Just Rambling

--As the early returns begin rolling in in today's primaries (and one primary/caucuss), I don't understand how they report on these things. In Ohio, there is 0% of precincts reporting yet Clinton somehow has a 56-42% lead. What is 56% of zero? In Vermont, the polls were closed all of 15 minutes before the state was declared a victory for Obama. How is this possible? I know, exit polls, right? So how is it that in every local, state, or national election I've ever cast a vote in, I've not once been exit-polled? What I also don't understand is how accurate this early reporting seems to be. Not once in this primary race has either candidate won a state where the news outlets had them trailing initially. Not even when it was 0% of precincts reporting. I just don't get it. That being said, come on Ohio. 56-42? Really? Was the do-it-for-the-children ad really that compelling?

--I just started reading "Independence Day," by Richard Ford, the sequel to Ford's "The Sportswriter," my second favorite book of all-time. I'm only two chapters in and very little has actually happened plotwise (see nothing), but I am loving every single sentence of it. I am no literary critic, not by a longshot, but I can say that Ford's writing "voice" is one that completely captivates me. I think it only accentuates it that both books are written in the first person as told by the main character, Frank Bascombe. It's like a Morgan Freeman voiceover in a movie; he could read the ingredients to a box of instant mashed potatoes and it would seem like the most interesting thing in the world. Ford's confident, insiteful, strolling narration of Frank Bascombe taking stock of his life has that same comfortable, broken-in feel. And I'm only on chapter 2 with hundreds more pages (and a whole third book) to go. Lucky for me. I've deliberately waited a while after finishing "The Sportswriter" before starting "Independence Day" because I know there's only three books in total. I gotta ration 'em, ya see.