Ok, I'm back, as Oprah has gone quietly into the night.

So a while back I wondered about the next big media explosion, and it turned out to be a couple of slowburners. Neither the flooding of the Mississippi nor Oprah Winfrey's final episode completely dominated the news, but combined they kept the newscasters and bloggers busy for a week or two, as the water slowed moved southbound and Oprah moved her army of wellwishers through the couches and chairs.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunning double life and admitted affair almost surpassed the royal wedding....oh, nevermind, nothing came close to covering that affair, but Arnold gave it a good go. What's so amazing about that story is how the media MISSED it for more than a decade. It was a juicy story before the political career started but both Hollywood paparazzi and the nation's political reporters had no clue about the love child. How did Arnold get the free pass? Perhaps because he played with the media and didn't run from them, so they had little reason to dig.

How impressive that he kept the child and affair hidden. It almost came out because he (or really, his wife) decided it was time to come out with the separation.