Anyone who thinks Circuit City’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing today has the least bit to do with the ongoing financial whatsits in the country doesn’t know the history of the company. True, if we were still in a boom time right now, CC might not have had to take this step…yet. But it would be coming. The company has been sliding for quite some time now, and this has been predicted for over a year by many who spent time there.

That said, don’t look for the company to totally collapse just yet. Welcome to K-Mart!

CBS ADVISORY — CBS RADIO NEWS

STATIONS— THE FOLLOWING IS AN ADVISORY FROM CBS NEWS:

***THIS CAN NOT BE REPORTED UNTIL 11PM EASTERN****

When the polls close at 11:00pm Eastern in California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii….

CBS News will estimate that Senator Barack Obama will get the needed 270 electoral votes and will be the next President of the US.

Top 3 minutes of the hourly newscast will be devoted to Senator Obama’s projected win.

There will also be a 1 minute special report at 11:00pm Eastern, Channel 39…

CBS RADIO NEWS

Peter and Emily Stork loved their 2008 Malibu. It was the first vehicle they purchased as husband and wife, and while they had not set out to buy this specific automobile, it took but a brief test drive for them to decide this was the vehicle they would spend the first few years of their marriage traveling the country in. They named their new auto “Jesse White,” a humorous moniker meant to reflect the neutral color of the vehicle and the name of the Secretary of State whose signature lined the bottom of their registration.

The couple went everywhere in their beloved Malibu. Exploring Route 66, vacationing in picturesque south central Wisconsin and traveling ninety-minutes one-way just to partake in the delicious wonder that is Joe’s Italian Subs in Effingham. A young couple still without child, the two in their weaker moments almost considered Jesse White to be their baby.

On October 23, while Peter was traveling north on Illinois Highway Four, anxious to return home to his lovely Emily, a red BMW turned left into Peter’s lane of traffic, refusing to yield the right of way, standing in the path of the fast-moving 2008 Malibu…

and subsequently bringing a premature end to the life of Peter and Emily Stork’s most prized inanimate possession.

Eight days later, Peter and Emily found themselves at their neighborhood car dealer, staring at a different 2008 Malibu. Different, it was – it seems that their beloved automobile had not, as they thought, been merely the so-called “Fleet” version of the car, but instead the Malibu Classic, a line which fell somewhere between the old 2007 models and the newer, sleeker 08’s that had won a multitude of awards from a variety of publications. This new car, procured for them just days before by the sympathetic dealer, was the younger build. It was a design that did not bring Emily’s heart to a flutter in the same fashion that Jesse White had, but the couple agreed: they would take this new, more aerodynamic Malibu into their lives and try to give it the love they shared with their previous automobile.

Now all they needed…was a name.

Like this weekend.

So here are my picks, in crude, So Easy A Caveman Could Do It form:

TEN d. BAL, GBP d. ATL, CAR d. KCC, SDC d. MIA, PHI d. WAS, NYG d. SEA, IND d. HOU, CHI d. DET, DEN d. TBB, BUF d. ARI, DAL d. CIN, NEP d. SFF, JAC d. PIT, NOS d. MIN, BYE d. STL

Me: So, Peter, I noticed there have been some changes in the site design over the past few hours.

Peter: Yeah, some tweaks.  I was toying with a completely new design, but to be honest the current one isn’t that bad.  So I removed the brown background, placed some of the biographical navigation stuff up top since the red bar was kind of a waste otherwise.  Little things, but I think it goes a long way.

Me: Any more changes in store?

Peter: Well, since I’ve finally joined the 20th century like FDR addressing the nation on the telly by starting to use Twitter, I’ll be adding a Twitter feed to the page.  And the navigation bar is going to be condensed down some.  It’s kind of cumbersome right now.  I’m also debating rotating the images at the top instead of having a static banner.

Me: What about content?  You don’t really seem to write much anymore?

Peter: Yeah, no shit.  That needs to change, and I think it will.  This is all part of that motivation to actually get off my lazy bum and write.  I get the feeling it might actually happen this time.  Having a better site design, oddly enough, helps because I don’t look at the site and go “wow, I want NOTHING to do with that.”

Me: What about people who read your posts as Facebook notes?  Does this mean anything to them?

Peter: Well, they can bookmark exit670.com and read them there, too, with pretty colors and such.  It’s kind of a big deal.

Me: People know it?

Peter: Looking at my visitor stats…no.

I was passed by an older-middle aged man who, as he walked by, commented to me that “I am a lineman for the county.” This prompted me to loudly sing the rest of the first verse of “Wichita Lineman” to him as he sprinted off to do his lineman duties down on the sand.

Glen Campbell is invading my dreams. Maybe if I stopped playing that song everytime I sign off at midnight he would cease the attack.