwards in 08!" or "Vote Romney!" sort of thing. All basically the same size, all either red or blue, and basically just a big basket of buttons that appeared to all come from the same source. I asked the lady behind the register, "Which button sells the most?"

"There's no Barrack Obama in that basket," she said. "He's sold out."

She was right. There you go. Quick political poll. I thought for a minute, as per my comments above, that an anti-Obama shop could simply choose not to put his buttons out, but if that was the case then she wouldn't tell me that he was sold out and make him out to be the most popular.

(To be completely honest about the story I've translated pretty heavy for the poor woman who had trouble with her English. What she really said was something more along the lines of "Which one is black? His buttons all gone." Earlier when I'd walked into the shop I asked, "Do you have any sort of coloring books that I could take home to my kids?" and she said, "You want t-shirt?")