Time for Letterman to take his show on the road, preferably not to Chicago

Today's news shockers are the sort of hot-burning wood for a hearty autumnal fire that so seldom comes out of the pile. Chicago got faced on its Olympics bid. Everyone will make this into a personal defeat for Obama after he wrongly came to make his own case. Obviously, there was nothing he could do. This was a snub directed at the United States. No offense meant to Rio - I would love to go then or, hopefully, sooner to Brazil. But it calls into question our image abroad. I honestly don't think Chicago deserved it, even though I've heard reported that its bid was the best ever mounted by the U.S. and it would have surely put on one helluva show. The fault lies with our Nation's past bids and the arrogance that accompanies the expectation that we deserve another so soon. 2002, 1996, 1984, 1980, 1960. We've had the Games 5 times in the last 50 years. During the same period, Japan had them 3 times, Canada will have had it 3 times with Vancouver in 2010, and two other nations have had them twice (France and Italy). A South American country has never hosted the Games. Neither has an African nation or Antarctica. But let's be fair. Spread it around a little and quit making this about selling Coke and Nike and Visa cards. Sorry, Barack. But you overreached on this one.

Secondly, David Letterman's intensely weird admission of an affair is one thing. Extortion sucks. But the fact that the affair was with that strange, gawkey young assistant, Stephanie Birkitt, who often accompanied him during ask the audience segments and otherwise...well, that's just toxic. And the fact that the "48 Hours" producer that was extorting money from him was Stephanie's boyfriend. Yuck. The manure sundae comes after the ratings news of Letterman kicking the pants of Conan O'Brien's show last week by his widest margin in 15 years. Ratings will go up for the time being for Dave. But then he'll take a serious hit, I would imagine, especially when Sarah Palin gets a chance to start the swings being directed his way. This is just plain sad. I like Dave. He's going to get covered in mud on this one, though.

Seattle is surely back to the Fall thing. It feels good, for now. Hope your own forecast gives you something to look forward to other than just the Packers-Vikings game on Monday Night. Rock on.