The closing notes of the pre-Thanksgiving Morning Jolt:

She Was Once ‘Sarah’s Daughter’; Now the Former Governor Is ‘Bristol’s Mom.’
I am sure that to a certain demographic, the big news of Tuesday wasn’t North Korea or the Great Airport Groping War of 2010. No, the real news could be found on the finale of “Dancing With the Stars.”
The heights of media hype forced Allahpundit to put up a thread at Hot Air, and his pre-decision assessment is hilarious: “The prospect of war on the Korean peninsula is attracting a few dozen comments per post while the prospect of war among DWTS voters is attracting a few hundred, in which case let’s go where the traffic action is . . . The possibility of Bristol winning and ushering in some sort of media/liberal rage apocalypse is real, and therefore newsworthy. Anything could happen if she pulls it off — Twitter crash, major metropolitan riots, maybe even an impromptu White House presser in which The One calls for calm and proposes a beer summit between Bristol and Jennifer Grey. Notwithstanding the fact that the show’s voting system was overwhelmed last night with a ’record amount of activity,’ I’m predicting that Grey wins in a squeaker. If I’m wrong, then one of two things will happen. Either Bristol will go the classy route and decline the trophy on account of the fact that Grey deserved to win or she’ll just totally exult in victory, which would be messed up but loads of fun to watch. I’m honestly not sure which outcome to root for. I’ll leave you with three words to meditate on as you try to grasp the full extent of the insanity surrounding this show: ‘Bomb-sniffing dogs.’”
The national crisis scenarios were averted; Bristol Palin and the guy dancing with her came in third. (Keep in mind I’m about as qualified to assess dancing as I am to wrangle barracudas.) Previously, this show’s sole interest to the political media was the surreal spectacle of watching Tom DeLay dance to “Wild Thing.” But I near-guarantee that Thanksgiving weekend will have the duller knives in the cutlery drawer of punditry insisting that the journey of Bristol tells us something about the divisiveness of her mother or some such nonsense.
“I’m a bit unclear. Does this mean Jennifer Grey is now Governor of Alaska?” asks Nathan Wurtzel.
ADDENDA: Stephen Spruiell didn’t want to put this in the Corner, because he thought it would seem like making a fuss. I think his worries are overblown, but he’s agreed to put this in the Jolt to get the word to NRO readers: “After five great years with National Review, I’ve decided to help further the values and principles we all share in a different way. Starting the Monday after Thanksgiving, I’ll be joining Rep. Paul Ryan’s team on the House Budget Committee, of which Rep. Ryan will soon become the chairman. The last five years have been fantastic for all the reasons I thought they might be when I applied for the job — travel, freedom, the chance to meet and work with great conservatives and to spar with the best of our opposite number. But I never expected the relationships I would form with so many of you to be so rewarding. National Review must have the most intelligent, erudite and generous readership of any major publication, because the feedback I’ve gotten from you all is often superior to the commentary I read in rival publications. Thank you so much for your steadfast friendship, and I hope to correspond with you again in the future.”
I think Stephen was the first guy to come aboard NR after I did, and we have children roughly the same age. The big difference between us is that while I write about the easy stuff — campaigns, elections, polls, strategies — he actually knows something about economics, and very often his articles include complicated math that leave me nodding and pretending I understand it all. He will be missed here, but my guess is that the House Budget Committee will soon have the most fascinating reports and releases on Capitol Hill. Good luck, my friend.

As you can see, I thought Stephen’s farewell deserved as wide an audience as possible…