Part of Ashland was in a blackout last night for about four hours (my part, of course). It was a little spooky, but everything was OK as far as I could tell. Becky and Johnny continued playing Scrabble by candelight, while Vicki read. I had dinner at the university with a couple hundred people last night (one of those celebrating the 125th anniversary of AU). I bumped into the mayor and asked him why he is out partying during a blackout, he should be at his desk trying to do something. He said, "The part of Ashland I live in has lights." I should run against this guy! I did notice that there were more motorcycles (a lot more) on the roads during the blackout than would be normal for such a hot evening. Because I now have XM radio in my car, I listened to CNN and FOX quite a bit. I was pleased by the reaction of people, all moderate and full og pretty good humor. I couldn’t help noticing three other things, though: First, California Governor (still) Gray Davis was pontificating about what all this means on CNN at great length, I’m gusessing over thirty minutes. That was unfortunate. Clever. Two, former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson also got a lot of face time (got in a couple of nice digs on Bush). Three, I did not see or hear anywhere, at any time, the current Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Now it’s possible that (unlike Ashland’s mayor) he was hard at work on the matter, but, still, he could have made a few appearances. Bad move. Here is the New York Times coverage.