Andrews finally got her debate, and watched Graham revive the president's slur live.

…(cont) Here's what I've got written down, and you can check me on the dates, because I went back and got them straightened out myself. Senator Darline Graham put out a post on September 12th — that's a Friday — saying "I'm in," that she'd debate her opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews, on October 11th, and that once she got there she'd "expose Annie Andrews' radical positions." The Hill's story, same day, says she agreed "after challenger pushes for more" — those are the paper's words, not mine, I'm just reading off the page. How long the pushing went on before that, I don't know, and the clipping doesn't say either, so I'm not going to sit here and guess at it. I've just got the day she said yes.

Then I've got October 5th. Different clipping. The president, on social media, calling her opponent "Annie 'Trannie' Andrews," more than once, bringing up Senator Graham's late brother while he did it. I'm not saying anything about that one. I'm just saying it's dated, and the date on it comes before the debate, not after.

Then October 11th — a Sunday, the paper agrees with itself on that much — the debate happens, the one she'd said yes to back in September. The write-ups came in the next morning, and they don't all agree on the particulars — one says she tied the doctor to the Democratic Socialists of America by name, another says the two of them had already been going at it on social media before either one sat down — but there's a word that shows up in more than one of them, and it's "despicable," and both campaigns are using it about the other, now, after the fact.

Twenty-nine days. That's what I get counting from the 12th to the 11th — a day short of a month, four weeks if you're rounding generous, not three, I checked it twice against the calendar my wife keeps tacked up by the stove, because I didn't trust my own arithmetic the first time through. Twenty-nine days between the yes and whatever it was that happened on that stage.

I take the toll road out past the county line most Thursdays, the one that doesn't take cash anymore, just the transponder, and the bill doesn't show up till the end of the month — and when it does, it's got the date of the trip printed on it, not the date you decided you were taking 95 instead of the back road. The trip's what's on the bill. Not the plan you had going in.

Oh — hold on. My cousin, the one who does upholstery, called while I was finishing this, wanted to know one thing since I had the dates spread out on the table anyway: if both campaigns are calling the same exchange despicable now, whose invitation was it?