Love it? Hate it? Meh? Talk to me.

To bail or not to bail, that is the question,
whether tis nobler for Detroit to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageously high unemployment
Or to guarantee huge loans against a sea of debt,
And by paying them off end them?

Schenectady, NY
With the market in freefall and hundreds of his clients suffering heavy 401(K) losses, Chief Investment Officer of AYN Asset Management Robert Lombardo is leaving his clients with one final piece of financial advice before closing up shop at his 17-year old investment firm:

"Leave your stock certificates in your mother's attic."

I certainly hope this Hamlet-inspired edition of the question column pleaseth the millions (or at least the hundredths of daggers) and not be caviare to the general ... (btw, it's caviar, not murder, that is most foul, both in concept and taste).

1. Something is rotten in the state of [Dagblog]?

2. A dream itself is but a shadow?

3. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain?

4. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions?

5. To be honest as this world goes is to be one man picked out of ten thousand?

Caroline Kennedy is considering pursuing Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat according to a cousin, who surely spoke of his own volition and not as part of any political PR strategy. Kennedy may face some stiff competition for the post though, as dagblogger Mortimus is considering changing his screen name to Mortimus Kennedy Jr. and appropriating Orlando's womanly avatar, according to his cousin. Question for the audience: Do you know of any female "Juniors?" Why don't women give their daughters their own names?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Canada's Parliament yesterday. Proroguing is not to be confused with pierogieing, a Polish sport in which competitors pelt each other with cheese-filled dumplings.

Found this kind of interesting. Apparently, the NFL will be experimenting by broadcasting tonight's NFL game between the 4-8 San Diego Chargers and the 3-9 Oakland Raiders live in 3-D in theaters in LA, New York and Boston. Nothing like watching a supreme battle of Who's the Suckiest AFC team as overpaid behemoths play crappy football right on your lap.

With the last of the pots scrubbed and the table wiped down, KRXA Hal looks wistfully at the mopped floor of the dining area. After briefly considering whether to scrub the toilets or snake out the pipes and deciding after serious contemplation that now is not the best time to regrout the bathroom tile, KRXA Hal debates internally whether the Biggest Loser really is more compelling television than Dancin' with the Stars. Since neither is on, KRXA Hal reluctantly boots up his always (sigh) trusty desktop.

In a victory for our folks, Saxby Chambliss won the Georgia runoff. Thank goodness. Our folks took a beating on Nov. 4th as the other folks voted for one of their own. A few years ago, the idea that one of the other folks could become president was unthinkable.

ATTN: Parental Advisory Explicit Content

So I still happen to be digging Geo Challenge - I don't even want to think about all the hours I've spent on Facebook Playfish games this year. I think they somehow figured out how to put crack cocaine in their code and time-capsule release it over the wires on the Interweb and through the speakers on my computer. I think in some states, Playfish and I would be common law married about now.

I love books. And I love talking about books--more than politics. Actually, WAY more than politics.

Right now, I'm reading Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. It's a fictionalized version of a love affair that Frank Lloyd Wright had with a woman he designed a house for. So far, I like it and I especially like that it happened in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago where Wright designed many houses. I'm not far enough into it yet to say much more than that.

I watched live stand-up comedy one night last week. In an attempt to energize a quiet crowd, a comedian remarked, "So Barack Obama will be President," which elicited a cheer. She then remarked that it was a guaranteed way to wake up a room, which got a laugh. But the laugh carried an ironic note. The trick is dated. Our ecstatic enthusiasm for Obama's exhilarating election is fading. When another comedian tried the same routine later in the night, the response was modest.

Since I'm home for the Thanksgiving weekend, I figured I'd compose a bunch of questions relating to childhood and hometowns. Many of these assume you have parents who are still alive and a 'normal' upbringing (you know, nuclear family and all), so please accept my apologies if this isn't the case and feel free to adjust the question if at all possible (by going back in time or thinking about your own children perhaps) to fit your situation.

1. You are getting sleepy?

2. First crush?

3. Regress much?

Not to steal any of the Dead One's thunder, but I'm going to do my own thing here with some questions that are on my mind.  There won't be ten of them, but rather the exact number that are on my mind at the time.  I also don't expect any answers.  Consider them rhetorical if you wish or offer your thoughts.  It's up to you.  Here goes.

Why can't Barack Obama close the deal?

So my girlfriend and I decided a couple of months ago to surprise my parents with a trip home. The folks knew my brother was coming in, but I had told them that the flights were too expensive, especially since we had just seen them in August out in California for a cousin's wedding. But I changed my mind and bought the tickets soon after, and then continued to tell repeated lies about our plans for the holiday .

No matter where each of us finds ourselves on Thanksgiving Day, we all no doubt have reasons to be thankful. I am thankful for family and friends; for my sweet dog, who found me in March; for the opportunity to work hard to bring about something that hasn't happened in my lifetime--a Democrat winning my state's electoral college votes. I am thankful for summer, for music, for the fact that Chicago is only a couple hours away. I'm thankful for the people in my life that challenge me to be better.

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Conspiracy Zone!