So am I the only one looking at this debate as pure dog-n-pony show?

I'm looking at it as more of a sideshow. *Freak*show, really. The old-school kind, back in the 1930s, where they had truly gruesome stuff.

I'm making popcorn.

Totally!!! My preemptive schadenfreude is amped up to a level I didn't think possible.

Happy birthday, telescope! A Stellar History: The Telescope Turns 400

On Oct. 2, 1608, officials in the Netherlands pondered over a patent application. It was submitted by spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey for a "device by means of which all things at a very great distance can be seen as if they were nearby." This is the earliest known record of a telescope. A few months later, scientist Galileo Galilei would get his hands on one.

My preemptive schadenfreude is amped up to a level I didn't think possible.

In addition to schadenfreude pie, there should be schadenfreude beer. Like, say, Schadenfreudebrau?

eta: or Schadenfreudepops, a frozen treat....

Schadenfreudebrau

I will probably be drinking some schadenfreudebrau along with my popcorn tonight.

For some reason I'm sad this won't happen:

Virgin Galactic Rejects Million-Dollar Offer to Film Sex Video

GLASGOW, Scotland — The private company planning to take wealthy tourists to the edge of the atmosphere starting in late 2009 or early 2010 has refused a million-dollar proposal to film a sex video while the participants are floating gravity free, the company's president said.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said the offer, from an unidentified party, "was $1 million, up front, for a sex-in-space movie. That was money we had to refuse, I'm afraid."

The last time I heard a debate that was actually interesting had to have been a Dem. primary debate for '92. I don't remember much of it now, but I have a clear sense memory of pulling up to my brother's middle school and waiting in the dark for him to get out of band practice, listening on the radio,

Yeah, the pessimist in me is still afraid Palin will do OK. She apparently wowed em in Alaska debates by ignoring the questions, and using the time to deliver attacks on her opponents - often with little or no relation to the question. Accusing Gwen of bias may work the refs enough for Gwen to let her get away with it. I hope Biden is not so nice to her he lets her get away with it. There is no question she will have a bunch of zingers aimed at him.

She apparently wowed em in Alaska debates by ignoring the questions, and using the time to deliver attacks on her opponents - often with little or no relation to the question.

I think this is exactly what she'll do. I don't think there will be a lot of upside though. It will make the people who like her, like her even more. It will make the people who don't like her, like her even less.

I actually did tell one of my students to just man up and take his lumps today.

Hee. I do this all the time. "Suck it up," is a regular part of my spiel. It works for me, but it might just be my audience, which likes to think of itself as tough and likes to think of me as not a teacher.

I'm looking forward to the debate, but I missed the presidential one because I was drunk on antelope. But I like debates.

McCain's Next Stunt

After John McCain suspended his presidential campaign last week, Slate invited readers to suggest other Hail Mary stunts the Republican candidate might pull before Election Day. You sent us nearly 1,000 ideas. Here are some of our favorites:

This is my fave:

Bolsters Sarah Palin's foreign-policy credentials by giving her a German shepherd, a Siamese cat, and a Dutch long-eared rabbit. (Cheryl Lynn Helm)