Last night was the third annual Fashion's Night Out, Anna Wintour's fake charity. We must acknowledge that this is now a global thing that happens, and will continue to happen, once every year, like some sort of culling of the herd. Here are all the celebrities, parties, and ridiculous fashions that you missed by not attending.

Yikes. A sad, strange story today from El Paso. El Paso exists! That's the sad, strange story. No, no, just kidding. The story is that a female tiger at the El Paso Zoo killed her mate for some reason.

It seems like we've heard every last story remotely connected to the events of 9/11. But I'd never heard this one: the one about the female fighter pilot who came thisclose to a patriotic suicide mission that day.

The massive power blackout that caused some 5 million people in Arizona, California and Mexico to lose electricity was apparently triggered by one person in Arizona. An Arizona Public Service Company worker "remov[ed] a piece of monitoring equipment," which set off a chain reaction across the region, according to the AP. More from APS:

Congratulations Texas: You're officially hotter than a humorous image conjured by an ill-chosen newspaper headline.

This has been a brave new week for the Ron Paul presidential campaign, as the dear old Doctor Congressman appears to be growing some hair on his chest. He's actually picking a fight with another candidate, Rick Perry. They even got into a little scuffle during the debate last night! Was Rick Perry so angry that he beat the shit out of Ron Paul during a commercial break? The inappropriately protective Ron Paul fan community is concerned.

If there were any correlation whatsoever between cursing and profits, Carol Bartz would never have been fired from atop Yahoo. As things stand, she's swearing up a storm about how she was "fucked over."

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter is one of the members of Congress who's been bragging in the last few days about not attending President Obama's speech tonight — in his case, to hold a football-watching party at his house. But it probably wasn't a good idea to broadcast his lame flouting of congressional tradition! Because Sen. Harry Reid heard him, and now it appears that little David will have to stay in Washington after all.

In your luxurious Thursday media column: the WaPo has an explanation, Sam Sifton promotion rumors, licensing journalists is bad, MSNBC leans forward further, and tawdry speculation about our company's activities.

Rep. Michele Bachmann was unusually silent and uncared-about during last night's debate, in the latest sign that Rick Perry has completely eaten her lunch and all that's left for her campaign is a tragicomic, Norma Desmond-esque flameout. What can she do? Perhaps call a news conference to rebut Obama's speech tonight! Someone's got to do it. (Not really.)

Former Dior designer John Galliano, who was tried in Paris for two incidents at the same bar where he called people "dirty Jews," was found guilty of hate speech. His only punishment seems to be losing his job, besmirching his name, and being ridiculed in the press.

Puerto Rico! The island that just won't become our 51st state, no matter how much we bat our eyelashes. Still, as a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico has the right to have a police force just as brutal and corrupt as any in the USA.

Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik — a big fan of wetsuits, hazmat suits and Lacoste sweaters — has enraged iconic French fashion brand Lacoste by mentioning the company in his manifesto and wearing it repeatedly outside of jail. In fact, the unwanted attention is getting so bad that the company has written to Norwegian authorities to ask that they stop letting Breivik wear Lacoste. From the Telegraph:

Resilient crazy person Muammar Qaddafi — despite claims from Libya's transitional forces and just about everyone else that he's cornered in the Sahara, or in hiding in Niger, or sipping cocktails with Robert Mugabe — released a new audio message today to Al-Rai TV and (predictably) it's delusional:

Before anything else: Let us bow our heads in prayer to St. Ronald Reagan, the dead host of tonight's debate in California. Our Lord, Ronald Reagan, hallowed be thy name. You are the man. What was that movie you were in? Amen. Now let's get out there and kick each other's asses!

Last week, Republicans complained about the date of President Obama's jobs speech to Congress and got the White House to move it to the next evening. The resolution of this conflict has allowed Republicans to move on — to making new excuses about why they won't show up anyway. One will be busy tweeting in his office! Another has to host a party. But really they all just hate Obama, which is fine.

It's time for another Republican presidential debate tonight, like the fourth of 'em or something like that! And after tonight, you'll have to wait a whole five days for your next opportunity to watch them babble strange collective nonsense again. So what should we expect from tonight's gathering at the St. Ronald Reagan of Reagan Presidential Library in California? Here's the "insider's take."

In your soggy Wednesday media column: More Reuters poaching, a PR liar called out, America's Most Wanted returns, ad spending forecasts decline, and Felix Salmon does more stuff, somehow.

The interest in late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor's sparkling hoard of diamonds, rubies, and every other precious stone known to man was renewed today when Christie's announced it would be selling all 300 items (estimated to be worth $30 million) in December. Here are some of the highlights, so you can pick out which of the pieces you'd like to bid on.

While you were sitting around in your air-conditioned apartment sending free "e-mails" and watching pornography, our nation's letter carriers were coming to the realization that they may soon be completely defunct.