Only 13 shopping days until Election '09, my loyal Berry Pickers. And nerves are beginning to fray. At the Coeur d'Alene Press, De Gon is defending himself from that recent story re: the probation he received in the 2005 battery case. Bill McCrory is defending challenger Jim Brannon. Mary, Bill, & Co. are busy talking amongst themselves on OpenCDA.com. Any Mouse is running loose on the other Web sites under new pseudonyms. And we're all waiting for another shoe to fall, to launch another wonderful thread or two at HBO Central. Another shoe always falls in the final two weeks of an election. I'll play this Wild Card and climb up to the crow's nest to wait for the next goofy situation to surface. I've always wanted to say: "Thar she blows" ...