Sorry, folks. One of us is traveling, and the other is stuck in the ER with a leg injury. Neither situation is life-threatening, but neither situation lends itself to writing 5,000 words right now. We will definitely do a write-up of yesterday's rather explosive 1/6 committee hearing. Either it will be later today or we will push Friday's post to Saturday. We'll post an update here once we know more... (Z)

5:59 PT Update: As you probably figured out, (V) is the one who is traveling, and (Z) is the one who was in the ER. Note the verb tense of that sentence; (Z) was just discharged.

Exactly what happened is... well, something of a mystery. (Z) tries, and usually is able, to walk at least 10,000 steps per day. At approximately 11:45 p.m. last night, he walked to the store to pick up the final 1,000 steps needed for the day. This trip was uneventful. An hour later, while working on the blog, he felt a slight twinge in his right knee. An hour after that, which is to say around 2:00 a.m. ET, he could no longer bend that knee and could barely walk. Since he has had blood clots in his legs in the past, he headed to the ER.

In an effort to give it the old college try, (Z) took his laptop to the ER to try to get the day's posting done. However, they could not provide a table or a desk for his use. Further, they wrapped his left index finger in a device that monitors pulse. Trying to do the blog one-handed, with laptop perched perilously on a knee that's already in pain? Not so plausible. The single paragraph above, which is just 77 words, took 15 minutes to hammer out.

The doctor's diagnosis, when it came, was... rather vague. He described it as a "soft-tissue injury," and said there was nothing more he could do, and nothing more specific he could say. So, he gave (Z) a dose of painkillers, and sent him home with a knee brace, a pair of crutches, and an order to keep the knee immobile for a week. (Z) is sure as crap not going to cancel a week of lectures, so he'll have to find a solution to that problem by Monday. His first-ever lectures from a seated position are very likely.

It is not currently plausible for (Z) to complete the post now, loaded up with painkillers. This is not Breitbart; we need to be able to actually think. It will get finished eventually, but maybe not in time to be useful today. So, there is a very good chance that, as predicted, it will get pushed to Saturday.

In that event, we would appreciate your feedback on the Sunday post at the bottom of this page:

Today's Senate Polls

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) are still ahead, but not by so much. What is very strange, though, is that a new poll has Evan McMullin (I) ahead of Sen, Mike Lee (R-UT). We find that very unlikely, but we'll see if it sticks. (V)

State	Democrat	D %	Republican	R %	Start	End	Pollster
Arizona	Mark Kelly*	46%	Blake Masters	42%	Oct 11	Oct 11	InsiderAdvantage
Georgia	Raphael Warnock*	49%	Herschel Walker	46%	Oct 08	Oct 11	Civiqs
New York	Chuck Schumer*	52%	Joe Pinion	39%	Oct 03	Oct 06	Marist Coll.
Ohio	Tim Ryan	45%	J.D. Vance	46%	Oct 06	Oct 07	Emerson Coll.
Utah	Evan McMullin (I)	49%	Mike Lee*	43%	Oct 08	Oct 11	Hill Research

* Denotes incumbent

Thanks for your patience! (Z)

---

If you wish to contact us, please use one of these addresses. For the first two, please include your initials and city.

• questions@electoral-vote.com    For questions about politics, civics, history, etc. to be answered on a Saturday
• comments@electoral-vote.com   For "letters to the editor" for possible publication on a Sunday
• corrections@electoral-vote.com To tell us about typos or factual errors we should fix
• items@electoral-vote.com            For general suggestions, ideas, etc.

To download a poster about the site to hang up, please click here.

---

Email a link to a friend or share:

---The Votemaster and Zenger