Brain Shuffle, 9/14/08

-- With the way that middle-class women are flocking to Sarah Palin, the best thing Oprah Winfrey could do for the Barack Obama campaign is to reverse course, have Palin on the show -- and start asking questions. She's perhaps the only person who could give Palin the grilling she deserves without being accused of sexism. It would be like one of those episodes of Law & Order where a hot chick criminal is about to get away with her entire evil plot by manipulating the gender card, until a hot chick prosecutor steps up and takes her down.

-- Interesting dilemma for Brewers fans, with the Ike-blasted Cubs-Astros series being moved to Miller Park for two games. Given that the Brewers have had the Cubs in their sights all year long, you would think Milwaukee folks would turn out in droves to root for the 'Stros. Problem is, Houston is charging hard for a wild-card spot, and Milwaukee is much closer to third place in the NL Central than first, so they almost have to grit their teeth and become Cubs fans for a couple days.

-- Great stat from PTI the other day (or maybe it was Around the Horn): Going into this season, Matt Cassel had 253 career passing yards. His opposing quarterback in today's Patriots-Jets game, Brett Favre, had 253 consecutive starts.

-- The U.S. Department of Transportation would like to apologize for the slowdown in bus service experienced across the country Sunday night. Apparently what gummed up the works is that it took forever for all those passengers to disembark the New England Patriots bandwagon.

-- It's not that 16-year-olds as a group are or are not ready to drive. Some are, some aren't. There's no need to raise the age at which you can get a license; there's a need to only give licenses to kids who actually pass a driving test, rather than just take one.