The Eich affair wound down a little, but I had one last post on it here. Plus: resurgent Russian chauvinism; the benefits of female leaders; a huge paper elephant; and the foul, ugly extremism of Sheldon Adelson, king-maker for Republican candidates. And this trippy trippy rabbit hole. Plus: Octoblogging!

The most popular post of the day was The Quality Of Mercy; followed by The Hounding of a Heretic.

See you in the morning, which, as the super-exciting Vox explains, is what happens when the sun comes up.

(Photo: you really need to caption this yourself. But it’s by Samir Hussein/Getty.)