Brains! Live from WTFistan!

Can I just say that this Halloween, I intend to find a pinstripe jacket two sizes too big for me, pad the shoulders out to Hell, shave off all my hair, wear one-inch lifters in my shoes, and lurch with my shoulders forward and my back stooped. I'm going to be Henry Paulson, the scariest man on Earth!

Barack Obama says nothing should impede bailout

( Dude, what a let-down. )

Ezra Klein: The Palin 'bot is overloaded

( Can't remember which talking point to grab for )

McCain says little, does nothing, maybe makes things worse in DC

( Like having your friend pull the fire alarm during finals. )

I'd like $19.1 million for three weeks work, yeah!

( WaMu's CEO's severance package )

Another call for a "blue ribbon" panel!

( From House Republicans this time. )

Wow. Kathleen Parker asks Sarah Palin to bow out for God and Country.

( Yet she once attacked Obama for not having 'American heritage'. Isn't that a magazine? )

Glenn Greenwald: Hey, David Brooks, where've ya been?

( Oligarchy For Thee, But Not For Me )

A movement conservative comes clean about movement conservatism.

( I hope Jim Manzi thought long and hard before writing this line. )

And finally, I have to say that I'm pretty much through writing about Sarah Palin unless she gets much worse, or much better. You have no idea how often I've had to go back and correct myself, that it's rude to refer to "Biden," "Obama," and "McCain," but say "Sarah." Sometimes I've left it in for effect; she encourages that kind of mockery. But worse are the typos: "Pain" and "Plain" flew off my fingers with straight out regularity.

Paging Inigo Montoya. Inigo Montoya, Please See the Concierge Immediately!

This afternoon, I took the bus home early so Omaha could fulfill her responsibilities without haing to run around and deal with the children. I was on the bus at the same time that the local high school got out, and when it reached the transit center, two girls, probably both seniors, got on and set in the seat in front of mine. One was a girl with that lovely melange of European, Hispanic and African blood that results in broad hips, a lively face, and well-cared for long, dark springy curls with hints of gold in them. Her companion is one of those pale sylphs glamour photographers pant over waiting to turn 18, although she lacked a certain kind of verve. They both came across as typical seniors: a little tired, a little beat down by the world, trying to talk the talk and keep up appearances. I'm not sure how much of that may have been projection.

They were sitting at a slight angle to me. While I watched them, I saw the darker-skinned girl hand the other a sheet of folded up paper, torn fresh from a notebook. I couldn't make out much of what was written on it, but I could clearly make out the headline, written and re-written in big, bold pencil strokes (but still, in a girly, frilly way): "Good friends make the world go 'round, but friends with benefits make MY world!." The thin girl looked shocked, hit the other on the arm, then the two bumped their heads and giggled madly.

Neither one of them made my gaydar go off, but it may be defective or out of date these days. Unfortunately, it was my time to get off the bus right then, and I never learned more about them.