A new Weekly is online and perusable off to your right. Over and out.

This is difficult to imagine.

Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn poked a hole in a Picasso painting that he had just sold for $139 million. Now if an employee had made the fatal oops, they probably would've been executed casino-mafia style.

In this case, it wasn't buyers-keepers as Wynn didn't hold the buyer to the sale. Read more.

The latest Grand Canyon State Poll, done by the folks at NAU, is out, and it shows that the foes of gay marriage and domestic partnership rights are in good shape.

While a late August poll done by ASU—which emphasized the fact that governments would not be allowed to offer benefits to unmarried partners—showed Proposition 107 failing badly, the NAU poll shows it supported by 51 percent of those polled, and opposed by 42 percent.

That was the only thing resembling a surprise in the NAU poll. It showed what you'd expect pretty much everywhere else—Napolitano and Kyl have big leads; both smoking measures are likely to pass, and both are running close in terms of support; the minimum wage increase has broad support; etc.

But this bit of news about 107 is certainly a downer. Sigh.

The Democratic Party just called me (I guess because I'm a Democrat) and told me about an event tomorrow (Wednesday-October 18), and I said I'd pass it along. I'm not going to always be this available.

On October 18 there will be a pre-debate rally at the Student Union (on Old Main) at 4 p.m. At 6 p.m. on KUAT, a pre-recorded debate will be aired on TV. The debate is between Jim Pederson and Jon Kyl. According to the person/volunteer who called, he said that Jon Kyl did not want to debate with a live audience. Is that stupid or what? These politicians have too many rules that only apply to them. Does he have someone cut the crusts off his bread before he eats that too?

At 6 p.m. Gentle Ben's Brewery will hold a debate-watching party where Jim Pederson will be mingling with the crowd and most likely carefully observing their reactions to the debate. Gentle Ben's Brewery is located at 865 E. University Blvd.  

Then at 7 p.m. back at the Kiva Room in the Student Union, Raul Grijalva and Ron Drake will debate before a live audience, and the public is invited.

So, it appears Tom Horne may be losing it. After the aforeblogged report showing Arizonans are stupid was released, Horne told Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services that the company that released the report, Morgan Quitno Press, was "stupid." He added: "I would estimate they have no employee with an IQ over 90."

Nice. 

So The Arizona Republic's Web site is running this brief this morning, saying that basically, Arizona is the dumbest state. Seeing our Legislature in action, I understand why some could think this. However, this ranking's apparently based on things like education indicators and teacher pay and stuff.

On a personal level, I am a bit concerned. The last three places I've lived have been Tucson, Las Vegas and Reno. Guess which state was the second-dumbest? Nevada.

Hmmm.

A version of this will appear in this coming week's edition, as part of The Skinny:

If there is an afterlife in which the departed can witness the goings-on here on Earth, Chris Limberis was pissed last Friday, Oct. 13. Really, really pissed.

The attention-shy reporter, who passed away last November at the age of 47 after a fierce battle with leukemia, was inducted into the Arizona Newspapers Hall of Fame last Friday. About 60 people attended the induction ceremony, part of the Arizona Newspapers Association annual convention in Scottsdale. Three others—Elvira Espinoza and Luis Manuel Ortiz of La Voz, and Brendan FitzSimons, a longtime Wick Communications publisher—also earned induction.

While the induction ceremonies were joyous occasions for the other three inductees (as well as the two inductees into the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Hall of Fame), who were all present with family and friends, Limberis' induction was bittersweet. His brother, Paul Limberis, flew in from Colorado just for the ceremony. Also present, along with some of Limberis’ former Weekly and Arizona Daily Star colleagues, was his close friend Beth Borozan.

ANA Executive Director John Fearing showed a brief slide show featuring various family pictures of Limberis, ending with a slide of Dave Fitzsimmons' touching "Tucson Boulevard" cartoon, published in the Star shortly after Limberis’ death. Fitz’s words from the cartoon provided the inscription for Limbo’s Hall of Fame plaque: "He loved three things: afflicting the comfortable, comforting the afflicted, and Tucson."

While we could go on about the induction ceremony, we won't. We'll just say this: We miss the hell out of Limberis around here. If you're a regular reader of The Skinny, chances are, you miss him, too. As we said when we memorialized Limbo shortly after his death: Chris was only a so-so writer, and he could be a pit bull when he attached to a topic—he would not want to let it go, no matter what. He was also weirdly private; his home voicemail was literally full for years straight, and he forbade co-workers from visiting him in the hospital when he was sick.

But he was one of the best pure reporters this town has ever seen—if not the best. We know The Skinny has not been the same since his death. Nor has the Weekly. Nor has journalism in this town as a whole. Bad guys are getting away with more now, because with his death, years of institutional knowledge, relationships and public-records knowledge were lost forever.

He is missed, and we're grateful that the ANA added Limbo to its Hall of Fame—even if Chris would have shuddered at the recognition. It's deeply deserved.

-- Jon Kyl and Jim Pederson went head-to-head yesterday in the Campaign Spending Bowl. The real winner? TV stations who are getting oodles of revenue from these two!

-- The UA football team's down to the third-string quarterback. And they still stomped Stanford. Sigh.

-- The Star's "Thorns and Flowers" breaks out the alliteration by giving Freddy Fender a flower! And they give a thorn to the ubiquitous political signs. THAT is sooo original.

Blogging from your truly will be light to nonexistent today, as I am heading to Phoenix for the Arizona Newspapers Association convention, which will include the induction of the late Chris Limberis into the ANA Hall of Fame. Fill ya in on that later.

I highly recommend this commentary from Ruben Navarrette Jr., a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, posted at CNN.com. The gist of then piece: The Minutemen are idiots, but that's their right. Check it out.