Sindhu Ravishankar, a 19-year-old NCSU sophomore, will get an international award for raising the money and organizing "eye camps" for rural villagers in India. Her efforts led to 945 eye screenings, 130 same-day prescription eyeblasses and 257 cataract surgeries for people earning less than $1 per day per family. Did we mention she's 19? That such a good-hearted and industrious teenager exists in Raleigh should offer hope to anyone beat down by bad economic news and election shenanigans. (Wednesday, Page 1A)

N&O cartoonist Dwane Powell is taking his turn providing a captionless cartoon to the McClatchy caption-writing contest. Here's the cartoon. Go here to enter the contest. Let's have a local winner!

Help me understand "Girlfriends Appalled about Sarah Palin." "It felt a bit like any old woman will do," says one of the Raleigh women insulted by John McCain's choice of a running mate. Gender was not the main attraction.

Barack Obama has been remarkably disciplined in his campaign rhetoric. He has stressed the importance of fixing the fouled-up economy and of purging poisons from our political system. Yet in his famous colloquy with Joe the Plumber, Obama sprang a rhetorical leak.

Hope Community Church in Cary has given out $50,000 in increments from $10 to $500 to church members and asked them to make the money grow so that the church can do more charity work in Haiti. Is this trickle-up or trickle-down economics? Maybe it's "talent-multiplication" economics, a particularly poignant lesson from a parable in the 25th chapter of Matthew. (Monday, Page 1B)

Scientists have discovered that some brains just don't get the same messages about fabulous food that other brains get. Some brains are blunted to pleasurable effects and so the gratification is muted and the eating continues. So, in theory, we've always been exactly right when we said we just couldn't help but eat the whole pounder bag of peanut M&Ms. (Friday, Page 7A)

The race for president has been heated and emotional, to say the least. How can the winner best overcome divisions and help the country move forward? If the other guy wins, how are you going to feel about the future?

You have to wonder how many points Libertarian Mike Munger will go up in the gubernatorial polls just for being able to stand between two snipers at Wednesday night's debate without getting shot. (Thursday, Page 1A)

Some thoughts on voting — and on what a great country this is!

Pat Stith was a mentor and teacher to many a News & Observer reporter. He's retired, but most of those who worked with him carry his legacy in their notebooks.