NERO, FIDDLING, AND THE NYC MARATHON: A play in one act:

WE RUN IN THE DARK, WE RUN IN THE DARK!: By now, if you care one bit about whether or not the New York City Marathon is on, off, or postponed, you are already well aware of all of the arguments about allocation of resources, optics, and resilience, and I won't reargue those. I just wanted to focus for a moment on the argument that running the Marathon will put $350 million into the local economy.

SLATS, OR THE OCTOPUS:  The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has released the new Veterans Committee ballot for potential pre-1947 honorees, and Rob Neyer offers his thoughts.

4TH LARGEST CITY IN AMERICA - HON. SEBASTIAN LEONE, BOROUGH PRESIDENT:  In honor of tomorrow night's Nets (rescheduled) home opener, and for all the warm feelings we share for the ALOTT5MAns resident therein, tell us something you like about Brooklyn.

ANIMAL DANCE!  Vulture speculates as to whether the Disney-Lucasfilm merger might finally secure the rights necessary for Muppet Babies to be released on DVD.

YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY THINK THAT A CIVILIZATION SENDING THIS KIND OF MESSAGE WOULD INTEND IT JUST FOR AMERICANS:  Jodie Foster, 49, will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at January's Golden Globes.  She is the youngest winner of the award since Charlton Heston, 43, won it in 1967; Judy Garland (at 39) won it in 1962.

TRYIN' TO CALL HOME: Between the Maroon 5 song and the fact that they're still functioning in blacked out Lower Manhattan, pay phones are having a comeback.  (I'm fine--no power or water at home, but managed to find a hotel at a relatively reasonable rate which has power and hot water.)