This morning I turned to a colleague and said, "Why is it that even when you know something is coming that you can still be surprised?"

Was I talking about:

a.) The Fate of the Boston Globe
b.) My post-screening feelings for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
c.) The comments on today's column

The answer, as always, is C.

Sorry for the disappearing act last week folks. Let's just say I was out sick. And no, if you're wondering, it was not the Swine Flu.

Let's take a look at some of the headlines from the last 72 hours.

Sorry for the disappearance during the tail end of last week. If you follow me on Twitter you know I was in DC for the Frozen Four. I jumped on the Bemidji State bandwagon and had my heart broken (Minnesotans got to stick together), but rallied for an amazing final Saturday night.

Let's review some of what's been churning on interwebs over the last 72 hours. Also, stop and consider how much fun your Easter would have been had you made an irretrievable Easter Egg.

While you were out squinting your eyes, trying to figure out why the sun was shining over parts of Maine this weekend, the news never stopped. Today in the Monday Fix, Mickey Rourke returns to the ring, another newspaper fights for life and Twitter in the news, yet again.

I've been to town hall meetings. They are long affairs, the type that value endurance almost over anything else.

Something tells me Friday's XXL social justice town hall meeting at the University of Southern Maine is going to demand some serious endurance.

While you were still recovering from New Kids on the Block and the complete dissolution of your NCAA bracket, there was plenty going on under the radar online this weekend.

Let's take a look at what you may have missed.

So Facebook has flinched and is tweaking its new redesign.

Why did everyone see this coming? And more importantly, why did Facebook do it?

While I was lost in college basketball and the Battlestar Galactica finale over the weekend (I'm still trying to sort it out...humans, cyclons, Siena losing, Missouri winning), there was plenty happening on the Interwebs.

Let's take a look at what you may have missed in the last 72 hours.

With RestaurantWeekME almost wrapped up, it's time to see what some of the buzz is online.

Let's just cut to the chase: cats in bongs, McNugget emergencies, and attacks on Chuck E. Cheese? It's been a busy week for The Scanner.

Facebook just keeps getting itself in the news lately. Today they've announced some changes that will have an immediate impact on how members use the social networking site.

For the LONGEST time, I've always wanted to do regular reader mailbag blogs, but sometimes the e-mails I get are straightforward questions or simply comments. But in the last few months, things have stepped up. Don't know if the blog has gotten better or having my face on the front page helps. Who knows.

Regardless, I got a really good question mailed in the other day.

I'll take it as a given that plenty of you are home today, either thanks to the mercy of your boss, your school administrators, or just the smarts to stay off the road.
A captive audience. How wonderful. Let's look over some of the news you may have missed in the last 72 hours ... while you were shoveling.

When you flip the on switch to The Scanner each week it's impossible to know what you're going to get. How else could we end up with legislators trying Cocaine, a Twitter War, gold parties and ethical questions on porn?

The answer is meh.*

(*Why "Meh?" See below.)

Since the weather and the Oscars seemed to dominate the news this weekend (I didn't really pay much attention to either), let's run down some of the things you may have missed in the last 72 hours.

It's roughly300 miles between here and the University of Maine-Presque Isle. And Tim Berry is making the trip on foot. In a very, very big dress.

While some of you will be out scrambling for flowers, cards or some other stand-in for your affection on Saturday, a new national non-profit group with ties to Maine is asking you to take a minute for them.

We're careening towards the end of another week, which means it's time to round-up some of the best morsels of entertainment (and bizarreness) from around the Interwebs.

The Scanner is up and running...and has bacon. (Of course.)

When I was writing Monday's column about the ongoing Saga of Thomas Manning and the City Council, I knew there was a chance I would get some angry phone calls when it hit the paper. That's part of the game when you're a journalist, but especially a columnist. People are going to call to offer up their opinions. I thought the odds would double since Manning himself didn't return my calls.

But I don't think I ever figured on getting a phone call from his mother.

I'm still trying to figure out what just happened, but the gist of it is this: Someone claiming to be Thomas Manning's mother called me and was very upset about my "malicious" attack on her son in my column.

I hope she doesn't read the reader comments.

I've fielded plenty of calls on stories and columns I've written over the years, but I think this is the first time someone's mom has called up to defend them. Mrs. Manning (or the woman claiming to be) said she simply wanted to know if I knew her son personally, otherwise how could I write such malicious things about him and his business. Her son, she continued, is a good man with a family who loves him and employees who need him.

Mrs. Manning (again, or the woman claiming to be) said that the city does not have the right to tell business owners how to run their shop, and that if her son chooses to babysit drunks then that is his decision.

Not only that, but this is just further proof that there is an agenda in this city to shut down her son's businesses, from the council, the police and the media.

Needless to say, I was thrown off my game.

