Tonight's entertainment

With any luck, at 9PM Eastern, I'll be watching "Small come up big" against the dreaded D-Rays.

But can anyone remember another instance when the federal government's response to a natural disaster prompted the president to address the nation in Prime Time, on all three networks?

Really. I ask this in all seriousness. I don't recall this ever happening before. I realize it was a disaster of epic proportions, but it seems unprecedented. And, given that he's about to announce a program that will cost more than the war in Iraq -- and I doubt very much there will be any talk of "sacrifice," i.e., taxes -- nakedly cynical.

The networks have been conned into thinking this is necessary to heal the nation's wounds, I suppose, when it is intended really to heal the administration's.

And strange timing, with Ophelia trudging up the Atlantic coastline.

They got your number
Scared and runnin'
But I'm still waitin' for the second comin'
Of Ophelia
Come back home