the buzz log

This weekend, the presidential campaigns sprinted to the finish, an elite runner three-peated in the New York City Marathon, and James Bond got a head start on the box office competition. The Buzz recap is up and running — on your marks, get set, buzz!

Just one more shopping day till the election
Anyone still undecided? The candidates started making their closing pitches to the electorate this weekend, but as always, the Buzz lay elsewhere. A recording of Sarah Palin getting pranked by a Montreal comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy made the Internet rounds. (“Joe the Plumber, that’s not your husband, right?”) Meanwhile, the Obama campaign suffered a late-October surprise when AP reported that the candidate's Kenyan aunt has been living in Boston illegally. John McCain managed to stay on message — if his message was making fun of himself. He yukked it up with faux running mate Tina Fey on "Saturday Night Live." And in perhaps the ultimate manifestation of election burn-out, a news report surfaced of a Michigan McCain supporter refusing to give Halloween candy to the kids of pro-Obama parents.

Oy. Just one more day. And then we can all finally get down to the important business of speculating about 2012.

Radcliffe three-dux
Finally a story about someone running and it’s not for public office. Paula Radcliffe, 34, handily won her third New York City Marathon, on Sunday. Radcliffe, a Briton who finished out of the running at both the Beijing and Athens Olympics, led the pack from start to finish. She joins Grete Waitz as the only women to win the race more than twice. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's title, his second in the New York contest. 

Begin Bond buzz ... now
If you want to talk about long, successful races to the top, consider the James Bond film franchise, still going strong after 45 years. Buzz on the latest series entry, “Quantum of Solace,” has already begun. The film opens in the U.S. on Nov. 14, but fans in Britain, where the movie broke the one-day box office record, have already been shaken and stirred. Americans too eager to wait for the movie's hop over the Atlantic can check out advance reviews or read The New York Times interview with Daniel Craig, usually as elusive as 007 himself. Or ogle an “ultimate Bond girl” composite, created from the poll responses of 1,000 British men.

Or not.

Also buzzing this weekend…

• Texas Tech toppled previously undefeated Texas from its No. 1 perch with a last-second upset. Alabama, Texas Tech, and Penn State now occupy the top three spots.
• Is Britney again on the brink?  Media, start your engines.