Ho-hum (2 of 2): Obama volunteering.

The best part of going down to Indiana on Sunday to volunteer for Obama was breakfast. I went to this diner place located just down the street from the campaign office, and the waitresses were all old white ladies who smoked too much and younger, plump Mexican women. I sat at the counter, and I could see they had two calendars above the work station: one from their meat distributor that featured a picture of a filet mignon for the month of October, and the other from some wildlife organization, featuring a wolf. I got the steak and eggs, and enjoyed it.

(I've always enjoyed eating out when I'm down there... The last time I went to this local burger chain and got a burger and some homemade stuffed pepper soup. I told the kind-of-fat, slightly-older-than-me female cashier it was good, and she said that I should come in the next time they make cream of potato soup, and that though it's good just plain, I should put nacho cheese in it like she does, since it makes it better.)

Canvassing I didn't notice much, except that the undecideds seemed to be Republican-leaning people who are disgusted with McCain, and that the Dems are hepped up to vote and will wait in line no matter what. If there's long lines on election day, I bet a lot of the Republican-leaning independents will stay away, though I have no idea of how fired up the die-hard Republicans are, we never go knocking on their door.

When I got back to the office, I ended up doing data entry for a while, and I kept coming across these fantastic names, but only like 2/3 of the way through I decided to start writing them down:

Sietika
Katanya
Ammetta
Cheneen
Tanisha
Monique
Tamaris
Marshina
Laurentha
Kanita
Latesha
Tukieda
Chanita
Lavora
Aisha
Chante
Lakesha
Lakimber
Nakesha
Carletta
Virlean
Deona
Evelen
Melony
Lakeya
Willodean
Zeeshan
Loria
Kadestric
Kareena
Mittie
Rashidah
Lelia
Vernice
Kianna
Darvell
Coriane
Delia
Tangie
Alisa
Kaprena
Melyne
Lelicia
Sharmaline
Parris
Lyntoya

I wonder if they would have fired me if they had caught me writing down the names... Can you believe that if I had had foresight and written them down from the beginning, I would have had three times as many names? It's interesting, how a lot in black culture unique names are given since it's seen as a way to honor how each child is a unique person. One could also do a lot linguistically on "permissible words" in a language - all of the names sound "English-y" to us, though we have never heard them before... The obvious thing to do is link them to the phonotactic structure in English, i.e. restrictions on what sounds appear where.

On another note, down in Indiana, I keep hearing this thing from vaguely-racist voters, that if (when!) Obama is elected, blacks will rise up/be unmanageable... This Hillary-supporting Mexican woman who's holding her nose to vote Obama since she can't stand Palin was telling me that the way she's treated in grocery stores by black clerks is only going to get worse, which is kind of like what this older woman a month ago was saying, that after the first black mayor ever was elected in Gary, in one week you went from having 2 to 18 street gangs.

As far as I can see, there's no way a canvasser can really meet that argument, since it's unfalsifiable predictions about the future. I wonder how many people think shit like this.