Watchdog

La Monica has produced the November page views list despite his brush with death Sunday, and they reveal another extraordinary month for WatchDog Nation.

I assumed the numbers would fall after taking the first week of the month off cold turkey, then closing with a long holiday weekend. But no.

The record-breaking October number was shattered by 18 percent, and we improved for a seventh month overall, surpassing the mark previously shared with Glauber. Crazy, just crazy.

The Knicks, MLB and Neutral Corner blogs also set new highs.

Thanks to all for reading. Click on our blog ads to celebrate.

I guess this explains why La Monica is a little late this first day of the month in releasing the November page views.

I'll give him until 5 p.m.

Newsday lost two of its NBA bloggers Friday:

Ken Berger left us, and Jamal Crawford left the Knicks . . . and us.

So here's my idea: LeBron, I know you're in town this week. How about becoming a blogger for Newsday? It will help you get your feet wet in the market, and as far as I know will not run afoul of any tampering rules.

E-mail me. We'll talk.

I discovered something new on the blog this weekend:

One of the advertisements in the current rotation is for Snorg Tees, a company whose ads I have observed for years on other blogs - notably Deadspin. I must be in the big time now!

This serves as a convenient reminder as I return and you continue to read Newsday blogs religiously (and free of charge):

Please click on the ads on my blog and others and carefully consider the merits of the products presented.

If we don't remind advertisers of the value of the online journalism cause, soon there will be no quality online journalism, and I will have to knock on your door and try to sell you encyclopedias.

Neither one of us wants that to happen.

See you Monday. Enjoy Giants-Eagles, "Desperate Housewives," "Entourage," "Mike'd Up" and the 1952 Archie Moore-Jimmy Slade bout on ESPN Classic.

I'm taking a few days off to rest up for the long march to the Kerry Collins-Eli Manning showdown in Tampa in February, followed two months later by the openings of our two new local major league ball yards.

Here's the tricky part:

I promised the family I'd keep the laptop off. Cold turkey.

Wish me luck.

In the meantime, read Newsday.com and Newsday sports blogs for all of your daily sports information and entertainment needs.

For the first time in its 18-month history, WatchDog finished October first among all Newsday.com blogs in monthly page views.

Thank you for reading, as always.

My friends, I am told with 14 hours to go, we have edged in front of TV Zone - don't click on that, I just posted the link to show I'm a team player! - for the overall Newsday page views lead for October.

This is the big one, people.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if WatchDog Nation lasts for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour."

Andrew Sullivan, pioneering blogger, excellent writer and all-around fascinating person, has written a long essay on blogging.

You should read it. It's here.

(UPDATE: OK, I just re-read this thing more carefully and agree it's a tad wordy. You could just read the last line of it and get the most important point: "Words, of all sorts, have never seemed so now." Then again, there's this cartoon.)

Careful readers of my self-indulgent scribblings will recall that the other day I crowed about my latest page views triumph, in which I finished second only to The TV Zone.

Well, I since have learned that I finished a very, very distant second. I'm fine with that, except for one thing: Sources tell me my friends at TV Zone rode to glory on the back of the intense interest in Sarah Palin in general and in some sort of story involving her and Oprah in particular.

Check out this post: 488 comments! Holy Wasilla, I don't get that many in a week.

What bothers me is that Gov. Palin is rightly mine, too, what with my endless references to my days living in Alaska and to the fact the governor was a state championship point guard and a TV sportscaster in the 49th State.

What did I think of the VP debate? Forget it. Not going there. WatchDog is a strictly apolitical site. And I can't sway your opinion anyway.

Palin's critics obviously viewed her performance as a barely coherent mishmash of talking points from an intellectual lightweight.

Palin's supporters obviously were proud to live in the only country on Earth that likes its leaders no smarter than the average Joe Six-Pack, and thus were pleased, you betcha, to hear someone speak to them who is just like they are, darn tootin'.

The September page views are in, and once again, thanks to you, WatchDog Nation rules the Newsday sports blogosphere.

(I'd call the total "ridonkulous," but a friend from a competing paper begged me to stop embarrassing myself by using that word.)

Despite taking the first week off, the blog set another monthly record, finishing a comfortable No. 1 among sports blogs and No. 2 overall, behind only The TV Zone , which means the top two Newsday blogs are about TV and . . . TV.

(Someday I should ask to be paid for doing this, I guess.)

The Knicks and Rangers finished fourth and fifth overall, with the former enjoying a particularly humongous total. Steph should give Hahn a hug to congratulate him.

Kudos to all. Please read all every Newsday blog early and often. Even Glauber's.