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Thanks to some dude named Anthony Noto at Goldman Sachs, newspaper stocks are tanking today. Seems Noto, who Forbes recently said was pretty good at picking stocks, said today that he "anticipates ad sales will weaken further as economic conditions continue to deteriorate in 2008," and Goldman Sachs today is hitting the virtual pavement to warn investors that newspaper stocks are a lousy investment for the foreseeable future.

Noto was particularly hard on The New York Times, but on the day Belo Corp. announced its partnership with Yahoo! News, to which Belo will provide local news video clips from 13 of its TV stations (including WFAA-Channel 8), its stock is drop, drop, dropping -- as of 2:35 p.m. today, by 38 cents to $15.09. --Robert Wilonsky

So tomorrow, if you're cruising the Internets looking for work, you might come across something that says, oh, I don't know, "Help wanted: Dallas Observer is looking for an editor." And it won't be a joke. I'm outta here.

And no, I wasn't fired. Heads didn't roll; blood didn't spill. It was all painfully painless. But today with much regret I told the Observer staff that I am stepping down as editor. I'm leaving sometime in January to write a book loosely based on the first story I ever wrote for the Observer -- way back in 1992, before we had an electronic archive -- titled "My Life as Holy Roller." (Great headline, Peter Elkind.) I'll make you a copy for 20 bucks.

I've worked for Village Voice Media -- and its predecessor, New Times -- for nearly 15 years, which is most of my career as a journalist. At the Observer I've worked with the most talented, courageous and hard-working group of journalists you'll ever find. I'm continually amazed by the great writers, reporters, editors and columnists we develop here. No wonder they're sought after by so many other publications. When I leave, I'm sure I'll write a long, meandering post about some of the strange and wonderful experiences I've had here over the years, but for now, that's all. I will continue writing for the Observer in some capacity. Bible Girl isn't ready to hang up her cape just yet. --Julie Lyons

Don't know how the rumors got started -- Seattle-based Fisher Communications-owned Pegasus News does, however -- but Fair to Midland's publicist just e-mailed Unfair Park and everyone else to let us and you know that the band ain't playing no stinkin' free show on Jul7 25 at the House of Blues. Says the release of the rumors:

This is not true and Fair to Midland will NOT be there and unfortunately, they were never supposed to be.

This free show is a CD release show for Evans Blue only (with whom the guys have just played a few shows with).

Please make sure to remove Fair to Midland from any calendar listing or show information you may have included them on.

Fair to Midland will be back to Dallas soon – they are just looking for the right opportunity to make up the show earlier this month with 69 Eyes that they had to cancel.

I've heard from several Friends of Unfair Park this morning complaining about our "new format," which is a grey screen with black type. Yeah, that sounds pretty unreadable. Trust me, it's not a new format. It's some kind of a glitch, and our people are on it, trying to find out why some folks are seeing this and others are not. (As in, Unfair Park looks fine on my screen, but not on Buzz's.) So, to repeat: It's not a new format, just a foul-up we're working to correct ASAP. Thanks and our apologies.

Update: Since our Web developers can't re-create the problem on their end, using several computers, all they can suggest is the obvious to those getting the grey screens: Clear your cache. Yeah, I know... --Robert Wilonsky

The fish tank is getting cloudy. Good thing I'm not a goldfish.

Last night I made dinner on a camp stove and smoked up the entire house. Everything smells like seared olive oil and teriyaki sauce. I got dressed in the dark this morning, which some people say I do anyway.

I've discovered that an 1,800-watt generator will power a hair dryer, barely, and DSL, but not both at the same time. Forget about your refrigerator. You need 5,000 watts for that, and then that's all it can do. I gave away the frozen turkey yesterday. Anyone care for a defrosted New Zealand leg of lamb?

We've been without power for 39 hours now, and TXU's automated phone line keeps telling us that electricity has been restored to our neighborhood. Our entire street in southwest Dallas, however, is dark.

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Don't know about y'all, but my neighborhood, in southwest Dallas, looks like a hurricane plowed through. We haven't had power since about 7 p.m. last night, and large trees are in the streets, on cars, on houses and on sheds. Some very large trees were completely uprooted. When the storm hit, you could hear the dull crack of trees breaking every few minutes.

Our transformer blew up and started a tree on fire. One tree crushed our front gate and blocked our driveway. This morning you could hear the chorus of chain saws throughout the 'hood -- among those who were fortunate enough to have gas-powered saws. (Ever thought about the fact that an electric-powered saw is worthless when the power's out?)

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It's late. Damned near 6, when the front desk shuts down. But if you can make it here by then, and yer the first to e-mail me, then you've got a decision to make: two tix to Al Gore doing his gloom-and-doom seminar at the Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie tomorrow night at 8, or two tix to Alice in Chains on Sunday night at the same venue. Both pair come with the essential suite and club parking pass and entrance to the club in Nokia, which is a pretty sweet suite. (They better not shut down the smoking lounge during Gore's speech; that was where I was planning to watch the thing till I realized, ya know, I've seen the movie and don't feel the need to attend the stage production, unless it's a musical.) So...hurry. Al or Alice? You decide. --Robert Wilonsky

Update: Al Gore wins this election. Alice ducats gone too. Thanks for playing...

Bible Girl will not appear today; from now on it will be posted on Thursdays.

The other girl--Girl on Top--will appear next week in the Dallas Observer. If you're wondering what Andrea Grimes is up to this week, read her cover story: "The Reverend Freak."

At a newsstand near you right now. --Julie Lyons