A List of lists On this Thanksgiving, Mediaite turns 143 days old. We'll be checking in today between turkey courses, and throughout the rest of the long weekend, but we also wanted to look back on the 143 days since we were first born on that early July morning. And what better way to look at our history than to break down some of the things we're thankful for! (more...)

So it's Halloween, and you don't have a costume. You were going to be Kanye West, but the friend you were counting on to be your Taylor Swift got swine flu at the last minute. Then, it was going to be Sarah Palin, until you remembered that that's what you were last year. Then, you were going to dress up as Balloon Boy, but you realized that all of your friends, neighbors, and extended family members were planning to as well. What to do?

Fortunately, Mediaite has come up with some costume suggestions for you. Pulled straight from the headlines, these are guaranteed to be hits:

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Looking back on the summer of 2009, many will remember it as the Summer of Death, but for much of the media it was also the Summer of Texting. Hardly a day goes by without some story about the dangers of cellphone use, especially the simple messaging service (SMS), from driving to sleep deprivation. The New York Times has an entire topics page dedicated to the "text messaging" beat! But along with dinner table etiquette and auto safety, some of the old and out of touch have wondered about texting's effect on kids' brains. Is "chatspeak" -- shorthand the youth uses in texts and online -- ruining spelling skills? (more...)

In a time of opinion journalism and partisan politics, it doesn't take much to rile up internet commenters into a poison-spewing frenzy. Still, the online discourse can be telling, especially as you approach the political fringe. "Hells awaiting," read one particularly acerbic note on the popular conservative website RedState.com this morning after reports surfaced late Tuesday that Senator Ted Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer. "If there’s any justice, he’ll finally get what’s coming to him." (more...)