Abstract: Desperate times call for desperate measures. I will discuss two such desperate approaches to explaining the origin of the observed acceleration of the universe. After presenting the current constraints on the dark energy I will, in the first part, present a critical, particle physics, analysis of the phantom matter proposed to accommodate the most extreme acceleration allowed by present data. In the second part I will discuss a first attempt to modify gravity as an alternative to dark energy. While this simple model ultimately fails, it opens the door to a new way of thinking about cosmic acceleration.