• One of my favorite actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, is in line to play the lead in a story about everyone's favorite band, the Beatles. So who will he be? John? Paul? George? Surely, not Ringo! Nope. Manager Brian Epstein. I'm there.
• First it was Megan Fox, who, with admittedly little historical perspective, compared director Michael Bay to Napoleon and Hitler. Then it was star Shia Lebeouf, who compared the director unfavorably to better directors such as Terrence Malick. (No shit, Sherlock.) Now it's Hugo Weaving (voice of Megatron) who is making off-hand cracks about the hugely successful “Transformers” movies. So if the people within it don't like it, why the fuck do you keep going? 
• Via Roger Ebert's recommendation, a very nice piece by Stephen Galloway on Denzel Washington. A lesson in how you write about someone who won't open up. Be straightforward. Tell the truth.
• Rob Neyer isn't much of a believer in the notion of momentum in sports, but after the 2012 World Series, which the Giants won in four straight games over the Tigers, he did his due dilgience to see if momentum mattered in October. Apparently it does. In the 33 best-of-seven series that have started with one team winning the first three games, that team has won the fourth game 27 times. They're 27-6. The results in the World Series are even more lopsided, 21-3, with no team taking it to Game 6. Neyer wonders why. I think the answer lies in familiarity. In the World Series, the other team is more of an unknown. And you're more likely to be mesmerized, and give undue credit to, the unknown. But a team you've played 15-20 times that year? They're just fuckers. And you're thinking, “These fuckers aren't going to sweep us.” Or you're thinking, as per Kevin Millar in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, “Don't let the Sox win this game!”
• Andrew Beaujon of Pointer on why political-insider journalists are attacking Nate Silver. It's the difference between politics as entertainment and politics as math.
• I suppose I should also link to Nate Silver's 538 blog on the New York Times site. Only fair. I've been checking it every day for the past month.
• Jonathan Chait and I may not agree on Hollywood but we agree this: “The Case for Obama: Why He is a Great President. Yes, Great.”
• Andrew Sullivan reacts to Chait.
• Longtime reader Andrew Reed on why he's voting for Obama ... and what's wrong with the other side.
• Two of the Argo Six live in Anacortes, Wash. Erik Lacitis reports for The Seattle Times.
• My friend Kristin is mentioned in this Minneapolis Star-Tribune column on the right-wing attempt to add an amendment to the Minnesota constitution banning same-sex marriage. Even though it's not legal in the state yet. Kristin has a VOTE NO sign in her front yard and received a nice note from a same-sex couple in the neighborhood.
• Winner of the NOT AN ONION HEADLINE award: Former FEMA Director “Heckuva Job” Brownie Criticizes Obama for Acting Too Swiftly on Sandy. 
• Mitt Romney's response to Sandy? You don't want to know.
• Finally, a nice photo of New York City after Hurricane Sandy. “And God gave Noah the rainbow sign...”

A different kind of rainbow sign, in Minneapolis this fall. GOTV.

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