There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire, some hold only in their youth and a few hold to the end of their days—the conviction that ideas matter….And the radiance of that certainty, in the process of growing up, is the best prospect of youth.

—“Inexplicable Personal Alchemy,” 1969

Joe McGinniss said he is sure Palin will run for president. “Everything she’s doing is geared to that,” he said, “And she wants to be president. And God wants her to be president, so how can she say no?”

Joe McGinniss, Sara and Todd Palin’s neighbor for three months on Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, left Alaska for his home in Massachusetts to write a book. Joe did not peek over Palin’s wall in the three months he spent as her neighbor nor did he have any listening devices. I have a hunch his book will sell.

The good news I read in an editorial in the Sunday Star Tribune indicating Tom Horner has a solid budget plan for the governor’s race and he is gathering momentum. “Tom Horner ranks as a serious contender, and he deserves full consideration.” He was endorsed Monday by Arne Carlson.

I had a phone call from Gary Irwin who was in town for a class reunion (I won’t say which one) and he shared the good time he had with classmates at the country club. My “big” brother missed it and I suspect Gary connected with him once I gave him his phone number.

Gary’s call came shortly after I returned from attending the 16th Sunday after Pentecost at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ostrander where I had driven Karl Dalager, one of my favorite ministers, who invites you to think and smile. I forgot to ask Karl what the 16th Sunday after Pentecost stood for.

I used to work with edgy students is the school in Ostrander that was a bit challenging and I have stopped on the main drag for a bite to eat and endless pop corn and an occasional bite to eat. Why I can’t remember the name of the place is no surprise to me however I think it might be “Rosie’s Cantina” or someone’s Cantina.

I do know Saturday was the anniversary of 9-11 that will always be remembered. These are difficult times we live in where conflict, I hope, will begin to lose ground. I’m reading a book on Obama that describes his history as well as his thinking.

“Inside Obama’s Brain,” the book, contains a passage where Barack was admitted to a select group of poker-playing senators, an all-male, bipartisan club that met for evenings of card games at the house of state senator Terry Link. How did he get admitted to the game? Well, says Dennis Jacobs, “Barack has that easy little laugh, that easy little smile. Let’s call it his winning smile. He’s an easygoing guy who isn’t afraid to say, ‘Hey, I understand you play a little poker. Let’s get together and play a little poker.’ He gives you that little smile and says, ‘Yeah, I’m on.’ And they say, ‘Yeah, you’re on,’ and include him in. The guy, he’s just a guy; and coming from my vernacular and my area, where I was born and raised, to me that’s number one. If you’re just a good old guy or a good old gal, that’s what you are. And that’s what President Barack is, he’s just a good guy.”

I think Hubert Humphrey may have had a bit of that in him.

As for Miss Mello, at the moment she is attempting to pull the couch cover off the couch, one of her joys. Now she is chewing on a junk of hollow bone that she was presented Sunday night. She has another one she had buried on the other couch cover that she’s bringing out to chew.

Mello is pretty consistent in her efforts to annoy the cats. Ptolme does his best to climb up on the dining room table or sneak under a dresser. Echo chooses to befriend Mello, if one dare call it that.

She spends her outdoor time carousing in the neighbor’s driveway and looking for another neighbor’s male dog she is quite enamored with. He is not willing to come to the fence yet to greet Mello who is making her whimsical sounds. Sometimes he responds.

Mello rarely barks outside. She saves that for inside.

I will be looking forward to Joe McGinniss’s book.