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Here's hoping you all had a very fine Thanksgiving (if you're from a part of the world that celebrated the harvest this week, that is).

Prior to this national event, I visited our capital city on business and wound up meeting with the staffs of my Senators to ask for more funding for the humanities in the next budget. Very interesting to play the lobbying game (couldn't promise any Abramoff-level golf outings to Scotland, though), but most interesting was the visit to our junior senator, who was, shall we say, not invited by the voters to return next year. If you've ever wondered what playing out the clock looks like in Congress, that was it.

Then I got to go to a public lecture and ask Madeline Albright a question. Pretty good day all in all.