Rule No. 1 of dealing with calls from readers is to always maintain your composure, no matter what they call you or have to say about your work. I told Mrs. Manning (again, or the woman claiming to be) that while I did not know her son personally, I made repeated attempts to call him for comment and get his side of the story over two days. "Even if he had left me a message saying he's too busy to talk because of work and dealing with the city, that would have been fine," I said.

Sure, I may have described her son as a "sinister, shadowy figure who stalks Wharf Street, enticing young children to sip tequila and luring wholesome and unsuspecting girls to dance on tables for tips," but that was just a little bit of the artistic license...or as I told the caller "just being a little cheeky."

Still, jokes aside, it's hard to deny the fact that this is only the latest development in Manning's public history of run-ins with the city council over how he operates his business. And that, as I pointed out, can create a public perception - right or wrong - about Manning's character.

I'm still trying to figure out what just happened. I've taken a lot of calls about my work, and especially my columns over the years, ranging from the glowing to the profanity-laced. But I do know this one is certainly a first: The first time the subject of a column's mother - allegedly - calls me up to complain about the treatment of her son.

In the meantime, sound off on the column: Fair or Foul?

Let's take a look at what you may have missed over the last 72 hours around Maine and across the country. And no, we will not be discussing The Grammys. Sorry, I just can't do it, people.

For the first time in a long time the Scanner was pumping out too much Internet goodness to be contained here. From Bacon Stupidity and MacGruber to bird-strike video games and politicians on Twitter.

If it keeps up at this rate I may have to start a mini daily scanner. Thoughts?

It's no secret to anyone who has spent 5 minutes online that the Internet has made snooping on your friends, family and neighbors a lot easier.
But these days, as new social networks, mobile devices and location-based applications continue to spring to life, the question is becoming "what's acceptable stalking?"

Would you believe today is "Buy A Newspaper Day?"

The irony...it burns.

I'll freely admit the schedule around here on the NXT Desk has been a little off for a few weeks. But it looks like we're getting back to normal, and there's no better normal than the weekly Scanner.
On tap today: Nerd Merit Badges, Bacon Camp, Segway races and unicorns.

Thank you Internets. Thank you.

Let's run through a hypothetical situation here: You're a college baseball player at a Division I school who enjoys posting pictures from your weekend escapades on your Facebook page. Monday morning you wake up to a notice from the dean's office: you've violated the college's student code of conduct.

But how could they know? Because they're scanning Facebook.

What you may or may not have missed over the weekend. Grab a snack and sit down for the Monday Fix.

First time I fired up the Scanner in 2009 and it ran like a dream. I take it as a good sign that no matter how times change or how crappy the economy gets, the Internet never seems to run out of hilarious, disturbing and downright bizarre stuff.

Dive in.

I laughed, I cried, I ate too, too much pork. And that was just in one day while watching the Vikings.

Having returned from my annual voyage back to Minnesota (literally a 26 hour around-the-clock voyage by car) it's time to get the NXT Desk in order for 2009.

While I'm shuffling papers, let's take a look at some of the things you may have missed in the last 72 hours.

Also, I want to give a big thanks to Kathryn Hawkins, Rob Landry, Videoport Jones and Jenna Vendil for subbing in while I was out last week.

When I started pulling together the Monday Fix this morning, there was really only one big story this weekend, at least around these parts. And it's still piled up outside our doors, blocking our driveways and covering the roads.

So let's take a look at a few local photos of this week's storm from around the web.

I made a joke on Twitter a while back that was only a tiny, tiny, tiny bit self-serving:

"Where does the newspaper industry get in line for some of this sweet gov bailout action? We're just as screwed as banks, planes and autos"

Like I said, just a little self-serving.

The Monday fix is a bit scattershot this morning, mostly because there did not seem to be any big breakout stories over the weekend - you know, aside from OJ, the president-elect's economic plans and the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.

But all of that's important. Here's what you may have missed.

After finally settling in back on the NXT Desk this week, it's time to fire up the Scanner once again. Luckily the Internet has an unending supply of trivial - and hilarious - information readily available for your consumption.

You thought the Scanner had disappeared, hadn't you? Be honest. I know I've been an absent minded professor around these parts with the election, but the good news is the election is over! There is some slightly less than good news, but we'll get into that soon enough.

In the meantime, let us wander through the dangerous and hilarious fields of the Interwebs.

Aside from the trick or treating, zombie punch and other Halloween shenanigans, there was plenty going on this weekend. Luckily, The Monday Fix is on the job covering what you may have missed in the last 72 hours.

The weekend that was, uh, was, a tiring one. Pop!Tech put a serious drain on the batteries, but I won't let that stop me from serving up some of things you may have missed in the last 72 hours.

If today's Monday Fix seems a little TV-heavy it's because there was a lot of action on the flat screen this weekend. Sports, politics (I guess that's on TV all the time now) and dancing moose, this weekend had it all.

