Tired of Obama already?

Na-ah! As far as my friends and I go (and even my Mama!), we continue to be fascinated with the President-elect of the United States. We still can't get enough of the news about him and his family. I personally am still hooked to CNN and BBC and surf there often to find more video news about Barack Obama, and read every scrap of news bit about him among the newspapers/wire services online. Obama fanatic? Fer shur. (But not for that pretend Obama.)

Here's another one from my favorite essayist, Pico Iyer:

My Chance Encounter with Obama in Hawaii

It was three days before the New Year in late 2006, and I was eating a burger with the traveler and writer Paul Theroux on Oahu's North Shore. Beside us in the rickety little shack was a quintessentially Hawaiian group of Chinese Americans, African Americans, semi–Southeast Asians and kids who could have been any or all of the above, waiting for the dad in the group to bring over their avocado burgers from the counter. It took Paul and me a few seconds to realize that the dad in question — who looked like a skinny teenager — was, in fact, the freshman Senator from Illinois, who was expected to enter the presidential race in the next week or two. (Click TIME for the rest.)