Dear Joyce:

Thanks for taking the time to check out the provenance of the “Mensa Invitational” list you then posted on your blog.

You’re so close, though.

The “blog post” (see below) you referred to was actually the introduction to one of the weekly contests of The Style Invitational, which I run.  And two Style Invitational contests from 1998 are the sources of many — but not all — of the neologisms in the lists above. (For example, “decafalon” isn’t a one-letter change from “decathlon,” is it? Or “caterpallor”?)  Much better to see the real thing — every week at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational.

The Style Invitational is a weekly humor/wordplay contest with unbelievably clever humor contributed by thousands of readers. It’s published every Saturday in The Post’s Style (features) section, and every Friday afternoon at about 3:30 Eastern. There are neologism contests regularly, but also lots of other sources of humor as well.

The results to be posted on Friday, Feb. 12, are for funny “rhopalic” sentences in which the successive word has to be one letter shorter than the last one. (Click on Week 856 to see the results.)

And last week’s results (Feb. 6, 2010) were for “shrunken” movie and book titles. The top winners:  The Fifth Sense: “I smell dead people.” (Adam and Russell Beland, Fairfax) The Mediocre Gatsby: The biography of Tareq Salahi. (Ira Allen, Bethesda) Slaughterhouse $4.99: A family gets to choose among beef, chicken and pork with all the trimmings — only at Denny’s! (Greg Arnold, Herndon)  Three Days of the Condom: Love on a shoestring. (Edmund Conti, Raleigh) See the rest of the winners at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational. Or you can become a fan of “Washington Post Style” on Facebook and you’ll get a link to the Invitational when it’s posted. I hope you pass this information on to your readers, and that you and they become regular readers and maybe even regular entrants.

Best, The Empress of The Style Invitational

This landed in my inbox today. It was identified as the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational, which asks readers to take any word from the dictionary,  alter it by adding,  subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply  a new definition.

But a quick Google search revealed that the Post takes no credit for it. On January 28, 2007, a WP blog post with the byline “The Empress” said the following:

“It still hasn’t stopped: With mystifying regularity, we continue to receive (often passed through several mailboxes at The Post) unsolicited entries to what’s sometimes called the “Mensa Invitational,” and most recently “Change a Letter, Change a Lot”: The results of Week 271 have continued to orbit in cyberspace for almost 10 years, picking up forwarders’ own efforts along the way. We hope these lost souls find us this week. This week’s contest: Take a word, term or name that begins with E, F, G or H; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two letters; and define the new word, as in the examples above, which got ink in 1998 and 2003.

I say, regardless of where it originated, it’s a hoot. Enjoy!

Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the

subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until

you  realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a  hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops

bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows

little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about  yourself for the purpose of

getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the

person who doesn’t get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these

really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s

like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day

consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when

they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after

you’ve accidentally walked through a spider  web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into

your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in

the fruit you’re eating.

The Washington Post

has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in

which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4 esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only

a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has

been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline..

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by  proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n.. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies

up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men

WESTFORD, Mass. – For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Livy’s best friend. I know that none of you were probably as close to her as I was before she died, and that’s why I’m standing here this morning.

I don’t want you to remember her as the picture you see in the newspaper or on the news everyday, I want you to remember her as if she was your best friend. I want you to know the little things that should never be forgotten.

Liv is the most understanding person I’ve ever met and the best listener by far. I can ramble on and on all day about the most random and uneventful stories, and she will still ask me questions and laugh. She’s dependable. I can text or call her at any time and she will always answer.

The only time she lets me down is if she hangs out with someone else besides me.

Liv loves chocolate, out of the two key chains she has, one is a Godiva membership and she always gets excited about her free truffle every month.

She loves to pick wild flowers from wherever we are and put them all over her car. She’ll leave the flowers there even when they become dry and shriveled, they’re still all over her car. She never wears makeup. Liv loves to be barefoot and go to the beach.

