DENVER, 9:27 p.m. — Observations from Denver on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

  • You might be asking: “What did the Connecticut delegation do today?”  I’m wondering, too.  You see, members of the delegation had a breakfast at their hotel this morning, an event I planned to cover. This was easier said than done. First, I spent 90 minutes trying to determine what bus to take to get to the Connecticut hotel (I struggle with mass transportation). Then I got on that bus — but going in the wrong direction. Long story short, I missed the breakfast. If you really, really, really want to know what John Larson has to say these days, Jesse Hamilton of The Hartford Courant can probably fill you in
  • This brings me to another issue. Having failed miserably on my attempt to use mass transit this morning, I decided I would walk to the McCain headquarters later today for the Carly Fiorina news conference. It turns out Denver is not exactly a compact city. I literally walked miles to get there. (As a silver lining, the view of the Denver skyline in the distance — I emphasize distance — was a nice treat.)
  • Denver, it should be noted, is a beautiful city. Alexander Garvin, a professor at the School of Architecture, says as much in his Study of the City course. All those nights I spent listening to him go on and on about the 16th Street Mall now seem so worthwhile. He was dead right.
  • I don’t want to harp on this, but I just don’t understand why the Obama campaign feels it necessary to starve me to death. You may remember this was a problem between me and Barack in New Hampshire. Well, it’s no better here in Denver. And before you suggest it, I’m not paying $6 for a hot dog inside the Pepsi Center. (I can assure you I will get increasingly disgruntled about this as the week goes on and am already planning a full post reviewing the overpriced food options here in the arena.)
  • But there is some good news: Yale did not name a provost today. When I was in New Hampshire, Yale made its big announcement about how it would spend more of its endowment. So, just because of my luck, I figure the new provost will be named this week, too.
  • The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that both Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will perform at Invesco Field on Thursday night when Senator Obama accepts the nomination. I fly 1,200 miles across the country and I still can’t get away from New Jersey.