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I am asking for your help, regulars and newbies, in writing my Thanksgiving Day column.  It will be your answers to the following broad question:

What are you thankful for?

Please write something from your heart, rather than from those liberal/conservative/atheist/fundamentalist/cynic/sexist/hunter/animal-rights activist/sarcastic, etc parts of your head.

Please DON'T tell us why you are happy that a Democrat is at long last in the White House, or why you're thankful that the GOP has reasserted itself in Virginia elections, or because abortion is legal or that you're thankful for Virginia's upcoming concealed weapons in bars legislation or any of those other like things.

A couple of notes:

1) Keep your entries to 50 words, give or take a few, and post them as comments to this blog, or in private emails to me at this link. Or, at dan(dot)casey(at)roanoke(dot)com with the subject line Thankful.

2) At the end of your 50 words include your first and last name and locality and state, like this: Dan Casey, Roanoke, Va. (I will not publish stuff in the column without a full name & locality.)

I will sort through these beginning Friday Nov. 20 and cull a wide-ranging bunch of heartfelt stuff for the column that appears on Thanksgiving.

I'll tell you one thing I'm thankful for: That I have a bunch of earnest and passionate readers of this blog who will help me write that day's column.

Cheers, and let's see the thanks pour in!

--dan

Do we have a winner in the contest to predict the GOP's combined margin of victory in Tuesday's elections?

Maybe, though we may be heading into tie-breaker territory once all the numbers are in.

Right now it appears that the combined margin of victory for the Republican statewide candidates is 45 percentage points.

Here's the breakdown:

• McDonnell 59, Deeds 41 --   18 pts
• Bowling 56, Wagner 44   --   12 pts
• Cucinelli 57, Shannon 42 --  15 pts
• Total.......................................... 45 pts

That would put contest entrant Lynda K, who cringed as she guessed a combined 42-point margin, as the person with the closest estimate.

She barely edged Mark Johnson, who guessed a combined 49-point margin.

But those numbers, from the State Board of Elections, are with 98 percent of the vote tabulated, and could still fluctuate a bit. A 1-point gain by any one of the GOP candidates would throw the contest into coin-flip territory, and 2 points would mean Johnson is the victor. So we'll wait for the final tabulated results.

Congrats to both Lynda and Mark -- smart guessing!

The ultimate victor gets bragging rights as the political guru of this blog, PLUS a hilarious and nifty tome called "Obama's Blackberry."

You can see a small bit of what's in that book here.

And congrats to the Republican victors as well. They cleaned the Democrats' clocks.

Locality-by-locality breakdown of the 2008 presidential election in Virginia / Wikipedia

Virginia Republicans appear so confident of a sweep of the state's top three offices that Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, the GOP's candidate for attorney general, brazenly carried a broom all over the commonwealth during Halloween weekend.

If the Republicans manage to avoid winning Tuesday, Cuccinelli's act will go down in Virginia history as the epitome of overconfidence. But when you look at the polls, you can understand his chutzpah.

So let's play a little election game here: I want you to guess the combined percentage by which one party will beat the other in the race for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Here's how it will work: Add up the percentage gap between the candidates and tell me which party will come out ahead, and by how much. Your entry will be the name of a party and a number, like this: Republicans, 27 percent.

Here's how to calculate your entry:

• Governor: Bob McDonnell 59 percent, Creigh Deeds 41 - gap equals 18
• Lt. Governor: Bill Bolling 54 percent , Jody Wagner 46 -  gap equals 8
• AG: Ken Cuccinelli, 69 percent, Steve Shannon, 31 - the gap equals 38

Thus, your entry would be Republicans, 64 percent (18+8+38).

Note that if you predict the Democrats will win one of the races, that would be a negative number when adding up the percentages. Thus:

• Governor: Bob McDonnell 59 percent, Creigh Deeds 41 - gap equals 18
• Lt. Governor: Bill Bolling 54 percent , Jody Wagner 46 -  gap equals 8
• AG: Steve Shannon 52 percent, Ken Cuccinelli 48 - the gap equals 4 (which counts as -4 when you add up your totals).

Thus, your entry would be Republicans, 22 percent  (18+8-4).

The winner will get bragging rights as the political guru of this blog. And a book, as yet undetermined, that will have some bearing on politics.

Rules:

1. Post your entry as a comment to this post.
2. No entries will be accepted after 7 p.m. Tuesday
3. In the event of a tie, I'll draw the winner's name from a hat

The contest begins NOW!

State Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax

First, State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli accused me of "Catholic baiting."

Then, during a recent debate in Richmond, the GOP's candidate for attorney general accused his Democratic opponent, Del. Steve Shannon, of "race baiting."

Now, the baiting stuff is heating up in a rather entertaining way! The most recent evident of that is this morning's post by Hank Bostwick on Star City Harbinger.

Next, Cuccinelli may be accusing Bostwick of sodomy baiting, or something similar. Or maybe The Cooch will sue SCH for libel for calling him a "cunning linguist." That sounds darn close "sodomite." From SCH:

Cuccinelli, like Van Jones or David Duke, is free to have any radical opinions he wants. This is America–the cradle of it, actually. I mean, we’re about to have a governor who ‘once’ had rather narrow views on the equality of women, to put it mildly. People can tolerate a lot.

But to advocate for a view of the law which allows for the criminality of consensual sexual conduct among adults loosely defined as a ‘homosexual act’ is fundamentally unjust (presumably a ‘homosexual act’ could mean any act by one who is homosexual).

You've got to hand it to David Letterman, right? He's managed to turn blackmail (of which is a victim, allegedly) and serial infidelity (of which he is a perpetrator) into something that's uncomfortably funny, sad, weirdly admirable and is a huge ratings boon -- all at the same time.

