MIDWEST MIDTERM MIDTACULAR

Jon Stewart is taping the Daily Show in Ohio all week. Monday's guest was LeBron James and Stewart asked him where he would have gone to college had he not gone straight to the NBA. Since they were in Columbus, James said Ohio State. Stewart:

"Right, because like, what are you going to say? DePauw?"

Nice.

NYC, OSU, ETC ...

So I know how much everybody is anticipating the slideshow of photos from my New York trip, and I'm not one to deprive the public of what it wants. So here you go. Enjoy. Like I said, we had a good time, but I wish we had stayed an extra day and gotten tickets to a taping of The Daily Show. But since we did miss out, you can imagine how excited I was tonight when I learned that The Daily Show would be taping a week's worth of shows just a few hours away in Columbus as part of their Midwest Midterm Midtacular! ... And you can imagine my disappointment when my request for tickets was met with this:

We have received your e-mail regarding tickets for The Daily Show at O.S.U. Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming response, we are no longer accepting ticket requests.

Eff. You can also imagine my disappointment when I realized that tickets for Saturday's Evening with Jon Stewart & The Daily Show are only available to OSU students. Eff. And admission is only with a student ID. Double eff. And don't even get me started about Jim Gaffigan playing there the day before my birthday. MEANWHILE: The NYT has a great story about the rise and fall of Friendster.

THOSE DARN AMIGOS

NEW YORK CITY -- So I'm spending the weekend in Manhattan with Ryan, Dudka and Lenz. Heading back to Indiana today. Had a good trip despite the lack of T-Ball. To make up for it, there was plenty of T-Shirt, plus cameo appearances by Potts, Pete & Dinah, O'Rourke, Adams and Dellinger. Caught a show at the UCB Theatre ... ran into Al Franken at Sarabeth's on the Upper West Side ... had an excellent dinner at Bar Tabac in Brooklyn and plenty of beers at the Brooklyn Inn and the Boat (where we were comped several drinks, rock!) ... good times, good times. Photos tk. Meanwhile ... Two things overheard on my trip:

"They took away my Nalgene and my lotion and all my lip glosses!" -- Girl at the Indy airport after passing through security, weeping into her cell phone while wearing a DePauw Cheerleading sweatshirt.

and ...

Anchor on CNN Headline News while showing video of a giant fireball: "Well, nothing amusing is going on at this amusement park -- it's on fire!"

CAROL GAY: STUPID AMERICAN

So I don't know if you watched the Colbert Report last night but they aired part of the above campaign ad for Carol Gay, who is running for Congress from New Jersey. At the end of the ad is some text that says "Vote Carol Gay." And there's a little song that plays with it. Here's the thing: The song is by a folk band from Virginia called "Eddie from Ohio." This begs the question: Why does Carol Gay hate musicians from New Jersey? What's worse, the song is titled "Stupid American." Which begs the follow-up question: Why does Carol Gay think Americans are stupid?

CARL BRIZZI: BUSTIN' MAKES HIM FEEL GOOD

Indianapolis Pop Quiz! From the above two photos, which one is Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and which one is the bad guy from Ghostbusters II?

HELLO MOTO INDEED.

So I'm trying to check out this new Motorola KRZR phone over on the Internets. I dial up the Motorola Web site and get the above. Now, here's the thing. I've got a Sony cell phone and, you know, I like it and all. But ... um ... I'm thinking that chick likes her Motorola phone way more.

SPORTS DESIGN SMACKDOWN!

So, are there any other newspaper designers out there looking forward to this week's ALCS? I know it's not the World Series, but c'mon! A's vs. Tigers! The Merc vs. The Freep! Mansfield vs. Dorsey! T-Ball vs. The Ford! This should be good. MEANWHILE, IT'S ALREADY STARTED: Torre to the Cubs?

THE STARBUCKS GHETTO LATTE

Creative, frugal or just plain cheap? We report, you decide.

BASEBALL, ETC.

So what's going on? It's October, so that means it's the playoffs. And it's October, so that means the Cubs are sitting at home watching the playoffs. I did manage to squeeze in two cubs games in the last few weeks of the season ... I went to the Cubs game in Chicago with my dad. Cubs were playing the Reds and, not gonna lie, my Cubbies showed them how we roll at Wrigley: Complete game shutout. You can check out some photos over on Flickr. Ok, fine. That's not quite how we always roll at Wrigley. The next week I went to Cincy (road trip!) and saw the Reds take on the Cubs on their home turf with Parsons and Jillian ... Nice jersey, guy. Anyway, you can see a slideshow from that game here. That one includes the final moments of my Cubs-watching season - a series of photos showing the Cubs blowing it. Fitting. Turn the speed up for the best effect. WHAT ELSE? I was watching an episode of Arrested Development and I just now noticed that Franklin (you know, the puppet) is wearing a t-shirt that says "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black Puppets." Awesome. ... I watched Veronica Mars for the first time. Not gonna lie: That show's pretty good. (There. I said it.) But I'm still not watching Battlestar Galactica. Despite the fact that they were referencing it all over the place on VM. Also not gonna lie: They are crazy with the pop culture references. I'm not sure I've seen any other scripted TV shows throwing out boom goes the dynamite references. Impressive ... And I don't know if you happened to catch The Factor ... or The Countdown ... or The Daily Show, but Fox News figured out how to spin the Mark Foley scandal: just make him a Democrat. To quote Jon, bra-vo.