-- So we got a press release earlier today with the following headline:

Paul Newman announces endorsement of Patty Weiss

So my immediate reaction was: "The famous actor and salad-dressing dude is endorsing Patty Weiss! How interesting! Like that would make me vote for her!"

But, it turns out it's not that Paul Newman. It's the Cochise County supervisor dude Paul Newman. My new reaction: "That Cochise County supervisor dude is endorsing Patty Weiss! How boring! Like that would make me vote for her!"

This is a fun little quiz and time waster that tests your savoir faire about dining etiquette in other countries. I got seven out of 11 correct, which just goes to show you that I'm a lucky guesser.

-- As if the weird-ass weather all across the freakin' world wasn't enough of a hint ...

-- The beginning of the end for another dictator?

-- And forgive me for being a day late with this, but yesterday's Star featured one of the better "Flowers and Thorns"—and it still blew chunks. A flower to a dude who lifted a car off of a hurt kid? A thorn to a dipwad on TV who didn't know what the Grand Canyon State was? A thorn to people who think the drought is over? And a flower to Bush for signing two pieces of legislation including the Voting Rights Act? What hard-hitting positions!

I want to see the day when a writer and a copy editor are asleep at the wheel and reverse a thorn/flower. Can you imagine them giving a thorn to the dude who lifted the car off the kid? Wouldn't that just be freakin' fantastic?