Chocolate or vanilla, Rob? My co-worker and fellow ice cream connoisseur, Rob Golub, says he dislikes both flavors. Funny, that's the way he likes his politics.

Two choices are enough, he wrote last week when disputing my acceptance of a third-party presidential candidate. Well, I disagree. Chocolate and vanilla might still top the charts, but maybe orange Dreamsicle is right for me as a voter. Maybe chocolate cookie dough makes the most sense.

Golub's right when he says people want to vote for a winner. They want to vote for someone from a party that has the power to help them. Sometimes you just have to look further down the line. The Libertarians, Greens and Constitutions, those parties aren't going to have anyone inaugurated at the White House in January. The idea is they might in a decade or so.

Every time a third party hauls in more votes, it edges closer to becoming a match for the Republicans and Democrats.

Look, the two major parties are powerful. Mostly they fight over things that are in place already. They want to tweak things a little bit, one way or the other. We need the third parties around to remind us that, once in a while, the whole thing needs a realignment.

Another part of the allure is that third parties are still small enough to care about individuals. They don't answer your letters with canned "Dear Constituent" mail. Some candidates list home phone numbers on their Web sites. Our voices carry just as much weight as some hotshot lobbyist's.

Obviously, getting big might change all of that. At least the party would be able to remember where its roots were.

I have no problem with chocolate or vanilla. I might be craving one of those in November. I have a problem with people who want to hide the other flavors in storage.

* I don't believe anyone "spoils" elections, but for those who pass on third-party candidates and pick the lesser evil, the Green Party has a possible solution: instant runoff voting.

Voters rank candidates in the order they'd want them. Sounds more suited to choosing the "American Idol" than a public official, but it's got some things on its side. The whole primary system could be scrapped, saving a ton of money.

I'm not sure I can explain it well enough, so if you're interested, go to

www.fairvote.org * I need to clarify something from that column. The Green Party was on the ballot in most states for the 2000 presidential election. If I made it sound differently, I was wrong. What David Cobb, one of the party's candidates this time around, told me was this: Over the past several years, the party has greatly increased the number states on the "ballot line," which means it has enough support to get on the ballot without needing a certain amount of signatures.

Carbohydrate wars I had a little fun with the frantic trend toward low-carb foods in a column last month, and Ken Cashion responded by taking it a step further. This had my carb-stuffed belly jiggling with laughter. Here's part of it: "Your column betrays a far too detached attitude towards this battle. Become a crusader and point the finger of blame where it belongs. The real enemy is the religious right, not beer and brats. Use your media pulpit to preach caution about what we pray for. Go down in history as the Atkins warrior who led the charge to change a popular prayer to "Give us this day our daily protein supplement ..."

I'm not jumping onto the Atkins bandwagon any time soon. It's just funny that, a couple of days later, I spotted low-carb ice cream at the store. Plus, low-carb pizza has come to town.

A new home Last month I forgot to update the situation of Sandy Antoniades, the well-educated homeless woman I met.

Two charitable organizations, Love, Inc., and St. Vincent de Paul, got together and helped pay the security deposit to get her into an apartment.

"This is a success story," Love, Inc., director Bill Schoessling said.
was on the list to be a substitute teacher.

It's heartening to see there's hope if that hardship ever hits one of us.