When she gets angry she likes to pick me up to drive around so we can listen to hardcore screamo music and pretend we know the words and yell along with it. When she tries to sing along to songs, she can never get the lyrics right but likes to pretend she knows them and just makes up words that sound similar or she’ll slowly trail off and just hum off key. When she laughs really hard she tears up and her cheeks hurt.

She can go to Kimballs and eat a large onion ring order herself with the usual barbeque sauce. Livy’s favorite color is purple and she loves the summer. Being outside is just a part of her; she’s not one to stay inside for long periods of time. She can finish a hemp necklace in 10 minutes. Liv is never fake, and you never know what you are going to get. She loves to cook, and knows all the fancy names for every cheese and tries to teach me but I can never seem to taste any difference. She loves to be with other people but also loves to read by herself outside just laying in the grass. She loves bonfires, summer or winter.

Liv loves to climb mountains and go camping, no matter what the weather is like. She likes to do her homework in the library with me because otherwise we end up getting distracted.

There are so many different things I could tell you about Liv, but there are things you listed too. Let’s start with the fact that Liv loved life. You said, Liv was lover, believer, independent, an eater, party animal, nature freak, friend, genius, helper, reader, shoulder to cry on, always smiling, gardener, baker, daughter, comic, cutie, crush, joker, kidder, loved one, goddess, savior, outgoing, individualistic, sincere, kind, optimistic, caring, real, hot, fun, silly, free, down to earth, successful, innocent, alive, generous, selfless, true, loved, deserving, missed, and remembered.

Liv loves her life and her family and is perfectly happy. You may never experience her physical being again but I just want you to know that she says she’s still here. She’s part of everything you do and she says that she’s had enough tears and wants you to get up and do everything you want and live your life. She’s there for you like she is always there for me, don’t forget.

Live for Liv.

By Joyce Pellino Crane

WESTFORD, Mass. – The bright smile was evident in every photo displayed on the oversized screen at an afternoon vigil memorializing Olivia Marchand, 17, who, police say, was the tragic victim of domestic violence.

Westford Academy students honored Marchand’s memory one final time, this afternoon, with a five-minute photo essay depicting their classmate from her elementary school days through her senior year—an effervescent girl surrounded by friends or nuzzling her horse Lola.

The assembly inside the school’s 850-seat Performing Arts Center drew so many mourners that it spilled over into a gymnasium.

Police say Marchand was shot with a 9 mm handgun by her father, Brian Marchand, 59, who also critically wounded his wife, Jody, 50, and then killed himself with a gunshot.

The tragedy stunned a quiet community that had just been rocked on January 9 by a similar crime, when police say, Frederick Leduc, 45, shot his wife Karen, 43, at their Forge Village Road home.

Leduc sustained a bullet wound to his chin and is recuperating, according to a spokesperson for Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone. Leduc is charged with first degree murcer.

The photos of Marchand capped a moving program that began with choral students singing an a cappella version of “I Believe” from the Broadway musical, “Spring Awakening,” and ended with her grandfather, Walter, “Wally” Toney, speaking extemporaneously about the granddaughter who was “the love of his life.”

“I was there when she was born,” he said, “I was there to put her on the bus for kindergarten. Whenever she couldn’t get a ride from Mom or Dad, she called ‘Pop.’”

Toney did not update the assembly on the condition of his daughter, Jody, who was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Monday. A projected image of Jody Marchand, hugging daughter Olivia, greeted mourners as they arrived.

When reached by phone today, a hospital representative said he had no information on Jody Marchand. Unconfirmed news reports say she was shot in the head and shoulder.

Other speakers included James Antonelli, principal of Westford Academy, Everett “Bill” Olsen, school superintendent, Wendy Pechacek, Marchand’s school guidance counselor, Rev. Francis L. Costello, retired pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chelmsford, and Nicole Kibblehouse, Marchand’s best friend and a Westford Academy senior.

Marchand emerged through their presentations as an outgoing, friendly, kind person, well-liked among her peers.

“The name ‘Olivia’ was so appropriate,” said Olsen, “because the name means beauty, truthfulness, dignity, and peace. She was beautiful and now she’s at peace.”

