Clarence in charge.

King of the Media Whores. [And The Prez's next-day retort.]

This guy is living proof that you can be an idiot and still make a lot of dough.

And Gloria Allred isn't much better (but at least she's rooting for the right guy).

Update 10/25:  Obama has some great writers. Here's what he said to Jay Leno when asked about the Trump challenge:

“You know, this all dates back to when we were growing up together in Kenya. We had constant run-in on the soccer field, and he wasn’t very good at it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over.”

Photo from politico.com.

Matt Taibbi writing in Rolling Stone. I agree.

What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. ...a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between....

In every race there are now not two but three dominating figures – the Democrat, the Republican and The Process, and we're raising whole generations who hate The Process far more than they like either of the candidates. Mainly for grim commercial reasons, we in the media manipulate people to stay wired on hate and panic-focused on the race for every waking moment....

Most of us suck so badly at our jobs, and are so uninterested in delving into any polysyllabic subject, that we would literally have to put down our shovels and go home if we didn't have poll numbers we can use to terrify our audiences. ...

Full article here.

Illustration: Victor Juhasz

I'm a keeper of notebooks, miscellaneous notes, and other useless paper products. Can you guess what this is? It's from 1984.

A neighbor's garden.

I like to poke around other people's gardens and this one was extra special.  I went with my friend Susan, and after we roamed around the White House gardens a bit we strolled through some other gardens on the Mall and passed by this sculpture. So many people, children especially, must see this and and say "what's that?" Only the old know!

The White House beehive is bolted down like that to protect it from the helicopter winds. We were there just after 9 AM -- I think -- and I was so conscious that the four Obama ladies were possibly at home that it was a bit distracting. I knew that Mr. O was in Williamsburg prepping for his next debate in two days. (Good prep, I'd say.) Anyway, I kept looking up at the windows and wondering what it would feel like to have hoards of strangers roaming around my front yard at 9 AM on a Sunday morning, taking pictures of my bedroom windows, speculating on who was awake and who was still asleep.

Clarence is in the house! 12 weeks old. Lucy is adapting. Slowly.