JOPLIN, Mo. — This week’s cover story about Beerfest marks the second week in a row that beer has been on the cover. (Number of times Enjoy! has featured beer on the cover: Three. Just in case you’re keeping track.)

This weekend’s beer-based event is modeled after a similar event in Springfield, which was always well-run and can’t-miss. Beerfest promises to be an upscale event that features plenty of different craft and microbrews.

Maybe I’ll see you there. I’ll be the guy drinking a Blue Moon with no orange.

The barrister of the Booze Beat, Dave Woods (aka “old sot” to people who think that the mere mention of alcoholic beverages is tantamount to the destruction of society), gives a much more in-depth report of the event, including some of the specialized brews that will be available for adventurous palates. It’s put on by professionals, stacked to the gills with food and beer, features two great local bands and will fund a worthy cause: Big Brothers Big Sisters.

~ There should be no doubts now: Fox News has some credibility problems. The strange part is that it took a comedy show to show exactly how.

Have you heard anything about a mosque at Ground Zero? If not, go back and watch some of the coverage on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” In a nutshell: Some Muslims wanted to open an Islamic mosque and cultural center in an old building two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed by terrorists on 9/11.

Lately, some right-wingers have gone crazy-go-nuts over it, saying that the center would be the site of terror.

Cue “The Daily Show”: During its Aug. 23 episode, it showed a clip featuring Fox and Friends commentators tracking the center’s money trail to a mysterious, shady figure.

That shady figure turned out to be Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the larger shareholders of Fox News’ parent company, News Corp.

Oops!

The resulting debate, about whether Fox was too stupid or too evil, is hilarious. Check my blog -- imgeekedout.wordpress.com -- for a vid.

But the hilarity leads to some sadness for my profession: How come a comedy show was the organization to break that? Dag.

~ For more mosque craziness, Jeremiah Tucker features this generation’s country protest song. It’s on page 10.

~ Tuesday night was a great night for Who Dats: ESPN featured an hourlong report about the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl-winning season.

“Champ Camp with Jon Gruden” played like a DVD commentary of the special season. Gruden, who has made no secret of his adoration of the Saints, talked with coach Sean Payton and Super Bowl MVP quarterback Drew Brees about key moments throughout the season.

Any Saints fan who watches this will gain new appreciation for the team. Gruden unearths some good insights into strategies, and gets some good comments about Brees’ desire to beat N.O. native Peyton Manning in the big game.

That should be expected, considering the friendly environment -- which also led to my gripes with the report. It spent a long segment on the NFC championship game against the Minnesota Vikings, but didn’t talk ANY about the punishing defense that shook up Brett Favre and gave him that much-discussed ankle injury.

I really wanted to hear more about the defensive plan, because that’s what kept the Saints in that game. Its omission from the report does it a disservice.

~ Speaking of the Saints, they’ll be featured at 7 p.m. tonight on CBS. They play a preseason game against the San Diego Chargers. Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel, who played an awesome game against the Houston Texans last week, won’t be featured as prominently this week.

~ Is anyone really excited about seeing the special, extended edition of “Avatar?” Can’t say I am.

~ Is anyone really excited about seeing the movie “The Last Exorcism?” Actually, I am. Mainly because of a great marketing ploy.

Last week, during his vacation, J Magazine editor Scott Meeker came across some great viral videos marketing the movie. Producers went on Chatroulette.com and showed a beautiful girl flirting for the camera.

After a few suggestive moves, the girl gets possessed by an evil spirit (and some FX) and acts unnaturally scary. As this happens, the responses were recorded and collected.

That all adds up for a great video that made me excited for a movie that has almost nothing relevant to the original video. But it’ll have to go to the back of the list: I still haven’t seen “Piranha 3-D” yet.

~ Speaking of “Piranha 3-D,” reviews from Meeker and movie columnist Benji Tunnell indicate it is every bit as cheesetastic and gross as advertised. Check out Tunnell’s review on page 14.

~ Speaking of Chatroulette.com, the controversial new Web cam application for the Internet, it’s down. A simple announcement reads, “The experiment #1 is over now. Thanks for participating. Renewed and updated version of the website will be launched shortly.”

In the words of Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Huh. Will “experiment #2” somehow eliminate the pervs who use Chatroulette to, um --Êyou know what? I’m not going there.

~ Kitty update: The new critter has a name. Waldo will be a month old next week (and due for some shots).

For those new to the column, Waldo is the only survivor of five kittens born by a stray cat that adopted us (named Kevin).

The baby kitty is named (yep, we named the kitty -- bad news) after the camouflaged character from the ‘90s. Like the red-striped ragamuffin, Waldo is hard to find, because no matter what kind of bedding we prepare for the kitty, his momma hides him elsewhere.

We know that Waldo is SOMEWHERE in the garage, but we have to hunt. He’s about to give me an ulcer. But he’s awfully cute -- especially when he bounds awkwardly across the garage floor.

~ I’ve often written about how much we love flat iron steaks in my family. The tough thing about them is finding them -- Dillon’s has been the only place we can find them regularly, without going to a butcher.

Recently, Wal-mart has added them, but in my opinion, they aren’t true flat irons. They are cut wrong.

What makes a flat iron a flat iron is the shape. It’s a top blade steak cut in such a way that a large tendon is removed. The result is an iron-shaped piece of steak that has the size and flavor of a sirloin and nearly the tenderness of a filet.  

But the “flat irons” at Wal-mart don’t look anything like flat irons. It’s likely the top blade, but the tendon is plain to see, smack in the middle of every piece. Be warned.