Etc...

Let's try this again

You probably didn't see this in the society pages of your local newspaper, but retiree Kama-ruddin Mohamad wed Khadijah Udin last Sunday. OK, the ceremony was held in Malaysia. But what made it noteworthy was that Khadijah became Mohamad's 53rd wife ... 46 years after he divorced her to end their first marriage. In between, the "easy-going charmer" married and divorced 50 other women, one of them after only two days with her. Another wife died. So why would Khadijah take him back? Well, she'd been living alone. Then, too, he swore to her "he didn't want to continue this habit."

Friday night's TV debate in St. Louis, which incorporates audience questions in a town meeting-style format, is the second of three between President Bush and US Sen. John Kerry. Televised debates date back to 1960, but their number has varied from election to election - although sometimes there haven't been any. In fact, after the first debates, in which John Kennedy tapped the power of television to make a more favorable appearance than Richard Nixon, none was held until 1976. The most-watched: 1980, which drew an estimated 80 million viewers. The first Bush-Kerry face-off, Sept. 30, was seen by 62.5 million. The participants and the number of debates in each election year:

1964 Johnson vs. Goldwater 0
1968 Nixon vs. Humphrey 0
1972 Nixon vs. McGovern 0
1976 Carter vs. Ford 3
1980 Reagan vs. Carter 1
1984 Reagan vs. Mondale 2
1988 Bush vs. Dukakis 2
1992 Clinton/Reagan/Perot 2
1996 Clinton vs. Dole 2
2000 Bush vs. Gore 3
- www.newsaic.com