Major gubernatorial candidates debated for the first time this afternoon and while 135 people on the ballot and only 5 of them debated, it seemed like a lot to listen to as the entire debate seemed rushed to cover a wide range of questions and a wide array of answers. It was nice to hear candidates speak in one sentence or two instead of mouthing on and on. It was also interesting to hear candidates disagree quite openly on the issues. One person offers support on an issue, another flat out says no. And usually, it seemed State Senator Tom McClintock was the one saying no, from legislation allowing illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses to overtime rules. It all contributes to the circus-like atmosphere that is the California recall.

Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't a part of this debate. His strength is definitely not spontaneous question and answer sessions. That's why you'll be seeing him in the only debate that releases questions in advance on September 17.

How's this for spontaneous? Speaking in Cal State Long Beach, someone threw an egg at him, hitting his left shoulder. His response? "This guy owes me bacon now. I mean there's no two ways about it because, I mean, you can't just have eggs without bacon."

Meanwhile, here in Berkeley, PS 179 today offered the voice of Georgy Russell, one of the other 130 people not participating in the debate. She is the woman who offered thong underwear on her website as a way to finance her campaign for governor. A Cal grad with a degree in computer science, Russell's 20 minute speech did not go into detail as to what she would actually do if elected, but instead offered up lessons learned on the long road up to this point; a mildly entertaining talk giving mini-profiles of the major candidates plus recall financier Darrell Issa. I say mildly since while it was an excellent spin on the recall, most of the facts given have been covered ad nauseum by the media as well as in the statements given by the Cal Democrats and the Berkeley College Republicans a few minutes before. What little she said about what she would do included raising taxes for the wealthy and to find alternative sources of funding to eliminate the need for borrowing.

Last weekend in sports saw Cal beating Southern Mississippi 34-2. The Golden Eagles' vaunted defense was heavily favored to dominate the game, led by an All-American linebacker whose name escapes me, but instead it was Cal's defense that stole the show. All facets of the game were great except for goal-line offense, where for the second straight week, could not get a touchdown from the 1-yard line. Colorado State is next on the Bears' hit list. After shutting out Grambling State 29-0, San Jose State returned to its high pay, high loss type game as it earned about a half-million to play Florida. The Gators sport a new look as their star quarterback Rex Grossman went to the Bears. The rest of the team had a lot of turnover as well. However, it didn't affect their winning ways as they beat the Spartans 65-3. Up next for SJSU is Stanfurd.

Two shows generating buzz over the last few weeks are Playmakers and the O.C. Playmakers is ESPN's first drama series. I always thought ESPN was about live sports but it looks like there's a shift going on. Playmakers examines the lives of a football team while being concerned with ripped-from-the-headlines issues. For example, this last episode was about drug testing. The star running back, who's been seen taking all types of drugs multiple times so far in the series, is concerned with the piss man coming. (Old Nick fans will notice it's Omar Gooding, host of that game show Wild and Crazy Kids, a show where kids did wild and crazy things to win cash and prizes.) So what does he do? Does he get clean? Yeah, in a way. His buddy gives him a fresh bottle of urine and he injects it into himself with the help of a doctor. Though you don't see it, it's pretty cringing. Otherwise, so far, it's a pretty average show. An addicting show is developing in the O.C. cause that's how it's done in the O.C. I must wonder if the rich people of Newport Beach actually act like the people on the show. Do they actually have fancy beach parties almost every night? Casino nights where a house turns into the Bellagio? A cotillion? What the heck's a cotillion? I'd never heard of such a word before. It gets a little whiny yes, but the storylines are pretty interesting.