My friends, I've been a bad, bad blogger, this I know. Last week was a hectic one here on the combined NXT/Political Affairs Desk. It's actually quite the messy desk at the moment. Last week I got tied up in election projects, including a few videos of the paper's endorsement interviews with Senate and Congressional candidates.

I'll try to make it up to you this week, I promise.

The Monday fix was a bit of a necessity for me this morning, as I was off in Chicago over the weekend and in somewhat of a media blackout. No news, no blogs, not even a single Tweet for two days.

Actually, that was kind of nice, now that I think of it.

In these unsure times of financial turmoil, rest assured that some things are always constant, like The Scanner.

That is until The Scanner becomes insolvent and has to file for bankruptcy or gets bought out by AOL, who in turn gets bought out by General Electric, and so on.

So, relax. Really.

For a while now I've been pondering some sort of Monday blog that looks at a few events or news that broke over the weekend. Sure, we'd all like to say we're just as plugged in on Saturday and Sunday as we are the rest of the week, but the fact is - weekends are for relaxin'.

So maybe The Monday Fix will become a permanent staple.

In case you were wondering, Republican Presidential candidate McCain's campaign suspension has apparentlyset off a "suspension" fire on the Interwebs.

So in light of the situation, I am suspending the blog, but asking The Scanner to continue in my absence.

Deep below a picturesque village on the Swiss/French boarder, scientists are toying with the very bits that may have started life in the universe.

Scientist! Toying! Universe! Doesn't anyone else see what this means?

SUPER SCIENCE!

Why is it that we keep talking about the fate of newspapers in this blog? Specifically, the fate of this newspaper?

I'm supposed to be talking about "the young people" and music and art and technology and bacon - Oh the bacon! - not newspapers.

But if you think about it, technology and "the young people" are tied to the future of newspapers.

Unless you've been stuck on a mountain in Maine the last few days, you've probably picked up on the latest meme of the moment: "The Press Herald is Shutting Its Doors."

While that's not the case (for today at least - hey, we live in tricky times here) it does provide us with another look at the sticky intersection of the news business, technology and where (if anywhere) it's all going.

I've found myself pondering lots of new media questions recently, especially after the bloggers vs. AP affair from last week.

Though that battle was over rights, preconditions, money and fear, one of the bigger questions that emerged was where bloggers get their content and how they (and the AP for that matter) fit into the "Age of New Media."

This week another dispatch has me wondering what's the end game for bloggers and what they write.

Like a lot of bloggers I've been monitoring the recent spat between the Associated Press and bloggers over quoting AP news stories.

Bloggers quickly went into combat mode, claiming the AP had crossed the line in an age when so much content is free. The AP on the other hand says they have a right to protect their property and get paid.

Is it possible they're both right?

At one point or another in most jobs, you ask yourself fundamental questions like "am I happy?" "am I making a difference?" or "I wonder if this rash is cause for a sick day."

As the "youth culture" columnist I've often wondered when I'll age out of the job. (We'll settle that one in a few weeks when I turn 28.) But at the rate things are going in the industry, it may be better to ask if the "youth culture" is actually reading the paper.

So, things have been in a constant state of flux down here at Press Herald Plaza in the last week.

The NXT Desk did not go unaffected.

As some of you may have noticed, I popped up over to the iHerald section today talking about some of my favorite Web sites. I do so love the Internets.

It’s not that kids are allergic or afraid of sunlight, it’s just that some don’t see the need for it. Why go outside when the Internet can bring you the real world, and your Xbox 360 can bring you a fake one...with explosions and car chases?

Is it strange that whenever someone mentions awards one of the things I think of is the “Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence” from the Simpsons? Anyone else remember that episode?

Immigration. Right now in America that’s a loaded word that can inspire anger and frustration, as well as compassion...and frustration.
There is a national debate going on about who’s in this country illegally and what we are going to do with them.
And unless Lou Dobbs is lying to me, it’s a pretty big deal.

I’ve never built a boat, and my knowledge of boating has faded over the years (those summer camp sailing/rowing/kayaking lessons disappear fast), so I have a great deal of appreciation for people who can do either, and do it well.

The Weekly Scanner - enough pop culture and bizarre news to smuggle in a speeding lobster boat.

Remember - if you've got weird news, websites, events or anything funky you catch online, send it my way it'll get in the Scanner.

We got a lot to get through today, first off, I think I look ripe for a guest spot on the Simpsons:

If I was a gambling man – and my strict adherence to $10 blackjack tables rules that out – I could have bet that a column on ideas from young people to attract their peers to the paper would quickly turn into a conversation about what’s wrong with the Old Gray Mare, or Gray Lady. Actually, I don’t know if the Press Herald/Telegram has a nickname (or at least a printable one).