_A friend notes: _
The Algonquin Round Table makes Mental Floss‘s fab list of “7 Entourages That Changed the World.” Lou Harry and Todd Tobias write: “We love Vincent Chase and his HBO cohorts as much as the next magazine, but we’re not going to stand idly by while they hog the entourage limelight. Those guys might make waves in Hollywood, but the following power crews made history.” Read and cheer! Then learn lots more about the sharp-edged rounders at the Dorothy Parker Society website, a treasure trove of all things Algonquin.

I’m indebted to “Josh Marshall”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/238525.php for explaining the significance of the event. Ken Adelman, lifelong Republican and hawkish former chum of Cheney and Rumsfeld emailed _New Yorker_ staffer George Packer to “explain”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2008/10/not-quite-colin.html why he’s “supporting”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2008/10/adelman-addendu.html Obama this year. (Hint: _temperament_ is the word of the year.)

Emily is moved to return from self-imposed blog retirement to write:
I have spoken of my dependence on “The Campaign Trail,” the magazine’s populous podcast about the presidential election. Now more than ever, I crave daily updates. I checked my iTunes the morning after the third debate, hoping for those familiar voices to engage in gently scorching analysis as I began my day. No such luck! O editors and editorialists, won’t you be my spirit guides through these long, last days of this dreadful campaign? Even a half hour of your sparkling waterfall of talk would ease my thirst.

_Martin Schneider writes:_
You know it’s a good day when James Surowiecki announces he’s starting a “blog”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/jamessurowiecki/ version of his consistently insightful “Financial Page” column. Only a little more than a day and already there are five meaty posts up there. He wittily “notes”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/jamessurowiecki/2008/10/welcome-to-the.html that the debut of that column precipitated a reversal in the market in 2000, so we hope for more of that.

In her “Shelf Life” column at the (Syracuse, NY) _Post-Standard,_ Laura T. Ryan wants to “know”:http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/10/the_new_yorker_readers_whats_y.html what your favorite section of _The New Yorker_ is. Do indulge her, and tell her we sent you!

_Martin Schneider writes:_
Take Paul Slansky’s 2008 “Campaign Quiz”:http://www.newyorker.com/humor/polls/slansky2008campaignquiz/01013sh_shouts_slansky, the “Shouts and Murmurs” from the new issue. You can submit your answers online and see how you did. (I got 17 out of 29 right. Surely someone can beat that!)

_Martin Schneider writes:_
As someone with deep roots in the country that produced “Elfriede Jelinek”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfriede_Jelinek, I’m pretty strongly on David Remnick’s side on “this one”:http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93H89QO0&show_article=1.

“It’s fall, dear.”
“I say it’s summer, and I say the hell with it.”

“Sassy mice claiming rights beyond their station might appear in any number of second-tier long-running comic strips (see for instance Garfield, 9/8-11/08).”