Jaime Holguin of the Associated Press asap service has put together an amazing mashup of this year's most obnoxious political campaign ads. And yes, you can dance to it. Enjoy.... -andy

I've waited 16 years to tell this story publicly. Every couple of years I edited this essay, tweaking this and tweaking that, but I didn't want to post all of it until the time of the execution. It seems that time has come - just a few minutes from now.

Over a three-day period in August 1990, the mutilated bodies of five young people were found scattered across Gainesville, Florida. With the whole state in panic, police quickly apprehended a student named Edward Lewis Humphrey. The police, the media boldly announced, had caught the Gainesville Murderer.

Or so they thought. Eventually - over a year later - the actual perpetrator of the crime, Danny Rolling, was charged with the murders while serving a life sentence for armed robbery. In late February of 2004, Rolling changed his plea to guilty.

Tonight he will die for his crimes. But this probably won't change the image most Americans have in their mind from that horrible summer: an image of Ed Humphrey, paraded in the courtroom in an orange jump suit, looking, so we thought, like a serial killer.

Funny story from NPR today about Lady, a cocker spaniel who got into the habit of licking toads from the local pond to trip on the hallucinogenic compounds excreted by their skin. Now the family is working tirelessly to help Lady get the monkey (or toad) off her back.

Just say no, Lady. Think of the puppies. And the toads, for crying out loud.... -andy

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