John McCain's vice presidential choice certainly raised a lot of questions. Across the country, the pundits chewed mightily on the obvious ones all day long: Who is Sarah Palin? As a relatively inexperienced governor, is she ready to serve? Would she attract disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters?

Some of us also spent the day scratching our heads over a far less serious question but still intriguing question: What the heck is a snow machine?

In Palin's acceptance speech, she mentioned that her husband Todd, or First Dude as Alaskans call him, is a world-champion "snow machine" racer. Snowmobiles we've heard of. This is Minnesota. But snow machine? That conjured up images of Boris and Natasha scooting around in an oddly-shaped vehicle on old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

A Google search quickly answered the question. Palin's ridden in numerous snowmobile races, the Iron Dog appears to be a favorite. Looks like his machine is Arctic Cat green, giving Minnesota a connection to our potential national First Dude.