As we have mentioned, there was a State Senate election last night in Suffolk County, and Democrat Craig Johnson defeated Republican Maureen O'Connell. Since Long Island is historically pretty GOP-py (Johnson will be the first Democrat it sends to Albany in twenty years), Spitzer is trumpeting the win as yet another pass of the ole steamroller over Joe Bruno–led Republican majority. That's all fine and good, but it doesn't answer our foremost burning question: Why the hell are we having elections now?

Well, interestingly enough, the sudden Senate vacancy is not only Spitzer's own doing, but also a direct consequence of his most outwardly bipartisan move. The governor-elect had pulled the county's previous senator, Republican Michael Balboni, out of the seat when he appointed Balboni his new security chief. Having thus appeased some of the GOP majority, Spitzer then gleefully set about reducing that very majority: personally stumping for Johnson as Balboni's replacement, taping ads for him, and co-financing his costly campaign. Genius.

Democrat Wins Senate Seat on Long Island [NYT]

Photo: Getty Images

A Penny Dropped From the Top of a Tall Building Could Kill a Pedestrian [LiveScience]

The Beverly Hilton is the sight of Hollywood's prom: the Golden Globe Awards.Photo: Getty Images

With your TV tuned to the Golden Globes tonight (8 p.m., NBC), the question you should be asking is not the David Carr–esque "Will Scorsese finally win?" It's the Joel Stein–ian "Who gives a damn what these people think anyway?"

As well publicized as the mechanics of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are, every year someone is shocked to hear that the second-most-fussed-about award in Hollywood is being handed out by a cagey club with membership in double digits. So, in honor of tonight's event, we present Daily Intel's quick tutorial on the HFPA, lovingly garnered from CNN, Luke Ford, and other sources including our acquaintance on the inside (voting member Serge Rakhlin).

Members: 89
Estimated number of actual full-time journalists: About two dozen
Entry rules: Nearly impossible to crack — any applicant can be vetoed by any one member
Trademark privilege: Allowed to be photographed with the stars after the junket (originally, to prove to the overseas editor that the interview took place)
Other perks: Two paid trips to any film festival each year
Status among U.S. film critics: Extremely low (colleagues, from David Denby to Richard Schickel, describe HFPA members as "fawning," gift-addicted flacks)
Arguable low point: 1982, naming Pia Zadora "New Star of the Year" weeks after enjoying a weekend in Vegas courtesy of her wealthy husband
Arguable high point: 2006, awarding Best Drama to Brokeback Mountain; 2007, reluctantly renouncing $62,000 goody bags

Hollywood Foreign Press Association [Official site]

Spitzer delivering his inaugural yesterday.Photo: AP

Building Big: New York State Capitol [PBS.org]

City health officials apparently consider trans fats — those peskily delicious heart-disease instigators Bloomberg's goons want to eradicate from New York's menus — in the "same category as food spoiled by poor refrigeration or rodent droppings," according to an AP story earlier this week. Really? They're that bad? How? And what exactly is a trans fat, anyway?

Well — and this is the truth — it's because Jeff Erlitz, the MTA's superintendent of operation planning, likes the letter. Peter Cafiero, now Erlitz's boss as senior director of rail-service planning but merely his colleague when the decision was made, was pulling for P. "I have twin daughters, Louise and Paula, and there's an L line but no P, so Paula is always begging me for a P," recalls Cafiero, who neglects to concede that his own name also begins with the letter. Cafiero made his case, but Erlitz overruled him. "I asked him yesterday what he had against P," Cafiero says, "and he said he didn't remember."