Things started off badly today for the Reds when Manchester United were dumped out of the Carling Cup by Southend (who were playing in Blue). And it got steadily worse for the Reds over this side of the Atlantic during the day. I suspect a secret conspiracy by British neopagans to influence US elections through sympathetic magic.

Not that sorcery was the only trickery being practiced. After dinner Kevin and I walked down to the local Amtrak station to pick up a ticket Kevin had bought online. The automated ticket machine spat out a receipt telling Kevin that he had voted Republican.

And on the way home we encountered two suspicious-looking characters wearing domino masks. Obviously secret GOP operatives busy stealing votes. The fake striped tails didn’t fool us one bit.