Some post-election coping methods... just as when the war began, I find the creative intelligence of art & music to be potent antidote for stupidity & violence: thousand-year-old buddhas & 20-year-old prints at the Asian Art Museum; a sweetly intimate sound performance by Loren Chasse at Berkeley Art Museum; Carla Bozulich's spine-chilling cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" closing out a set of mostly brand-new material at Cafe Du Nord's Swedish American Hall.

At home: Robert Johnson, Cat Power, & a fluffy new bathrobe... oops, one of these things is not like the others. Okay then, some things to keep the bathrobe company: potato-leek-celery root soup, Lagerfeld roses from the garden, perfect pears. Still on the jello thing too.