*There may come a day when we'll wish David Paterson was still governor of New York ... particularly when Andrew Cuomo displays his Eliot Spitzer steamroller side or when Rick Lazio demonstrates he isn't up to the task. But for now, it seems Paterson did everyone a favor by withdrawing from the race. Now we'll see is his official lame duck status makes matters better or worse with the renegate Legislature as the budget comes due.

*The memory fades as I get older, so I'm really hard-pressed to remember a winter storm anything like this week's. Other than a night without power in Woodstock and a couple of neighboring communities, the greater Kingston area has been like an oasis, with huge snow totals and widespread power outages missing us in favor of nearby locations to our east, south and west. One for the books, to be sure.

*Jay Leno returns to "The Tonight Show" next week, with NBC heralding guest appearances by several notable U.S. Olympians. But after two weeks of the network shoving the Olympics down our throats, do we want yet more fawning chit chat with people who soon will go back into relative obscurity for four years? Even people who love the Olympics have to be tired of these people by now.