It's fall! You know what that means, don't you? TELEVISION. Glorious, life-affirming television. There's Always Sunny in Philadelphia! And NBC's Thursday Night Lineup! And football! And Boardwalk Empire! And...and...it's all too much...[faints]

[Dreams of Oregon crushing Arizona tomorrow]

[Regains consciousness]

Ah, but not all of it is pleasant...

Bloomberg Businessweek, which is not generally the sort of publication I spend a lot of time reading, has an interesting online feature this issue featuring a series of "how to" tips from people in the know, from Women's World Cup goalie Hope Solo on how to work under pressure to how to give a memorable TED talk. Perhaps the strangest? Former Microsoft smart guy Nathan Myhrvold offering a tip on how to rapidly decant wine...using a blender:

Wine lovers have known for centuries that decanting wine before serving it often improves its flavor. Whatever the dominant process, the traditional decanter is a rather pathetic tool to accomplish it. A few years ago, I found I could get much better results by using an ordinary kitchen blender. I just pour the wine in, frappé away at the highest power setting for 30 to 60 seconds, and then allow the froth to subside (which happens quickly) before serving. I call it "hyperdecanting."

Although torturing an expensive wine in this way may cause sensitive oenophiles to avert their eyes, it almost invariably improves red wines—particularly younger ones, but even a 1982 Château Margaux. Don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself.

But set up a proper blind taste test to avoid subconscious bias among the tasters. That’s a bigger problem than you might imagine. Researchers who examined the voting records of wine judges found that 90  percent of the time they give inconsistent ratings to a particular wine when they judge it on multiple occasions.

To avoid bias, use a "triangle test," which is a scientifically rigorous way to test for a perceptible difference between wine prepared two different ways. Get as many judges as you can—10 is the minimum to get good statistics. Give each judge three identical glasses, and label the glasses X, Y, and Z.

Hyperdecant half a bottle of wine and save the other half of the bottle to use for comparison. Out of view of the judges, pour an ounce or so of wine into each glass. The undecanted wine should go into two of the glasses, the hyperdecanted wine into the third, or vice versa. Vary the order of presentation among the judges so that not all are tasting the hyperdecanted wine first or last. Record which wine goes into which glass, and have the judges guess which two of their wines are the same. You’ll probably find that hyperdecanting does clearly change the flavor of the wine. To determine with scientific rigor whether your tasters prefer the hyperdecanted wine requires a more complex trial called a "paired preference" test, or "square" test. But a blind side-by-side comparison works passably well, too, and requires no math.

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl tells the Arizona Republic that his threat to leave the Super Committee now hammering out a debt-reduction package was not intended to be a factual statement:

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl made headlines earlier this month when he told the crowd at an American Enterprise Institute event that he'd be "off" the deficit-reduction supercommittee if the panel pursued more cuts in defense spending.

Kyl's remarks were widely interpreted at that time as a threat to quit the supercommittee. But, in an interview last week with The Arizona Republic, Kyl clarified that he was simply trying to make the point that the roughly $400 billion in defense reductions that were agreed to as part of the recent deal to increase the debt ceiling are enough.

He said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not put him on the 12-member, bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to have him acquiesce to more defense cuts.

"I didn't threaten to leave the committee," said Kyl, one of six Republicans on the supercommittee and the only Arizonan. "I was just making an offhand remark that that's not what I'm on the committee for."

Talking Points Memo has a good summary of a recent meeting of the Super Committee.

If you're in the mood for a road-trip, you can get the answer to that and other questions about cannabis in the medical world at a University of Arizona College of Medicine presentation next month in Phoenix.

Sue Sisley, M.D., a clinical faculty member in internal medicine and psychiatry at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center and an assistant professor of telemedicine at UA, will address the topic at 5:50 p.m., Oct. 11 at the Phoenix Theater,
100 E. McDowell Avenue.

To reserve a spot (they're limited), e-mail Brigitte Jordan at [email protected] or call (602) 827-2018.

(Note: Tucson Weekly reader Blaze Mason e-mailed to ask us why we have not been covering the protests on Wall Street. I explained that we cover local stuff; she responded that we reference national stuff all the time. I then invited her to write something for The Range. Here's what she sent. —JB)

Thousands of people are protesting on Wall Street right now. They have gone to the financial capital of the United States to say that they are tired of the growing inequality in this country, and they are tired of working people and middle-class people being drained of their resources and their futures while the very rich and corporations sit on piles of cash. There already has been a "redistribution" of wealth, and it has gone into the hands of a tiny minority while the rest of us struggle to pay our bills, while our homes are foreclosed, while our children don't have enough to eat, and while many hard-working people can't afford to go to a doctor. The Wall Street protestors are saying "Enough!"

