Knock-knock-knockin'

Someone at the Knight Ridder bureau out in D.C. stole an employee's Reagan bust and toy elephants, according to an e-mail I just received. Clearly the nation remains divided.

Or maybe not so much, under the surface. Spent last light at Block Party U.S.A., Wichita's only seven-day-a-week karaoke bar. No political discussion whatsoever, and I myself was much more focused on my rendition of the Gun 'n' Roses version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" than the oh-so-fresh wounds of the presidential campaign. The song went well -- lots of military and aviation people there, and many of them held up lighters to my pitch-perfect impersonation of Axl Rose. That, of course, was of no significance to the wider world, where the concession speech was made, the headlines were written, and the news washed away as the common people of Wichita prepared to sing Tricia Yearwood to one another regardless of political affiliation. Whether you think all this was a good or bad thing probably depends on your opinions on the election, the spectator nature of American political participation, the nonspectator nature of karaoke and the sacredness of the Rose oeuvre. But that's how it is, and that's how life plays out.

Hey, hey, hey-hey yeah ...

The immediate aftermath phone calls have trailed off, and I'm guessing that GOPers are moving ahead while Dems pick up the pieces. I'm heading back to D.C. Saturday, and I expect to be fascinated by the shifts going on all around town. It's an exciting place, though I doubt anyone out there sings quite like they do at Block Party U.S.A.