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I had already spread mayo on my bread this morning for my lunch when I discovered we were out of turkey. So I went with my dad's old fave -- peanut butter and mayonnaise.

After I wrote about that combo awhile back, I was surprised how many others confessed to loving it too. And many suggested that the perfect addition is lettuce -- just to give the sandwich a little crunch.

So that was lunch today. And it was larrupin'.

I was at lunch with a couple of colleagues in the Bishop Arts District when we drove upon what appeared to be a movie set in the middle of Bishop Avenue. Lots of cameras, lights, wires, people running around.

Oh, boy. Prison Break? Nah, not unless it was a senior citizens' break. The commercial was for motorized wheelchairs, like the ones reporter Scott Goldstein wrote about (photo above accompanied his story).

Great look at the phenomenon of adults - specifically, in this case, teachers - using MySpace and Facebook pages to connect with students "on their level."

Some kids, in a perfect bullseye of slang characterization, refer to this trend as "creepy treehouse." It's the effort by an adult to relate to students by behaving like a peer instead of a grownup. Some adolescents like it fine, but others think it's, well, creepy.

Personally, I always preferred teachers (and parents, for that matter) who related as friends - but as adult friends, not as way-cool friends. This used to mean (and, presumably, still does) not smoking dope with your teenager, not sleeping with undergraduate students, not making a pitiable effort to use popular young-person argot. Now it also means not trying to buddy up in cyberspace.

It's a free country, and adults can join MySpace if they want, although a few minutes' random browsing of the site's zillions of puerile all-about-me pages is enough to make your cranium ache. What I really, really love most about being a calcified adult is that pop-culture obesience becomes strictly voluntary.

I mentioned here Friday what the pollsters were saying about last Thursday night's highly anticipated Veep Debate.

In case you want something lighter, here's SNL's parody of the Sarah Palin vs. Joe Biden debate. Enjoy.

That's what Rudolph Bush, part of DMN's dynamic duo at City Hall, is reporting today, based on a Dallas City Auditor report.

Well, that raises an obvious question in my mind, one the city may not want answered: Are there businesses in other cities incorrectly paying sales taxes to Dallas? Seriously, seems like this ought to have been flagged in Austin or reported by the cities on the receiving end? IJS. Good catch by the auditor, at least.

People may disagree on whether a city-financed hotel next to the Dallas Convention Center is a good idea. But everyone in the tourism/convention business agrees that Dallas desperately needs a lively downtown, especially near the convention center, to make this a popular convention city.

Anne Raymond of Crow Holdings is, of course, among those who oppose the hotel. She believes the city should be working on making downtown lively and a hotel would naturally follow.

She said, "If Reunion Arena were a casino, we'd be competing to build a hotel there."

So as I asked awhile back, why not build a casino there? Let's let private enterprise build us a convention-center hotel.

Once again it's time for that exercise in which I look up a word from the newspaper that I should know. And you either learn it with me or get to feel smug about knowing it already.

Today's work comes from a column in Sunday's Points section in which Gustavo Arellano pays tribute to his father, who came to the United States as an illegal immigrant:

Dad isn't perfect by any means - indeed, he's suffered through most of the pathologies that many people attribute to illegal immigrants: Alcoholism. Fecundity. Lack of education. Failure to fully assimilate. It doesn't matter. The life he's crafted for himself is no different from your typical white, middle-class Valley resident who rails about the Mexican invasion.

"Fecundity" stumped me. And I'm going to say that's because the word is so out of context.

I think I might have recognized it in a more normal usage to mean fertile, fruitful or richly creative.

I'm guessing that the writer used it as a way of saying his dad had a lot of kids. But I'm not sure "fecundity" is the word he was looking for.

Man, what a wonderful sound to wake up to this morning -- pouring rain.

Several years ago, Mojo Nixon offered this commentary on O.J. Simpson on his CD The Real Sock Ray Blue!