Meanwhile at the Blake Funeral Home in Chelmsford, a neighboring town to Westford, a wake was held for Brian Marchand today. According to a published obituary, he was the father of three children from a previous marriage, the grandfather of four, and a cancer survivor. Olivia was the only child of Brian and Jody Marchand, according to Leone.

“This sudden and tragic ending did not reflect the man he was or the life that he led,” said the posting. “He will be greatly missed by family and friends.”

Community Gathers to Memorialize Olivia Marchand, 17, Domestic Violence Victim

Mass Memorializes Olivia Marchand, 17, Fatally Shot by her Father, Police Say

by Joyce Pellino Crane

WESTFORD, Mass. – A high school senior beseeched the community to “Live for Liv,” this morning, inside an overflowing church where her fellow classmates, their families, and friends gathered to memorialize a student who died violently this week.

The early morning Mass at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church brought together a community seeking solace over the death of a popular high school senior and the critical wounding of her mother who, police say, were shot Monday by the student’s father, before he turned the gun on himself.

Olivia Marchand, 17, died at her Makepeace Road home from a 9 mm gunshot wound. Her mother, Jody Marchand, 50, was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester where a hospital representative, today, said he had “no information on that patient.”

Brian Marchand, 59, Olivia’s father and Jody’s husband, died at the scene, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

The tragedy brought a wave of grief to this community and raised awareness of violent crime among 1400 public high school students at Westford Academy, where Olivia Marchand attended.

Since Tuesday, school officials have overseen a series of efforts designed to help her closest friends and the extended student population cope with her death. In addition to this morning’s Mass and vigil scheduled for this afternoon, students were encouraged to seek grief counseling during the week from guidance counselors. They met inside the high school auditorium and poured their sorrow onto rolls of paper stretched across the stage that were to be later displayed in the corridors. They gathered at the home of Olivia Marchand’s best friend Nicole Kibblehouse, where they were comforted by the Revs. Peter F. Quinn and David P. White of St. Catherine’s.

On Thursday, the senior class held a somber vigil on the very day they were scheduled to kick-off the last 100 days of classes—traditionally a day of jubilance.

Earlier in the week regional media outlets overran the community with on-air personalities, video camera operators, and vans projecting towering broadcast antennae.

The tragedy was intensified because only three weeks earlier, a similar incident had taken place at a Forge Village Road home. On January 9, police say Frederick Leduc, 45, fatally shot his wife Karen, 43, while their two younger sons, Jared and Justyn, were inside. Leduc is recuperating from a gunshot wound to his chin, and is charged with first degree murder, according to a spokesperson for Leone. The two boys attend Westford Academy. The oldest son, Joshua, lives on his own.

Brian Marchand, 59, was a member of an extended family in the area, which operates Leo Marchand, Inc., of Chelmsford, a heating oil business established in 1960 that oversees Colonial Oil of Chelmsford and Ray Marchand Oil of Lowell. Brian Marchand was a co-owner with his brother Ray of Ray Marchand Oil, according to an obituary published by family members, and had recently retired from the business.

Monday, Police responded to two abruptly terminated 911 calls made from the Marchand home, by phoning the number that appeared on the emergency dispatch system and briefly speaking with Olivia.

Following protocol, a police cruiser was sent to the home, arriving only “minutes” after Olivia Marchand had told the police dispatcher that the family was “all set” and not in need of assistance, according to Leone. But what they found inside the home’s master bedroom, was an “unspeakable” scene, he added.

At this morning’s service, Quinn quoted 1950 Nobel Laureate Prize winner for Peace, Ralph Bunche, who said “if you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in a person.”

God gave us Jesus Christ to convey his message, said Quinn.

For some students, Olivia Marchand’s death has conveyed a message that is deepening their understanding of their own existence, Quinn noted. One high school student confided that before the tragedy, he only gave thought to how events impacted him. But since Monday, the student said he now considers the effect on those around him, according to Quinn.

“I’d say that’s a life-changing transformation,” Quinn said to the hundreds seated inside the church.

