18 and out. The Orioles beat the Mariners 4-2 in 18 innings, a six hour marathon, and the fourth longest game in Mariners history.

I bet he wouldn't say that about Romney if Romney was black. Republican vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan describes Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comments as "obviously inarticulate."

Back to school. Yay. 350,000 Chicago children are back to school today, after the teachers union accepted a new contract, ending their seven-day strike. Sorry, children of Chicago.

More bad news for Romney: Sales of existing homes have hit a two-year high.

Japan's nuclear phase-out melts down. One week after announcing plans to phase out nuclear power by 2040, Japan's government backed down in the face of opposition from the business community.

Why? Because we're French! The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published mocking cartoons of Muhammad, some of them depicting the Islamic prophet naked. Yeah, that should work out okay.

Yup, folks are still killing each other in Syria. Rebel forces drove government troops from a border crossing, as fighting spilled across the Turkish border in Syria's bloody civil war.

Rumble! A group of off-duty Bellevue police officers surround and taunt a Seattle police officer.

Poor Howard Schultz. The Starbucks CEO is the least wealthy of Seattle's eight billionaires.

Hmm... perhaps they should have tried inviting more reporters? Rob McKenna's gubernatorial campaign has canceled its weekly media conference calls, allegedly due to lack of interest. Also, he didn't like the questions he was being asked. Bold leadership!

Mrs. Jesus? A Harvard historian has translated a fourth century scrap of Coptic papyrus that has Jesus referring to "my wife" and a female disciple. Would be much more amusing to read the Joseph Smith translation.

But how's he going to pet his cat? A Prineville Oregon man has had his fingers and toes amputated after they withered and died due to a serious bout of the Black Death. 60-year-old Paul “Steve” Gaylord caught the plague in June "when he tried to take a mouse out of the throat of his choking cat."

And finally, Mitt Romney's mom talks about how Mitt's dad's early years on welfare helped make George Romney uniquely qualified to be governor of Michigan: