Bluest of them all?

Not quite, but based on the recent Presidential Election, Rhode Island is closer to indigo than sky. Rhody ranked third in states showing the greatest margin of victory for President-Elect Obama (28 percent), just behind Hawaii (Obama's native state) and Vermont and just ahead of Massachusetts and New York. By contrast, McCain's largest margin of victory came in Wyoming and Oklahoma, with Utah a solid third and Idaho and Alaska also seeing red. Local Republicans are frustrated by the ritualistic dominance of Dems, but they're at a symbolic disadvantage since the last thing you ever want to see in an Ocean State is a red tide.

Decision '08

Sign of the times: Java giant Starbucks offered free coffee to anyone who votes today, then had to pull the promotion after discovering that the give-away could violate federal election laws. So the company decided to hand out a free "tall brewed coffee" to anyone who walks through the door, voters, non-voters and anarchists alike. The upshot? This morning the lines at any Starbucks are longer than the lines at the polls. My experience voting in Barrington: No line, voted in less than 2 minutes. My experience trying to get coffee in Wakefield: Line out the door into the parking lot with an anticipated 45-minute wait surrounded by people ordering their free tall brewed coffee along with something called a venti double half-caf extra foamy with legs.

Halloween Edition

Only in Rhode Island could two Roto-Rooter plumbers become famous as TV ghost hunters. But Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, who head up The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), are now enjoying their fourth season stalking spirits on the Sci-Fi Channel series, "Ghost Hunters." When moonlighting they trade their plumbers' snakes and Drano for white noise generators, ion generators and thermal imaging cameras to investigate the paranormal around the country. Got ectoplasm?

Ocean State Job Not

The news gets grimmer in Rhode Island, a state that has earned a blue ribbon for black clouds. Yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released figures that ranked Rhody worst in the nation for joblessness. Unemployment reached 8.8 percent in September, the highest rate in the country. Even worse, the figures were compiled before the recent nationwide financial collapse, indicating that more bad news can be expected next month. The signs are equally gloomy locally. At the Jonnycake Center in Peace Dale, the number of families enrolled in its emergency meals program has already risen from 261 last year to 905 today, a number that is expected to grow to more than 1,000 before year’s end. And the good times keep on rolling here in Phil Gramm’s “mental recession”…

Rhody's rank

Another survey, another reason for Rhode Islanders to cringe. Recently the Yahoo! Finance section reported figures provided by Business Week ranking the states according to their budget shortfalls in tax revenue. The data, based on a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, indicates that Rhode Island has the fifth-worst budget gap in the nation by percentage. Rhody is $430 million in the hole, which represents 13.1 percent of its total budget. The report was completed long before the stock market plunge and financial bailout, factors that will continue to adversely affect federal, state and municipal budgets for months, if not years. Here’s the thumbnail critique:

Rhode Island’s economy has been weakened by its housing market, one of the worst in the nation. Lawmakers are trying to make up for a $430 million shortfall in their budget with proposed cuts to the public college system and aid for municipalities, as well as tighter limits on welfare benefits.

The only four states in worse shape than Rhode Island? California (-$22.2 billion, a budget gap of 22 percent); Arizona (-$2 billion, 19.9 percent); Florida (-$5.1 billion, 19.9 percent); and Nevada (-$1.2 billion, 16 percent).

Fall color

Two oddities about New England’s most glorious season: First, Rhode Island grows the biggest pumpkins in the world. Two years ago Ron Wallace of Greene set a world record with a 1,502-pound pumpkin. The results were made official at the Rhode Island Weigh-Off at a farm along the Kickemuit River in Warren - which means that the smallest town in the smallest county in the smallest state in the country hosted the world’s biggest gourd. Another Rhode Islander, Joe Jutras of North Scituate, shattered the record last year, weighing in with a 1,689-pound pumpkin at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts.

And this from a national telephone survey by Plow & Hearth: Among the questions asked: ‘What is your favorite fall foliage color?’

Red and orange led in preference (36 percent each) followed by yellow (14 percent) and brown (11 percent). Those living in the Midwest are most likely to choose red or orange (38 percent each), while North-Easterners are most likely to choose orange (44 percent). Those on the West Coast are most likely to like yellow (20 percent), and Southerners have the highest propensity to like brown (16 percent).

Veteran New England foliage seekers might prefer to choose more precisely among crimson, maroon, purple, rust, russet, copper, bronze, gold, raw umber and burnt sienna. The color is already peaking in parts of South County. Red maples and bright orange poison sumac are bursting from the swamps while the white ash blush a rusty maroon along the streams and uplands. Beech and quaking aspen, oak and sugar maple, hickory and black birch, tupelo and sassafras will add to the drama as the color hangs on deep into November in Rhode Island. Look for the Norway maples to make the final bugle call of autumn with a blast of brassy yellow.

Size Cliche Police

The blog has been sluggish lately, but we'll perk up a bit this week. First up: The latest "size of Rhode Island" catch. This one appeared in a blog entry by Stanley Fish on NYTimes.com. Titled "Buttons and Bows," the posting discussed the pros and cons of recent decisions in New York and Illinois to ban teachers from wearing political buttons or putting political bumper stickers on their cars.

He writes: "It is silly (and unconstitutional) to dictate what faculty members can put on their cars, especially at a state university like Illinois where the parking lots are the size of Rhode Island and the odds of a student knowing which car belongs to which professor are next to nothing."

So no Obama. No Nobama. No lipstick and pigs. No Women for Palin. No Women against Palin. No W with or without the line through it. My old Something's Bruin in Providence sticker is still good, though.