Several students took part in the service, leading the attendees in a traditional prayer, and carrying the Communion gifts to the Altar for blessing.

The service ended with a tribute to Olivia Marchand from Kibblehouse, a member of St. Catherine’s congregation.

“I don’t want you to remember her as the picture you see in the newspaper…,” she said. “I want you to remember her as if you were her best friend.”

Speaking in the present tense, Kibblehouse painted the picture of a vibrant and joyous teenager who “loves chocolate” so much she has a Godiva membership, “never wears make-up,” and listens to “hardcore screamo music.”

“Livy’s favorite color is purple and she loves the summer,” Kibblehouse said. “…Liv loves her life and her family and is perfectly happy…she says she’s had enough tears and wants you to get up and do everything you want to do…Live for Liv.”

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Jody Marchand, mother of Olivia

Mother Remains Hospitalized in Critical Condition

by Joyce Pellino Crane

WESTFORD, MASS. – The day after a Westford Academy student was fatally shot by her father with a 9 mm. handgun, according to police, dozens of students gathered inside the public high school’s auditorium to handwrite their sorrow on rolls of paper stretched across the stage.

About 70 seniors gathered this afternoon to grieve collectively for Olivia Marchand, a popular high school senior who was planning to attend the University of Vermont in the fall as a freshman.

Instead she was found dead at 8:37 p.m. yesterday inside her parent’s master bedroom on Makepeace Road from a gunshot wound, the victim of a murder-suicide, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone. Leone said her father, Brian Marchand, 59 shot and killed his 17-year-old daughter, and shot his wife, Jody Marchand, 50, who was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester where she remains in critical condition.

Westford Academy Principal James Antonelli said the students’ writings and artwork would be hung along school corridors.

A police detail stood at the front door yesterday afternoon, and the town’s top public safety officials were meeting with Antonelli inside his office. Members of the Clergy were present to help the school’s guidance counselors with grief counseling. Antonelli said colleagues from several other school districts, including Tyngsborough, offered to help counsel students.

The mood was somber inside the building. Mournful expressions were on the faces of some teachers, guidance counselors and students.

Antonelli said the senior class had been planning a celebration of their remaining 100 days of school Thursday. But with Marchand’s tragic passing, that event has been canceled, as was all of today’s after-school activities.

Instead students are planning a vigil in Marchand’s honor for Thursday during school hours. Meanwhile, at the Star Circle home of Marchand’s best friend, Nicole Kibblehouse, about a dozen students met after school today with the Revs. Peter F. Quinn and David P. White of St. Catherine of Alexandria Roman Catholic Church in Westford, according to Kibblehouse’s mother Lynn Kibblehouse.

The Marchand family did not participate in the church community, according to a woman who answered the phone at the Parish Center. But Lynn Kibblehouse said she and her family are members of the Parish.

Kibblehouse said she was anticipating a large crowd of students tonight.

“I was told to clear out the furniture,” she said.

The elder Kibblehouse said her daughter declined to speak to reporters but authorized her mother to share information about her friendship with Olivia Marchand.

The two had known each other since middle school, said Kibblehouse, and had become best friends over the past two years. The friendship began with a passion for jewelry-making and evolved into an interest in Yoga and Buddhism.

“They were free spirits,” said Kibblehouse. “Their uniqueness made them best friends.”

Just recently the two girls dyed their hair at another friend’s house and then arrived at the Kibblehouse residence to rinse out the color in a race against the clock.

“It was so funny,” said Kibblehouse. “They ran through the house. It was hysterical.”

Kibblehouse said she was unaware that Brian Marchand had weapons in his home.

“It never crossed my mind,” she said.

This was the second violent incident in this quiet, serene community within three weeks. On January 9, police say Frederick Leduc, 45, fatally shot his wife Karen, 43, and then shot himself under the chin. He is charged with first degree murder. The family includes two teenage sons who attend Westford Academy and an adult son living on his own.

Leone said Marchand was an avid hunter and fisherman and possessed several guns that were legally registered.

“There were also other weapons not registered in the home,” said Leone.