Now THAT is a hat trick.

During Monday night's monologue, Dave uttered the magic words: "Right now I’d give anything to be hiking the Appalachian Trail.”

Bingo!

Which calls to mind our contest, still unwon despite dozens of entries, seeking nominations for the next national politician/government official to publicly admit to cheating, or, a la South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, "hiking the Appalachian Trail."

It is still not too late to enter. Hint, hint. You can do that here.

Remember, we have TWO great prizes:

The grand prize is "The Best of the Appalachian Trail Overnight Hikes" 2nd Edition (Menasha Ridge Press, 2007) by Victoria Logue, Frank Logue and Leonard M. Adkins. It will be autographed by Adkins, an outdoors writer who has thru hiked the AT five times and blogs at habitualhiker.com.

The runner-up wins "Sex Scandal America - Politics and the Ritual of Public Shaming" (The Key Publishing House Inc., 2009) by David Rosen. It bills itself as "a comprehensive history of sexual scandals in America from colonial times (including Pocahontas and the Puritans) to today."

It's a little shocking we haven't produced a winner by now. Perhaps our national political leadership took a mass vow of celibacy after that nasty run of confessions by former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, Louisiana Sen. David Visser, Sanford, and Nevada Sen. John Ensign.

For awhile they were falling like toy soldiers, you know?

Enter the contest. It costs nothing. The rules are here. And do it on the contest  post, not this one (it's easier to keep track of that way).

Happy philanderer hunting, folks!

UPDATE: Gawker has some nominations for who the next public-official confessor might be. There's still time to enter most of those names!

We've had two more last-minute entries in the 'gun lovers and their guns' contest, plus one tongue-in-cheek entry from a local keyboard slinger that came in after the deadline.

The latter may soon have People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals breathing down his neck if he continues shooting his dayglo green squirt gun at his cats.

I'll draw the winner's email later today and contact him for mailing information. If he doesn't mind me using his name, I'll announce that Friday morning.

Squirt gunner -- disqualified

Roanoke, Va.

Roanoke, Va.

Win a copy of this book!

Well, folks, we have had exactly 2 entries to a little contest soliciting pictures of gun lovers and their guns.

Which means, unless we get any more by midnight, that I'll decide who wins a copy of American Rifle: A Biography with a coin flip rather than drawing an email address out of a hat.

I have to confess that I was excited when I began this little contest. I saw it as a way to reward gun lovers for the many hundreds of comments they've posted to this board (most of them disagreed with me -- but hey?).

I thought you folks would be proud to show off your weapons. I sure was wrong about that. (Except for this guy and this guy).

Instead, despite the fact that I explicitly promised not to use your name, and though there never was any requirement that your face be in the picture, I got comments and emails suggesting that others saw some nefarious plot at work.

Was I (gasp!) working in concert with Roanoke Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal, to compile a database that could be used to seize guns at a later date?

No. I merely wanted to compile a slideshow of proud gun owners and their guns.

I wonder if I would have done better if I'd asked for pictures of bathtub chemists and their meth labs, or something.

Anyway, there's still time to enter!

Send me the pix of you and your gun (no face required) by 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

Here are the rules if you're interested.

Steyr Free Pistol; Northern Virginia

Here's the first, and so far only, entry in our photo contest for gun lovers and their guns.

The man pictured on the left is a shooting sports champion from Northern Virginia; he writes that the gun is a Steyr Free pistol that uses normal .22-caliber ammunition.  The term "free" refers to a lack of restrictions on the gun's size, weight, and trigger pull.

There is still plenty of time for more entries, folks.

See this post for how to enter. The deadline is 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. On that day, I'll draw one entrant's name from a hat and reward that lucky gun owner with a copy of "American Rifle: A Biography" by Alexander Rose.

Win a copy of this book!

I have in my gun-virgin hands a shiny, new large-format paperback version of Alexander Rose's "American Rifle - A Biography."

And it is destined for a bookshelf owned by one of you loyal readers of this blog.

The Economist called it the 'Best Book of  the Year' in 2008. American Rifleman wrote: "Simply brilliantly written." And National Review called it, "One of the most interesting nonfiction books of the year."

Here's what I want from you: A picture of you and your favorite gun, which will be presented in an online  gallery on roanoke.com

Send me your photo attached to an email with the subject line "gun lover" using this link.

(If that doesn't work, you can send me one at dan(dot)casey(at)roanoke(dot)com).

I'll accept your entries through 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. On that day, I'll put all the email addresses in a hat and draw one, then contact the winner for mailing information.

At some subsequent date, roanoke.com will present the gallery.

Notes:

1. Please send this to folks you know who may be interested, or feel free to post this on other firearms-related blogs.
2. I don't need your names, but I would like city and state information. Such as: Roanoke, Va. or Peoria, Ill.
3. Only entries I receive by 12:01 a.m. Thursday Sept. 24 will be eligible for the drawing.
4. The first few entries I may present on this blog, as a way to encourage more entries.

Calif. Assemblyman Mike Duvall

Did you hear the one about the California Assemblyman who bragged in bodily-fluids detail about his sexual exploits with a much-younger female lobbyist?

On an open mic?

It's no joke. Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Orange County, resigned today. Go here for all the tawdry details. Or here.

Unfortunately, nobody guessed Duvall's name in our big contest to predict the next American pol who, a la South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, 'takes a hike on the Appalachian Trail.'

That, by the way, is a euphemism for the next national politician or high government official who resigns after being caught in a sex scandal. (Duvall didn't fit the contest rules, although I guess he is a national figure, now.)

But, Duvall is a good excuse for me to encourage you to vote -- because neither of our great prizes has been won. So get your votes in today, folks!

Click here for the rules and the prizes in our 'hiking the Appalachian Trail' contest.