Orenthal James, he was a mighty bad man
He killed two people last night
Chopped off their heads in West L.A.
Must have been a mighty sharp knife (poor boy)
Must have been a mighty sharp knife

With apologies to Mojo and in light of fresh developments, we might append a new verse:

Orenthal James, he was a mighty big fool
A jury let him walk for killin' two
All he had to do was stay home and play golf
But that was too hard for him to do (big fool)
But that was too hard for him to do

Well, this story points up what polls are revealing. I'll let the partisans spit fire at each other the findings, which suggest that Sen. Joe Biden got the best of Gov. Sarah Palin.

I'll just say that I watched every bleeping second of it and was thoroughly amused. As Jack pointed out earlier, both Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin came across as "likeable." Both got off some funny lines. And both also looked the part.

Question now is how much of a plus or minus will either VP candidate be for each ticket in terms of attracting or repelling the fence-sitters, and in terms of motivating the core base of each party?

The election's still a month away --- so there's plenty of time for game-changing events, including a couple more presidential debates or forums. Keep your popcorn ready -- and your powder dry.

This just in from Eric Aasen:

We've got a Champ.

Emily June Kelley, 12, of Yoakum, took home the top prize in the grand steer champion competition this afternoon at the State Fair of Texas' annual Youth Livestock Auction of Champions.

The steer's name, appropriately: Champ.

The grand champion fell short of topping the $100,000 mark, but did bring in $1,000 more than last year's winner: a cool $95,000.

That was way more -- about $35,000 more -- than Emily expected.

"I was like, 'Wow,' " she said. "It was over my head. It's just overwhelming."

The grand champion steer winner gets $30,000, and the rest of the proceeds fund State Fair scholarships.

The buyer wanted to remain anonymous, fair officials said.

Since she's only 12, Emily hasn't decided where she'll go to college. But she'll use the money for her education, mostly likely in an agriculture-related field, she said.

She has been raising Champ since last spring at her home in Yoakum, about 90 miles south of San Antonio.

Before he left for the fairgrounds, reporter Eric Aasen left an advance look at what to expect from the youth livestock show today. We'll update you when we hear any news, sometime after 1 p.m.:

During these troubled times, perhaps we should be investing in livestock.

This year's grand champion steer at the State Fair of Texas' annual Youth Livestock Auction of Champions could bring $100,000 in prize money for the first time. The auction begins at 1 p.m. today.

Last year's grand champion was sold for $94,000, and the prize has been increasing steadily over the years.

The grand champion steer winner gets $30,000, and the rest of the proceeds fund State Fair scholarships.

Letting go isn't always easy. The students form bonds with their animals, said Daryl Real, the fair's vice president of agriculture and livestock.

"A lot of the animals are treated better than you and I are," Mr. Real said. "[Students] spend a lot of time with these animals and care for them. It's a project they take a lot of pride in. In order to be successful in the end, it's a must to spend that time with them."

But the students know there's a time to let go of their furry friends. It's part of the life cycle -- these animals are being raised for food, said Mr. Real, who raised animals as a kid.

This may mean more to men than women, and more to men of a certain demographic stratum -- those who can actually remember when Ronald Reagan was president -- than to others.

On Saturday, Cindy Crawford will be at the Rooms to Go furniture showroom at 2905 Grapevine Mills Circle in Grapevine.

The supermodel-turned-brand-name has a line of furniture sold through Rooms to Go. She'll be signing autographs at the Grapevine store from noon to 1 p.m.

Photo: AP

Could we all take a pledge? In these few short weeks until Election Day, let's pledge not to forward any e-mails without first verifying their accuracy.

Some of you are really scaring me with your willingness to mass e-mail any piece of nonsense that comes your way.

Like the one I got yesterday, in which Barack Obama supposedly explains that he doesn't put his hand over his heart during the national anthem because "I don't want to be perceived as taking sides. There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression....."

In 10 seconds of research, anyone could learn that this is actually a quote from a satirical column poking fun at the whole patriotism controversy.

You would think folks could figure that out when it goes on to supposedly quote Obama saying: "I like the song 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it."

You have to wonder if people are even reading the stuff they pass along.

If you're one of those e-mail forwarder types, will you take the pledge to verify? If you are the target of e-mail forwarder types, will you ask them to take the pledge?

The Color Purple (now on stage at the Dallas Summer Musicals)

Lots of drama. Some big laughs. Just no memorable songs.

Yesterday, I posted an item about how students at Southern Methodist University are coping with new rules intended to curb partying on weekday nights.

The information came from The Daily Mustang, which I erroneously identified as the campus newspaper at SMU.

An SMU student -- an editor at The Daily Campus, which is the REAL campus newspaper -- was kind enough to point the error out to me.

"I would like to inform you," the student wrote, "that The Daily Mustang is not the campus paper for SMU. In fact, The Daily Mustang does not even come out in print. It is a news site under the supervision of the journalism department that launched this year. ..."

"The Daily Campus is the independent campus newspaper for SMU and has been serving the university community since 1915. I, along with the rest of The DC staff, would appreciate it if you could correct the statement on the blog."

Done.

The murder of suburban mom Susan Bailey - apparently by her own creepy-looking teenage daughter (shown here, but none of us looks our best in a police mugshot), with the help of her son and the daughter's boyfriend - is alarming enough. Now they've been linked to another knife-wielding teenage harpy, a 15 year old pal of the alleged killers who is accused of threatening to stab her own mom to get the car keys.

The Star-Telegram reports that the second girl threatened her mother the same night the first-girl's 16-year-old boyfriend was reported to have stolen his dad's gun and run away. I need a flow chart to keep up with all these depraved teenagers.

Interestingly accused mom-killer Jennifer Bailey turns 18 on Sunday, which means she just dodged any chance of the death penalty. State law says people cannot be executed for crimes committed when they were 17 or younger.

I'm sure opponents of the Trinity Project are doing some gloating this morning over our front-page story saying the roadway is still full of uncertainties. Just little things like whether it's even possible and how to pay for it.

But as one who has supported the project, let me fire an I-told-you-so right back at 'em.

I have never felt any certainty that this big undertaking is going to come to pass. It's too full of innovation and huge ambition to know that for sure.

But I have always felt it's worth pursuing until evidence, not just pessimism makes clear that it can't be done.

So carry on, all you folks involved in this megaproject. We salute your enterprise, whatever the outcome.

Doubtful that last night's veep debate broke any new ground, but I have to give both candidates points for sheer likeability - a negligible asset, perhaps, in terms of governance, but it set an example of collegiality that I wish could extend to the political arena as a whole.

Strictly speaking, this was not a debate - I heard TCU poly-sci prof James Riddlesperger on the radio this a.m., saying he preferred to call it a "joint public appearance." And all that manufactured huffiness over Gwen Ifill's alleged conflict-of-interest proved baseless - she did a careful, fair job as moderator.

All in all, it was interesting - possibly a disappointment to anyone who hoped Gov. Palin would look a fool, but she's clearly still a neophyte.

It occurs that, if Sen. McCain was determined to have a female on the ticket, he might have considered former Fort Worth Mayor and seasoned U.S. Rep. Kay Granger - smart, moderate, experienced, and ready for prime time. She's certainly not as exotic as Gov. Palin - but she's got gravitas to spare.

I opined here yesterday about my preference for a "death in prison" sentence rather than actually executing anyone.

Some commenters liked the idea but worried about the cost of housing an inmate until natural death rather than putting him or her to death.

Colleague Diane Jennings points me to a guest column in which a former warden says long-term housing is far cheaper than the legal and other costs associated with death penalty cases.

The folks at the Dallas Zoo say they've broken an all-time attendance record, attracting 670,084 visitors for the fiscal year beginning last October and ending September 2008. The previous record was 646,169, set in 1979.

The zoo credits new exhibits and improvements over the past several years -- including the opening of Stingray Bay in March -- for the increase in attendance.