Police dispatchers received two hangup calls Monday night to their Emergency 911 system. Caller identification provided the phone number, and a dispatcher phoned the home and spoke with Olivia Marchand who said she was “all set,”  according to Leone, meaning the family was not in need of police assistance. But Brian Marchand shot Olivia, his wife, and himself, Leone said. It was not clear whether police heard gunshots while on the phone, but they arrived on the scene minutes later, said Leone, to find an “unspeakable” scene. No one else was inside the home, Leone said.

Olivia and Brian were pronounced dead at the scene, and Jody was critically wounded.

Police had no record of domestic violence calls to the home, said Leone. The couple may have been experiencing marital discord and financial troubles, but nothing leading “to this degree,” he added. Kibblehouse said Brian Marchand had been ill recently but was recovering. He is the father of three children from a previous marriage. Olivia was the only child of Brian and Jody Marchand.

She was described by Leone as a beautiful, extremely well-liked cheerleader at Westford Academy. However, Antonelli later said Marchand was working too many hours this year to participate on the school’s cheerleading squad.

Brian Marchand is a member of an extended family in the area, which runs an oil burner business. Leo Marchand, Inc., of Chelmsford is owned by Colonial Oil, of Chelmsford, Ray Marchand Oil, and Dagnon Oil, both of Lowell. The business was established in 1960. It’s not clear whether Brian Marchand was affiliated with any of the companies.

Jody Marchand is a Senior Loan Officer at the Salem Five Bank, and a member of the Northeast Association of Realtors, Inc., both of Chelmsford.

The association’s Executive Director Anne Rendle said she knows Jody Marchand as “a wonderful association volunteer, a worker, a roll up your sleeves type of person.”

Westford Academy has had its share of tragedy and triumphs. In 2003, a math teacher pled guilty to distributing heroin and was sentenced to four years in the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Framingham. At least two Westford Academy students, at the time, were the recipients of the drugs. But in 2007 the high school was one of 35 Massachusetts learning institutes to be selected as a Compass School by the state Department of Education and in 2008, Antonelli was one of only two principals in the state to bring home a No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon award from the US Department of Education. The school consistently ranks among the top on assessment testing scores.

Superintendent Everett “Bill” Olsen professed “profound sadness” over Marchand’s death.

“Our job right now is to make sure everyone can make it through the week with support,” he said.

Westford, MA – Two people in a Makepeace Road home died tonight and a third was airlifted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to Westford Police Captain Joseph Roy. The incident occurred at 8:37 p.m. Roy did not identify the victims pending notification of next of kin and would not specify a cause of death.

Regional broadcast media reported that the fatalities were due to gunshot wounds.

The incident remains under investigation, Roy said.

Until recently, violent crimes in this pastoral community were rare. But on January 9, Frederick Leduc of Forge Village Road allegedly shot his wife Karen and sustained a gunshot wound under his chin. Karen Leduc died a few days later and Leduc was charged with first degree murder while recuperating at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

JOYCE PELLINO CRANE

Martha Coakley’s stunning upset to Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race tonight is not about dissatisfaction with the economy and the Obama Administration. It’s about a talented but bland candidate who stacked up less favorably in comparison to her charismatic male opponent.

Whether you’re the engaging Sarah Palin or the pragmatic Hillary Clinton, if you’re a female,  you’ll face vicious critics. Coakley’s regional bid didn’t generate the same level of nastiness that the two national female candidates experienced during the 2008 Presidential campaign but only because the timeline was short and took place over the Christmas holiday when many were distracted, leaving less time for scrutiny. But make no mistake, Coakley lost votes because of her gender and because we still struggle with subconscious beliefs about female roles in this country.

That combined with her cool persona cost her the election.

Coakley’s campaign biography doesn’t specify where she grew up, but media outlets report that it was North Adams, Mass., where she was the third of five children. She comes across as a stereotypical New Englander, distant, smart, capable, but lacking in personality. That persona doesn’t play well nationally and it probably hurt her fundraising endeavors as the campaign wore on.

