Stardate 20040202.1040

(Captain's log): Yesterday was Super-Sunday, the day the Superbowl was played. In some southern city somewhere, the top two teams in American football met and played the last game of the regular season, and one of them won it and became the champion. (For at least some people. which teams they were and which one was the victor was really important.)

And the biggest story of the day? That it was one of the few Superbowls where the score was close? That at half-time a pop-singer's breast got exposed, whether accidentally or on purpose?

Nope. The biggest story was the one we didn't read: "Terrorist attack causes 30,000 deaths". It is the deafening silence, the dog not barking in the night. For the third straight year since 9/11, a crowd the size of a small city concentrated itself in a stadium and sat for several hours to watch the most heavily televised live event of the year. And then that crowd dispersed and went home.