Perhaps (finally!) following one of my suggestions, the PI.com's Joel Connelly took the slow holiday season as an opportunity to write an actual Joel Connelly Mad Libs column .

I suggested a number of Connelly phrases and concepts to plug in to make a classic Connelly column. And Connelly (effortlessly, it seems) did just that.

"Litmus-test liberal orthodoxy"? Check.

"Reactionary liberalism"? Check.

Environmental groups used to care about conservation, but now they don't? Check.

Liberal "echo chamber"? Check.

Road diets/higher parking rates/any concessions to cyclists are bad? Check.

Name-checking Richard Nixon? Check. (Bonus points for using Vietnam as a metaphor for Seattle liberals).

As a political friend of mine commented recently, "I don't know if Joel Connelly is a young Ted Van Dyk or if Ted Van Dyk is an old Joel Connelly."