Then I was asked my plans for Halloween. I said I'd picked a disguise that no one would associate with me, a mentally healthy, well-balanced individual. ... I'm not worried about having Republicans running the House of Representatives and Democrats the Senate. A bunch of people with totally opposite ideas who can't stand each other? That's Thanksgiving Dinner for a lot of Americans. We know how to deal with that. The men stay in the living room and watch football and the women go to the kitchen to chat and do dishes. ... Republicans are planning on throwing out the Obama healthcare plan. In preparation, they are calling for an "HMO Appreciation Day" to celebrate our current system and those beloved folks who make decisions about treatment. The more capitalistic-oriented plan will offer discounts on operations and coupons good for low-fat meals at any participating Macdonald's ... When the GOP formally takes over the house, former VP Dick Cheney will be invited to throw out the first finger at the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi will be given a seat in the corner and told to stay there until she can behave. And Barney Frank will speak very kindly to the new speaker. ... Our area finally got TV channels 5 and 9 back after News Corp and Cablevision came to some agreement. Instead of running programs, all those two stations had was the same monotonous message about how unfair News Corp. was. I couldn't see much difference in the programming.