Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, relationships, grooming and more.

RN: Sheesh, this campaign season is giving me indigestion. I say we leave the politics to the op/ed pages and make some endorsements of our own. What are you getting behind this year?

CP: I hate everything, but if you insist. Fall weather. Fox 9 Morning News. Scramble on Facebook.

RN: "Quantum of Solace," sight unseen. Smoke-free restaurants and bars. Long vacations. Coupons.

CP: "Weeds."

RN: A ridiculously generous G.I. Bill. The Ivey Awards. Warren Buffett. "Mad Men." Clinique's Post-Shave Healer. Cashmere. The Minneapolis City Hall carillon. Prairie vodka. Beyoncé.

CP: Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin. The Current's Mary Lucia. My Surly Steamroller fixed-gear bicycle.

RN: Wine and beer in supermarkets. Holidazzle. Sally Rousse. The joint Saarinen exhibition at Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. A live person answering the phone. The Foshay Tower. Condoms.

CP: Sedum. Vermicelli salad with mock duck and tofu at Quang Deli. InToto sales. Getting rid of Holidazzle. Franklin Learning Center.

RN: Butter pecan ice cream at the Pumphouse Creamery. Free Wi-Fi. The Heffelfinger Fountain at the Lyndale Park Rose Garden. The new spinning bikes at my gym. The Reformation.

CP: Converse sneakers by John Varvatos. Minneapolis noise ordinance. Room & Board Outlet. Off Fifth Saks outlet. The Presets. Oatmeal-raisin cookies at Macy's Marketplace. Dunn Bros. Coffee. "The Night of the Gun," by David Carr. MySpace music pages.

RN: Andrew Sullivan's blog. Joe Mauer. Light rail. Same-day voter registration. NPR's "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me." The balcony at the Uptown Theatre. The return of the Variety section in our own newspaper. Tina Fey.

CP: The Midtown Greenway. Poet James Schuyler. Yoga instructor Jessica Rosenberg.

RN: I totally second the divine Ms. R.

CP: Levi's. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter ...

RN: ... playing Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D., or perhaps the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 ...

CP: ... No, the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Hiawatha Avenue.

RN: Seriously? OK, one more: New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay.

CP: Albino squirrels.

E-mail: witheringglance@startribune.com.