*I thought I'd never cop to something like this, but my son, David, and I sat through the entire two-and-a-half-hour rain delay Sunday at Yankee Stadium. We left Woodstock at 8:15 a.m., arrived at the stadium shortly after 10, killed time inside and outside in the brutal heat until the first pitch shortly after 1. Our seats in leftfield were only partially shielded from the sun, so the early highlight of the game was when the cloud cover began arriving. At precisely 3 o'clock, the field under the lights and the skies dark, the rain came. It lasted on and off until 5. Another half-hour later, play resumed and at 6:55 the game between the Yankees and Kansas City ended. Our prize for patience? We were able to depart the parking garage without a hint of traffic. We were home by 9:30 (a half-hour fast food stop adding to the journey). I've been going to Yankee Stadium since 1956, but never had a day like this one.

*There's a long list of contenders in today's pop culture, but is there a collective group with less reason to reach "celebrity status" and earn serious money than the gang from MTV's "Jersey Shore"?

*Letter-writing campaigns come and go; we've experienced plenty here over the decades. The latest is from the anti-hydrofracking forces who have been firing them off with a vengeance for the last week or so. My instinct tells me two things: the writers are sincere and, given the coincidence of their near-simultaneous arrival, the letters are part of an organized effort, which sort of waters down their individual impact.