Former Gov. Ann Richards, who opened the doors of state government to women and minorities and won national celebrity with her lively humor and Texas twang, died Wednesday night at her home. She was 73.

Okay, I didn't know what it was like to live with Ann Richards as Governor of Texas (I moved here when GWB was Governor, right when he started campaigning for the Republican primary and was quite appalled by his mention of "compassionate conservatism," which reminded me too much of a similar idea from Jean-Marie Le Pen). Ann Richards was basically the last good Democratic governor of Texas.

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You know, it's really a pain in the arse when you have a really great poetry submission and when you know you can't use everything just because you'd end up having something the length of a chapbook. Yeah.