2000-11-09 - 6:34 p.m.

My favorite election night quote: "My candidate has GOT to win, because my football team is having a lousy year."

My favorite modern convenience of the day: Pre-peeled, pre-segmented mandarin orange slices. They were on sale at Kroger - just what a gal needs for tossing together a weekday salad.

My favorite web article of the day: Timothy Noah's proposal on Slate that Al Gore be considered for the presidency of Harvard.

My favorite find of the day: a new children's novel by Bill Richardson, whose Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast anthologies will always have a space in my bookcase. They are cozy and wistful and sweet and sometimes hilarious: think Prairie Home Companion set on an island somewhere near Vancouver.

My favorite beverage of the moment: a pot of Earl Grey tea, it being chilly, windy and rainy tonight.