This all began on Sept. 17, one week ago, when thousands of folks from all over the country went to New York to raise awareness, and since then hundreds of people have been camping out in Zuccotti Park (with the owner's permission), often in the rain. This is the beginning of a grassroots uprising against the direction this country is going. The demonstrators are pledged to peaceful protest, nonviolent education, and a fair and open decision-making process. But they have been met with great hostility by the NYPD, and they have been met with silence or ridicule by the mainstream media.

American citizens have been arrested for writing in chalk on the sidewalk, for wearing bandanas, and for photographing the police. The police have torn down the tarps protecting them from the rain, have confiscated bullhorns to restrict people's speech, and some people have been beaten with billy clubs.

Here's the link for the livestream coverage of what's happening now. Go to YouTube and search on "occupy wall street" to see lots of on-the-ground videos. Here's just one. And here's the Facebook page.

On last night's Political Roundtable, we talked about the Tucson mayor's race, the controversy over call-to-the-audience at Tucson City Council meetings and civility in politics. Unfortunately, our conversation about TUSD's fight to keep its Mexican-American Studies program was truncated, but I'm sure it will come up again.

AP reports:

Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona says Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office has asked him to consider a run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Sen. Jon Kyl.

Giffords at one time had been mentioned as a potential candidate for the seat, but her name now seldom surfaces in lists of potential candidates.

Here's what we hear: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would like to see Carmona in the race because polling shows him as the formidable candidate against Congressman Jeff Flake, who is well on his way to capturing the GOP nomination.

Whether Carmona will bite, however, remains a big question mark.

In the meantime, attorney Don Bivens, the former chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party, is continuing to lay the groundwork for his expected campaign.

A few notes from Tucson mayor and council races this week:

Democrat Jonathan Rothschild has won the endorsement of the Tucson Fire Fighters Association.

In a letter to Rothschild's campaign, TFFA President Roger S. Tamietti notes: "The Tucson Fire Fighters Association applauds your commitment to Public Safety and our citizens we serve. We wish you every success in the coming election. The Tucson Fire Fighters Association is proud to support the election of candidates, like you, who measure up on the issues that most concern our members."

Meanwhile, Republican Tyler Vogt, who is seeking to unseat Democratic Councilwoman Shirley Scott in Ward 4, has qualified for matching funds for his campaign. That means that for every dollar that Vogt raises, he's eligible for a $1 match from city taxpayers.

Vogt had reported raising more than $15,000 as of Sept. 6, so matching funds should bring a significant cash infusion.

Scott has already qualifed for matching funds and had raised a total of $84,626 (including more than $37,000 in matching funds) as of Sept. 6.

While it really does appear that the show will find a new life as part of some online/cable partnership, even if that won't be until 2012, today ends the run of All My Children on ABC (and with a big cliffhanger!). The business model for soap operas on network TV doesn't seem built to last - after all, why not just pay on-air salaries for five people (in the case of All My Children's replacement, the food talk show, The Chew, which seems designed to ruin the careers of Mario Batali and Michael Symon) - but the current audience might not migrate to the online version:

According to ABC, 10 million women ages 18 to 49 watch TV from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., but only 16% are tuned in to one of the soaps. Stay-at-home mothers are more likely to be watching the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon with their kids, connecting with others on Facebook or playing online social games.

A Los Angeles-based production company, Prospect Park, believes there is still juice left in the soaps. It hopes to adapt "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" for the Internet. The company bought the rights to the two ABC dramas last summer to launch as part of a planned online entertainment channel.

"People are just glued to these programs, and that's the ideal audience," Prospect Park co-founder Rich Frank said. "There is nothing else like it in American television, and we do not want to ignore technology."

But the soap audience is generally more comfortable with its TVs than its computers.

For 41 years, Martie Sanchez, Martha Torres' daughter, has been watching "All My Children." She introduced her mother to the program in 1970 — the year it debuted — after becoming enthralled with a Vietnam War-era story line.

"The show was something my whole family had in common," said Sanchez, 64, who recently retired from her job teaching special needs students. "My mom loved the drama. She would talk about the stories in a way that helped her transmit her values to me and my daughters."

When Martie's daughter, Desiree, moved to New York in 2004, she would call her grandparents each night so they could rehash plot twists. Her grandfather, Joe Torres, died the following year. Martha Torres died in 2008, and on the day she passed, her family forgot to watch the soap.

"This show was the last viable connection that we had with my mom and dad," Martie Sanchez said. "And I really didn't think I would ever lose this."

The second episode of Political Roundtable airs tonight on Arizona Illustrated. Arizona Public Media reporter Christopher Conover, Republican political strategist Jonathan Paton and Democratic political strategist Rodd McLeod talk about trash politics in the Tucson mayor's race, free speech at City Hall and the question of civility in politics. Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6 and you'll see Paton lay down a challenge to Pima County Democratic chairman Jeff Rogers.