The lights have just gone out in our newsroom. Apparently, it's happened a couple of times on Friday nights over the past few weeks, it's just that I was out covering baseball games.

But it is certainly eerie, considering how the people of American now sit collectively on the edges of their seats.

Working at the paper, I get to read stories the night before they appear in your newspapers. I also get to read many stories that never make it to the paper. I read about train crashes in Texas, heartwarming Christmas stories in Washington State, small-town murders in Idaho, long features on Pearl Harbor. There's all kinds of great writing I get to read that I never see in print the next day. And tonight, I got to read a wonderful column by Mike Lopresti about the reaction in his hometown of Richmond, Ind., to the terror attacks. It's probably the best piece I've read so far on the situation. Lopresti may just be the best sports writer in America, and this has nothing to do with sports -- that's why. The link connects you to his columns on the USA Today site; hopefully by tomorrow, the column of which I speak will be among them. I'll have to remember to check.

And speaking of stirring essays, many people by now have seen Gordon Sinclair's defense of America that's been e-mailed around. But how many people know that a) Gordon Sinclair died in 1984 and b) he wrote the essay and read it on Canadian radio in 1973. Even then, we weren't appreciated.

So the lights have come back on and we're no longer forced to read page proofs by the light of our computers, and our eyes are a little less strained.

It's another weird night on the sports desk. No sports to report -- not even high school football, since the Shore Conference schools today postponed all the other games they hadn't as of last night. Now we've got high school football on Sunday and Monday afternoons. There's not much happening out there, at least not in New Jersey.

Hopefully, it will be another quick, early night.

I've still got dinner on the way though.

To end on a lighter note, I've had some interesting Googles in the past 24 hours: "no panties" trip
sexy women ironing
"dolphin trainer" -O-Barry -cruelty -dog
picture george bush with presidental boots