We just want to remind the venerable (cough) San Diego Union-Tribune and more specifically publisher David C. Copley - it's not a blog (yet)...you don't have to publish every nut ball that sends you their cries to overthrow the government.

And it's not the Unabomber Manifesto or something. You're not making a deal in hopes of saving lives by publishing irrational fears and threats of violence.

And to think of all the competent people out of work right now...

Regrets: Norah Vincent writes a moving account of her regret over not voting this year. Most impressive part of her Op-Ed? She uses the word "doctrinaire" twice. TWICE, people!

Conspicuous Consumption: Just in time for the ailing economy, the LAT launches a new blog, To Live and Buy in L.A. Good thing, too. Otherwise we'd have no idea where to get an Obama T-shirt for our dog. (Seriously people? Everyone's 401(k) is running on fumes and you're selling us ironic dog T-shirts?)

One Note Wonder: The LAT blog post about Christina Aguilera's fave restaurants can't be more than 300 words long, but that's long enough, apparently, for Aguilera to run out of words. To wit: "I'm a chef groupie. I met Tom Colicchio recently and was starstruck." and "I'm a chef groupie. If I met Mario Batali I'd be starstruck."

LAT's Howard Rosenberg's premise is simple: D.L. Hughley can't be as funny as the rest of the personalities on CNN:

Is the line separating news and entertainment not blurry enough? Cablers are already somersaulting in HD to attract and keep viewing throngs that flocked to them for election stuff in 2008, and light fare such as Leno, Letterman and ABC's "The View" have become must-stops for political candidates and their surrogates. Now here comes CNN wiping the line away entirely by having some of its actual correspondents go for yuks in "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News."

This is the next revolution in the 'news for ratings' debacle. Of course, we won't mention how much LAT ink is devoted to what celebrities have dimples in their butts...they are all serious journalists over there so we won't mention that.

Orange County Register EIC Ken Brusic let his troops know that the paper's Nov. 5 front page was selected to be one of 25 (out of 700 submitted) for inclusion in Newseum's election day poster.

Here's the letter Brusic forwarded to the rest of the staff, letting them know of the distinction:

continued...

We crashed the LA Weekly's Laid Off Party in Glendale last night and then subjected all the 'guests of honor' to a series of photographs. Way to make ourselves popular. Pictured are Matthew Fleischer, Laura Steele, David Caplan, Pandora Young, Marc Cooper and Sharan Street.

While trying to wrangle up the recently unemployed we overheard,"Do you want a picture of the last round of layoffs too? They're here."

Damn.

A LAT staffer told FBLA that there is a line around the block right now to buy a newspaper with plate of the day after the election.

So take that internets! There will be no collecting of your often clever and sometimes historical headlines. You've been usurped by the old paper product newspaper today.

For those of you keeping score at home: that's one for the print newspapers and 20 zillion for the internet.

Not Running: The guy who developed The Grove, Rick Caruso, has put an end to months of Internet whispering and said "he would not challenge incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the city's March election."

Graph O'The Day: From a Kim Murphy piece about Sarah Palin: "With her vice-presidential carriage turned back into a pumpkin, Palin faces a return to a state rife with hard feelings, a sagging budget and rising political uncertainty. Will its powerful veteran U.S. senator hold on to his job despite a felony corruption conviction? And what can Palin do about her home-grown political adversaries, some of them showing a gleeful appetite for torpedoing whatever national political ambitions the governor may harbor?"

And Now Back To Important Stuff: With the election over, reporters can now go back to reporting the stuff we really care about... like how badly Halle Berry dressed herself before she got a stylist. Don't know what to do with yourself now that Obama's in the White House? Enjoy this picture book thingy by Elizabeth Snead.

LAT officials tell us people are lined up around the block at Spring Street for commemorative editions of yesterday's paper.

From the LAT Readers' Representative:

Jack D. Klunder, president of the Los Angeles Times Newspaper, says The Times is printing an additional 82,000 newspapers. (*Update: Klunder now says that The Times will print more -- an additional 25,000 copies -- and plans to produce today's edition as long as demand continues.) They are being sold in stores around L.A., and from The Times' two lobbies in downtown Los Angeles, where people started lining up at 11 a.m. (Vendors in the lobby on Spring Street said they'd sold about 1,500 as of early afternoon).

Here's how it stacks up with other big-news-day sales: After the first day of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, The Times sold an additional 216,000 papers. The Space Shuttle Challenger explosion led to sales of an additional 118,000. Says Klunder, "We expect to sell about 100,000 additional papers today. Normal big-headline stories (fires, earthquakes, etc.) sell from 20,000 to 40,000" additional copies.

That's change American newspapers can believe in!

We haven't seen lines forming at newsstands in L.A., but Gawker is reporting that NY stands are running out of papers.
Allow us to repeat that for you: Stands are running out of newspapers today!