Brown’s image, on the other hand, played so well in the national media, that my elderly mother in Florida was encouraging me to vote for him. (Her position didn’t influence me, and I don’t reveal my voting choices—even to my children).

Brown, a Republican state senator from Wrentham, appealed to the nation’s conservative kingmakers, and in the final weeks of the campaign money began pouring in from all over the country.

Among the supporters was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a 2008 Presidential candidate, who said he lent Brown his donor list and his campaign organizers.

Brown also used the Internet effectively to raise money.

The funding allowed Brown to clog the airwaves with his campaign ads and call households incessantly with automated messages that addressed the voter by name. I’ve lost count of how many times I heard Brown say “Joyce.” Sometime the calls appeared as “unknowns” on caller identification, and other times as “private callers.” For some inexplicable reason, I listened to the messages.

Coakley’s ads were all over the media, as well. But their negativity caused me to stop listening, and her phone calls were less frequent and, consequently, less memorable—even though it was a hoot to hear former President Bill Clinton and US Representative Niki Tsongas, a Democrat, on my voice mail.

Brown had other attributes. He was good looking enough in his youth to pose naked in a Cosmopolitan centerfold piece. He’s got a famous daughter and a wife who is regionally recognizable because of her news reporting career.

We know about him and his family, because he told us about them. Tonight was the first time ever that I heard Coakley’s husband’s name—Thomas J. O’Connor Jr.–and learned that he is a retired police officer. In fairness, O’Connor’s photo is on her campaign web site, but I never went there before tonight. The couple resides in Medford.

Coakley’s concession speech was gracious and inspiring—perhaps the best performance we’ve seen since her campaign began.

“Sometimes it’s better to travel hopefully,” she said, “then to arrive.”

Her loss will be dissected in the weeks to come and a national movement to elect more female candidates will feel the setback. Coakley, a Democrat, is the state Attorney General.

But tonight Brown is reveling in his victory. As I write this, he’s praising the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Kennedy’s widow Victoria, and introducing his family: daughters, Arianna, a Syracuse University student; and Ayla, a student at Boston College and a former American Idol semi-finalist; and wife Gail Huff, a local broadcast journalist.

“Arianna’s not available, but Ayla definitely is,” Brown joked about his unmarried daughters.

Brown thanked Romney for his help with the campaign, and acknowledged support from Arizona Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 Presidential campaign, whom he called “a true hero.”

“He told me I could win, and gave me confidence,” said Brown.

Brown said he knew things were going well with his campaign when he saw a hand-painted “Scott Brown” lawn sign popping out of a snow bank “that I didn’t put up myself.” He won 52 percent of the votes as compared to Coakley’s 47 percent.

During the campaign, Brown voiced his opposition to the pending health care reform bill which requires a supermajority of at least 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to pass. Senate supporters and opponents split down party lines on December 24 when the measure passed. But 39 out of 40 Republicans denied it, with Senator Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican, not voting.

In November, the House had passed its own version. The two bills must now be merged  into one and a final vote taken in both chambers before President Barack Obama signs it into law.

Because passage in the Senate requires a two-thirds majority, Brown’s presence shifts the balance of power away from the Democrats who have been accused of cutting back room deals to sway the votes of a handful of wavering Democratic and Independent Senators.

“I will work with the Senate to reform health care in an open way,” Brown said. “No more back room deals.”

Brown has said that he hopes to cast the 41^st vote against the bill.

“One thing is clear as I travel throughout the state,” he said. “People don’t want the trillion dollar health care plan that’s being forced on them. It will raise taxes, hurt Medicare, destroy jobs and run our nation deeper into debt…We can do better.”

It’s hard to gauge whether his position on health care helped him win, since Massachusetts passed a health care reform bill in 2006, and it has been a successful and popular program.

I don’t think it was Brown’s positions or political platform that won the election for him. It was simply and shallowly the image he projected. He looks like a senator. And let’s face it—we’re still not ready for women to lead this country. Just ask Hillary…or even Sarah.

JOYCE PELLINO CRANE