I’m sure everybody has heard about “Fearless” Felix Baumgartner jumping from about 24 miles up and reaching a speed of almost 834 MPH (faster than the speed of sound) before parachuting safely to the ground below. The pictures are pretty awesome, and I was struck by Felix’s quote after he got back to the ground: “Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are.” Amen to that. Who hasn’t gotten really high and wondered if our universe is just one atom in a giant being, whose universe is just one atom on another giant being, whose…. Woah. Started to blow my mind a little bit there, and it’s too early for that.

Of course, the big news this week is Round Two: tomorrow night’s presidential debate. Team Obama is promising a much better performance this time around, and Obama has been going hard at it with Romney stand-in John Kerry. Anybody think maybe that’s kind of the problem to begin with? I mean, Obama was practicing against a mannequin, so it’s no wonder he was somewhat taken aback when Pinocchio came to life (a shame Mitt’s nose doesn’t grow when he lies, though). I guess we’ll just have to see how he does (not that I’ll be wasting any time watching it this time around, though; he already made me stay up late once for no good reason, and we have a saying here in Syracuse – probably have it in other places, too – that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again).

I always wondered what happened to Ralph Kramden, and now I think we know. He apparently left the Gotham Bus Company, and moved to Cleveland, where he finally really did go “POW! To the moon!”. The victim in this case wasn’t Alice, but a 25-yr old female passenger.

A Cleveland, Ohio, bus driver dealt quite the blow to a woman who apparently had been taunting him during a ride, delivering an uppercut punch directly to her jaw.

There’s video (of course), and I must say, it was quite a shot. I don’t think this guy’s gonna be driving a bus again anytime soon. While I of course abhor violence, it appears that the woman in question wasn’t totally blameless.

New information has been released, identifying the bus driver as Artis Hughes and the female passenger as Shidea N. Lane. According to the police report, obtained by Cleveland.com, Lane allegedly got on the bus driven by Hughes without paying, claiming she forgot her backpack. She proceeded to ask “Are you putting me off the bus?” and “Is this how you treat people in Cleveland?” Lane eventually paid and called Hughes a “bitch.” The two got into a verbal argument, according to the police report, and Lane reportedly proceeded to grab Hughes’ throat, spit in his face and strike him with her fist.

If you’re gonna spit in somebody’s face and then punch them, well, you probably shouldn’t be terribly surprised when they deck you. Just sayin’.

Oh well, time to get on with the day. Happy Monday.