Fiscal Cliff

I know what you're thinking. Curiosity has landed on Mars and fell off the Fiscal Cliff. No, you're jumping ahead to tonight's guest and getting that confused with what Congress is doing.

First things first. Contraception. August 1 was a day to celebrate, ... or not, depending on who you are. After taking quite a few birth control pills (Stephen is one of the hottest women in the world), Stephen suggested a simpler plan for ladies is just to think of Mitch McConnell. I guess what Stephen is suggesting is something similar to a cold shower.

I was not paying close enough attention to the segment on the Economy, so I may have gotten stuff mixed up. I think what Stephen said is that some guy named Grover Norquist will push chickens off the Fiscal Cliff if anyone tries to shave him. Like I said, I might have that wrong. Perhaps a better explanation can be found here from Ezra Klein. It kind of worries me that Stephen was willing to so easily make some sacrifices last night. I think He Who Must Not Be Shaved has way too much power.

With the Olympics going on still, we got to see another segment of the Stephen Colbefrajilympic Expealacoverage '012. Gymnastics was the sport du jour. I was disappointed not to see good photos and video of what happened. What I did see was a bunch of letters and envelopes. Something about Olympic lawyers and "cease and desist" showing of footage of the games. Darn. Luckily, Stephen was able to accurately portray women's gymnastic without any worry about legal sanctions.Such form. Such speed. And she stuck the landing!

Speaking of landing, Curiosity! That's right, Curiosity is heading to Mars. You can watch live at 10:31 PDT. (11:31 in Mountain Time, 12:31 Central, 1:31 New York Time if I have my time zones correct.) More information over here at Wikipedia.

Oh, yeah, the guest. Well, NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld showed up to talk a little bit with Stephen about getting to Mars. Pretty exciting stuff! Planetary travel and all. You can go to the main NASA website page and spend hours looking at Earth, the Solar System (my personal favorite set of planets), the Universe and more. Be sure to go there soon and see if you don't recognize a certain Image of the Day person. If he's not there, try the "View Image Gallery" button and look for someone with the initials S.C.