BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, OCT. 23-25, 2015) — Last night on PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION, Supercitizen Terry Kinnas helped relieve some of the wearisome monotony of the campaign season by declaring his write-in candidacy in Ward 4, opposing the incumbent Chris Connell.

Kinnas and Connell came on the show about halfway through, and after some questions from THE PLANET, we turned over the show to them. The ensuing discussion featured give-and-take far more interesting than anything thus far generated in this stodgy and monochromatic campaign. It was as much how they said it as what they said. Body language says a lot. That’s what we’re hoping for next week when Dan Bianchi and Linda Tyer meet for the final time. You’re going to see these two people in a way that none of the previous forums have allowed. They will be caught in the act of being themselves, as Allen Funt used to say each Sunday night on CBS.

Kinnas is dead serious about his write-in attempt, a long-shot to be sure. Family matters this summer prevented him from pursuing the traditional avenue to office. He was flying back and forth from Arizona so much that, based on inside information, THE PLANET bought heavily into Southwest Airlines.

Ca-chinga!

Kinnas Serious; Connell Surprised

All seriousness aside, though, as Steve Allen used to say, The Kinnas Effect bears watching. THE PLANET will lay our Davy Crocket iron-ons at the pas line in betting Kinnas beats the vote total of the two failed mayoral candidates in the September prelim. He might even top their combined total.

The question has already come up: How come you had Kinnas on “debating” Connell when you won’t have either of the two failed mayoral candidates from the preliminary, each of whom, allegedly, have declared “write-in” status. The answer is simple. The two collapsed candidates qualified for the September ballot. They presented their cases before the entire city, and they flopped. They bombed, being smacked down so low by voters that only their buttons got in the way of “lower.” The voters already had a chance to elect them and decided, decided 98 to 2, not to avail themselves of either.

Connell objected to Kinnas’ write-in attempt, initially calling it “illegal” in an earlier phone conversation. It was a casual, careless usage, but THE PLANET doesn’t believe Connell meant it literally. A write in candidacy isn’t, of course. State law provides for such a campaign. Connell said he preferred the “traditional” manner of getting on the ballot. He sees it as more “legitimate.” Later, he sent the following definition: “Legitimate according to Webster’s dictionary also means ‘conforming to recognized principles or ACCEPTABLE rules and standards.’ Thats what I inferred. We take our right honorable good friend at his word, but THE PLANET understood  his reaction to Kinnas’ 11th-hour move move as worry (perhaps even anger). Connell had been unopposed on the ballot and otherwise up until last night. The change in status seemed to fluster him.

Choice is Always Good

Thus, voters in Ward 4, attention. You now have a choice. For your information, a “write-in” vote is just what it says. When you go to the polls, you simply write in the candidate’s name in the space provided. It is tallied by hand, and should the write-in garner more votes than the candidate on the ballot, the write-in wins. Chances of that this late in the game aren’t good, but THE PLANET supports any effort to increase voter choice, especially from a candidate such as Kinnas, who truly is one of the champions of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, The Little Guys.

With that news, allow THE PLANET to share a poem and after that open The Comment Line. This is a love poem by the “scandalous” D. H. Lawrence:

DECEMBER NIGHT

Take off your cloak and your hat

And your shoes, and draw up at my hearth

Where woman never sat.

I have made the fire up bright;

Let us leave the rest in the dark

And sit by firelight. 

The wine is warm in the hearth;

The flickers come and go.

I will warm your limbs with kisses

Until they glow.

——– 000 ——–

What’s not to love?

We hereby declare The Comment Line open. You cannot be off  topic. You can only be off color, and if you try anything stupid, you will be banished if your lucky. If you are unlucky … well, as they used to say on Salem Street, “Two in the hat.”

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“Flip bang, what a hang. Your daddy just shot poor old me.” — Jimi Hendrix, “Wait Until Tomorrow,” from the album Axis:Bold as Love, (1968).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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