IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG shortest-month-O-the-year for yr. o'b'd'n't scribe. I did a marathon temp gig in exotic Renton. (It's now ended.) I was there, methodically shoving pieces of paper through a machine, when my Evening Magazine segment aired. (They'd promised they'd tell me when it would run; damn.) You can still see it at king5.com/eveningmagazine (free registration required).

POLLY TICKS: A recent Wednesday morning started locally with P-I political writer Joel Connelly grousing that John McCain's been getting a free ride from the mainstream media. The day ended with the NY Times regurgitating rumors that McCain allegedly had an affair, eight years ago, with a woman far younger than he, who worked as a lobbyist for telecom firms and broadcasters-including for Bud Paxson, of the "family friendly" Pax (now Ion) network. (Pax, you may recall, in 2004 was one of the two chief TV conduits for the dis-infomercial by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," the guys who were paid big bucks to tell lies about John Kerry's Vietnam service.)

Personally, I don't care about the candidate's past affairs, just as I didn't care about those of Bill Clinton (whose impeachment McCain supported). But I do care about the other half of the NYT allegations, that he'd bestowed legislative favors upon Paxson and other friends-of-friends whilst promoting himself as Mr. Let's-Clean-Up-Government.

AS LONGTIME READERS know, there used to be a segment in this endeavor called "Junk Food of the Week/Month." I phased that out two or three diets ago. But that doesn't mean the food-tech geniuses have stopped devising new and wondrous things. Why, just this wek, the ol' Blog-O-Sphere has caught on to the latest thing from a German hiker's-supply company: A cheeseburger in a can! Just drop the unopened can in boiling water for a minute, take it out, open it up, and enjoy, sesame-seed bun and everything. (Apparently, it's only sold in Europe at this time.)

YES, DEPRESSION: The locally based, globally minded music mag No Depression is calling it quits, effective with the May-June issue. Cause of death: A dying music industry, whose endemic issues are finally reaching indie labels, who can't afford to buy as many magazine ads as they used to. For 13 years, ND has been the greatest chronicler of "alternative country," "Americana," and assorted other essential US/Canadian homegrown musics.

The big irony here: An institution dedicated to honoring longstanding or lost art forms, and to celebrating contemporary artists who keep those forms alive, is itself becoming history. SOME 750 MANAGEMENT JOBS are being axed at the Seattle offices of the store formerly known as The Bon Marche, as the Cincinnati parent company decides the answer to a failed consolidation strategy is even more consolidation.

IN OTHER RECESSIONARY NEWS, Discover U, the longstanding for-profit offerer of reasonably priced self-help classes and group events, has suddenly shut its doors. (It had moved to Belltown from Northgate in '07.) Now, where will Seattleites learn how to cleanse their colons, find love at any age, and start an eBay business, all under one roof?

END OF THE ROLL: You won't get to shake it like a Polaroid picture much longer. The company's shutting down production of its iconic instant-film cameras, and will stop selling the film next year. A moment of silence for the billions of instances of immediate gratification past. HD DVD, RIP: Toshiba's sudden but totally expected surrender leaves Sony's Blu-ray as THE next-gen video disc format, a.k.a. your means toward seeing just how old Harrison Ford really is now. NOTE TO KEXP main man John Richards: You can host a local Seattle show, OR you can move to NYC. Please choose one.

THE WAYWARD PRESS (actual P-I headline): "How far will Microsoft go to overcome Yahoo's rejection?" Some handy tips: Chocolate, self-esteem classes, regular gym workouts, a "pity party" with friends, a nice cry, then get on with your own life.

GETTIN' TWISTY WITH IT: Developers' plans for the part of First United Methodist that won't be saved: One of them angular, reflective glass towers you see in 60 Minutes segments about emerging Far Eastern capitals. For once, a Seattle architectural monument to world-class-osity will be entirely privately funded.

NOW WE'RE COOKIN!: In good, potentially great news, the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board decided to pursue saving Ballard's beloved Manning's/Denny's building! And some architects have already proposed a scheme to save the building, as a restaurant, while building complementary-looking housing on its parking lot. Rumor has it that Denny's would like to reopen in the building. If they don't, let's all get together to start our own MISC-Cafe. Romantic-ironic juxtapositions served up fresh all day!

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OTHERS HAVE ALREADY blogged about February's huge Obamapalooza at KeyArena. Allow me to interject a few thoughts of my own.

First, it was a spectacularly attended event. Here are about half of the people who didn't get in. KeyArena was filled above its official capacity, far surpassing any SubSonics crowd this season. They'd said the doors would open at 11. I'd shown up at 10:15 a.m. The line was still snaking around the Seattle Center grounds. I barely made it into the upper nosebleed seats.

They all showed up for what turned out to be a simple, direct spectacle. The Obama campaign showed some of its commercials on the DiamondVision screens. Local musician Jake Bergevin showed off the pro-Obama music video he'd made with Pat Wright and Matt Cameron. Warm-up speakers were kept to a brief, all-local lineup of Mayor Nickels, Rep. Adam Smith, and Gov. Gregoire.

Then Obama gave the 50-minute version of his current stump speech. No podium, no graphic "slides," only a few strategic banners. He essentially said what he's been saying these past months: "It's easy to be against something. But people want to be FOR something."

You already know what he says he's for: Peace, prosperity, affordable health care (sans mandates), unions, civil rights, competent government, choice, economic fairness, eco-sanity, gay rights (though perhaps not gay marriage), people coming together to work for a better tomorrow. Some pundits have claimed the biggest differences between Sens. Obama and Clinton right now are their personalities and their brand images. If so, the question then is which of these personalities, which of these brand images, is most capable of trouncing Sen. McCain and the walking ghosts of the Bushies.