NYC Mayor/Emperor Mike Bloomberg—who had said he wouldn't endorse anyone for president this cycle—has endorsed Barack Obama for re-election, largely due to climate change:

"The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast—in lost lives, lost homes and lost business—brought the stakes of next Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief."

From the Sandy shores...

Huge Sandy is a BFD for many states—NYC closes subways, orders evacs.

Earthquake off the coast of Canada.

Nobody cares about climate change.

Gilles Marini strips to underwear, gets soaked.

Minnesota divided over anti-equality Amendment 1.

Obama believes Supreme Court will kill DOMA.

AP: Obama poised to win.

Nate Silver: Obama poised to win.

The New York Times endorses Obama.

Des Moines Register—at center of Obama pissing match—endorses Romney.

Des Moines Register owned by Gannett...which is in biz with Bain.

Ann Romney on U.S. education: "Throw out the system."

Right-wing pollster declares FL "nailed down" by Romney. (In '08, they called it for...McCain.)

Madonna booed by some but also cheered in New Orleans for plugging Obama.

Many Madonna/New Orleans booing uploads to YouTube are fake.

Was Kenneth's uncle gay?

Via Sticky (Work Unfriendly): Trick or trick! Cute boys in revealing Halloween outfits.

Halloweiner

Twenty years ago today, Madonna released (unleashed?) her Sex book. Instantly infamous, the book sold out everywhere and is a collectible to this day—but it also hurt Madonna's record sales and alienated scores of fans for several years. It represented Madonna at her most defiant, at her brattiest, and not always at her most creative (that story about her "gash" just won't leave my mind).

From my Encyclopedia Madonnica, published two years after Sex, here are...

The 6 Dumbest Things Ever Said About Sex:

Kurt Eichenwald writes in The New York Times that the negligence on the part of the Bush Administration leading up to 9/11 was far worse than is already known. Using his knowledge of classified and declassified memos leading up to the infamous "Bin Laden Determined to Attack" memo that Condoleeza Rice—impossibly, sill a right-wing fave—blithely testified about to Congress, Eichenwald presents a damning article that should make every American's blood boil.

"Who here likes hookers?"...because the TMZ Tour is now available for a gross romp through the playgrounds of the rich and scruple-less.

The above is from No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, a new anthology that includes gay comics, 'zines and graphic novels. Interesting that gay rights exploded with Stonewall the very year that queer comics were born.

Speaking of gay comics (with a hat tip to Kenneth), The New York Times wonders why there aren't more male ones who've become A-listers like their lesbian counterparts Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Wanda Sykes.

One theory floated by my pal Dave Rubin:

"Television likes their gay people as sidekicks on the Bravo network or as fashion experts. I’m just not sure how far we’ve come from one of my favorite Homer Simpson lines: 'Marge, I like my TV loud, my beer cold and my homosexuals flaming!'"

So is he right? And if not, why aren't there any A-list gay male comedians...and which one will be the first to break through the Todd Glass ceiling?

Octogenarian Carmen Dell'Orefice walks off shoots that stress her out. "There's another job. Or there isn't another job."

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders turns in an HBO doc that sounds like must-see TV, all about models and aging. About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now airs Monday and will include things like Paulina Porizkova saying:

"What people call sexual harassment, we called compliments. When a 16-year-old girl is flattered by a man pulling out his penis in front of her, that's noteworthy."

Beverly Johnson and others apparently grew skittish about the film's mission to show it like it is, noting that with  supermodels, "You've got to retouch." But he didn't, and I can't wait to see because it's really just a peek into the future for us all. IF we were lucky enough to start out as gorgeous as these girls to begin with, that is.

A Connecticut student who came to school wearing a T-shirt showing a rainbow with a slash through it—antigay pride, get it?—has found a friend in the ACLU, which thinks he has every right to express his opinions on his chest in school. I wonder if they would feel the same way about a shirt with a big, slashed-out cross or star of David or female symbol or, or, or?

I can't imagine being forced to choose between my dog and my home, but I would choose my dog. Well, at least the girl. The boy is on his own. (Kidding.) Let's hope this poor guy doesn't react how this other poor guy did when asked to make that decision.

I'm not sure why buildings would be so resolute about not allowing dogs. I would think it would be better to have policies against aggressive animals and careless owners than to ban them outright.

Emmy-winning Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons—so brilliant in The Normal Heart and currently plugging his turn on Broadway in a revival of Harvey—has officially come out in a New York Times profile. Commenters on my site have for a couple of years insisted he is already out based on information that they have about how open he is in private. However, being professionally out—on the record—is different (and better) than a glass closet. Great news, and he did it in a way similar to how Matt Bomer did it, organically and without any mincing of words.