How odd: Leslie Nielsen has died, and everyone is talking about the silly comedies he made late in life. Doesn’t anyone remember Forbidden Planet? What’s the matter with you people?

Here’s a fine collection of photos from Skepticon, including several of us in a lovely leather top hat. I think I need to get one for myself.

I’d like to see hats come back into style anyway. It seems like only Texans and their Stetsons that have kept up the practice.

It was a rough night—roads in Minneapolis were clear, so I managed to drive halfway home, but then they turned into glassy sheets of frozen slickness, so I stopped for the late night at a cheap motel. Now the journey resumes by daylight, at least. It’s still icy, but at least I’ll be able to see.

I’m relieved that there will be no more travel this semester.

Let’s see…where am I? Oh, yeah. Springfield. Skepticon. My talk went OK, it was an all-science talk, and maybe disappointed those who expected me to lasso a god out of the sky, set him on fire, and stomp on his smoldering carcass. Afterwards, the party went on for quite a while. I was supposed to referee a drinking contest between Rebecca Watson and Richard Carrier, but they both faded pathetically early, forcing me to continue on for both of them.

No sleep for me. I ended up shooting the breeze all night long with DJ Grothe and Amanda Marcotte and Bug Girl and a few others.

Now I’ve got a long day of travel ahead. I expect to simply sleep through it all.

I must catch a plane, but here are a few short notices I didn’t want to neglect.

• Godless folk are trying to establish an atheist discussion site, and they need votes for approval. Help ’em out if you’d like.

• Phylointelligence is a new site organizing essays to summarize and explain the evidence for evolution. Take a look!

• Jeff Randall is an activist for secular humanism and skepticism who has fallen on hard times — his friends are fundraising to help him through a current crisis. Help if you can.

This would be his birthday, if he hadn’t died in 1996. We’re just going to have to celebrate his life without him.

You’ve got one more day to vote for Christie Wilcox to win a $10,000 scholarship. Get in there!

If you haven’t voted for Christie Wilcox yet, get on over there and help! She’s got the lead, but it’s slipping right now.

Think of it as practice for tomorrow, when all you Americans will get out and vote for the good guys. Right? Right?

Or at least the not-so-evil guys. We’re just trying to keep the riff-raff out of control.

Don’t you know Halloween is supposed to be creepy scary? Yet people keep assaulting my senses with adorableness!

OK, maybe the Hello Kitty shirt is a little bit chilling.

If you happen to be up around Thunder Bay, Ontario, you might see these jack o’lanterns glowing in the yard of Corinne and Kevin.

Here’s another one, sent to me by Sarah: