AP - A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

LiveScience.com - An astounding batch of new deep-sea discoveries, from strange shark behavior to gigantic bacteria, was announced today by an international group of 2,000 scientists from 82 nations.

AP - Expect a bumpier drive. An asphalt shortage is delaying road maintenance projects in communities nationwide. Asphalt is becoming scarce as U.S. refiners overhaul their equipment to maximize output of highly profitable fuels such as diesel and gasoline, using inexpensive — and hard to process — crude oil.

Doctors struggled Sunday to contain an outbreak of cholera in a refugee camp near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, as renewed fighting ignited fears that patients could launch an epidemic.

Inspired by Barack Obama, the French first lady and other leading figures say it's high time for France to stamp out racism and shake up a white political and social elite that smacks of colonial times.

AFP - Arsene Wenger expects his young guns to build on the momentum created by Arsenal's stunning win over Manchester United when they face Wigan in the League Cup fourth round on Tuesday.

AP - Hurricane Paloma leveled hundreds of homes along Cuba's southern coast before rapidly losing power over land Sunday, weakening from a dangerous Category 4 storm to a tropical depression in less than a day.

AP - African leaders urged Zimbabwe's rival political factions to share control of the police ministry in an effort to form a unity government, but President Robert Mugabe's main opponent early Monday rejected the proposal.

So when CNN decided to revive the Grill for election night in its 10th floor Time Warner commissary, , I was delighted, because seriously, those milkshakes were amazing. But it was also a great place to spend that historic night and watch the culmination of such a long (and crazy) campaign. For CNN, it was again a buzzy move, generating not only a dead-tree mention but also what has become the holy grail of PR these days: Twitter buzz. I didn't see Carl Bernstein, Christiane Amanpour or Jamie Rubin (or Cindy Adams for that matter), but I did see Eddie Izzard, Lou Dobbs, Rick Stengel (en route from studio to office for an all-night close), Gail Sheehy (who got an impromptu lesson in Twitter from my pal, FishbowlNY's Glynnis MacNicol) and Hilary Rosen taking a milkshake break with Suze Orman's partner TK (who looks far too young to the lovely Leslie Sanchez, who smuggled me down to the hallowed ground of the 5th floor studio wherein the prophets sat before their laptops and John King laid his hands unpon the Magic Wall and Wolf intoned as the results poured in and the cameras swooped in for the shot.

It was just one place to watch that historic election day unfold, and if you haven't already moved on to 2012 (OMG what will Palin do? Will she campaign in a towel?) then here are some pics and clips of the evening, including the reaction from the crowd when Obama was declared the winner, and when he gave his acceptance speech. Enjoy! Or don't, but that will clearly mean you're anti-hope and anti-change and anti-puppy.

The magic of the hologram, combined with the magic of closed-captioning! Oh, CNN Grill, what can't you do?

Who says print is dead? Checking the election results on the NYT homepage. (Actually it's an interesting screenshot because it's a headline that you would never see in a paper pubbed only once per day. This headline, on the other hand, is clearly a bit more exciting in print.)

Bloggers! Doing what comes naturally, yo.

Mayhill! What an interesting woman she is. I love how she moved the needle during this election. But aside from being a gonzo citizen reporter, she's also a keen observer and an insightful (and smart) writer and has a huge body of work from this campaign. I count her among the people I honored here.

Discover blogger Melissa Lafsky is wearing red because she is really, really, really hoping for a Sarah Palin vice-presidency. (Just kidding. Trust me, if you know her then you'd know that.)

Glynnis shows Gail Sheehy, author of Passages, how to use Twitter. I know she is also Vanity Fair writer Gail Sheehy and Hillary Clinton-chronicler Gail Sheehy, but Passages was in a pile of books in my parents' room during my formative years, and that rainbow cover has stayed with me.

Smiley Jon Friedman wishes you a Happy Election!

Sometime-political prognosticator Julia Allison, dressed thematically in red, white and blue, and wondering aloud who the fetching young man in the red tie was (it was Gloria Borger's son, Evan).

John King and Campbell Brown talk about election-related stuff. In the background, Magic Wall creator Jeff Han was on hand should anything go wrong (we saw him and said hi).

Mel watches the returns anxiously. Multiply her face times a million and you've got how Al Franken will be watching that recount.

With my aisle-crossin' pal, Leslie Sanchez (prior to her 12-6 a.m. shift). She then smuggled me downstairs into the 5th floor, which brought me back to this. Good times. Here's my enthusiastic (if short-lived) vid of the experience:

Tour of CNN Election HQ with Leslie Sanchez:

(Fearing eviction and/or accidentally falling into Wolf's shot just as he was about to call the election, I kept it to surreptitious photos for the rest of my visit.)

This guy controlled that giant swooping camera that zooms in on Wolf. On a crane-like thing. I'm sure there's a technical term, but "crane-like thing" will have to do.

Wolf takes a moment in the Election Center, as the pundit-bench waits for the next soundbite. Hi, back of Jeff Toobin's head!

Makeup room. Look how many brushes it takes to give Anderson Cooper his signature glow!


The studio, abuzz with energy.

More buzzing.

Wolf declares Obama the new president, and the place goes nuts.

Scene @ CNN Grill for When Obama Was Called

"Ow! My nuts!"

This was one of my favorite images of the night (next to the First Family walking out together, soon to be made complete by a puppy). I liked the image of Obama, walking forth into the spotlight, facing so many people who had dreamed of this day.

Scene @ CNN Grill for Obama's Speech

O'Biden! The other dream ticket.

All of these people were actually holograms, beamed into Grant Park using exciting new technology.

No one has really latched onto the fact that the Obamas are actually one of the most physically affectionate couples in politics. Ever notice how he's always touching her? The small of her back, her shoulder etc. They stand waving to crowds side by close side, with their arms around each other. There was his almost ass-pat on stage when he won the primaries (overshadowed by the fist-bump), and I recall noticing how different the Obamas' couple-body language was from the McCains following the townhall debate. I think this could be another untapped area of humor about him — all it takes is one Daily Show montage and it's a meme.

Gateway to the CNN Grill. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

There has been a lot of fun over the last two and a half years, but I am resisting the temptation to start listing off favorite events or worse, posts; you don't really need to know just how much I loved my Ich Bin Ein Jelly Donut post (and they say you can't make fun of Obama!). At the end of the day, blogging is pretty intense, solitary work, driving you to wake up early and stay up late because not writing about the thing you're currently obsessed with isn't really an option — so you'd better love it, and I do, and have.

But the flipside of that maniacal, co-dependent relationship between you and your computer is the links you form — literally — to the people in your coverage community. The insider nature of the media industry means that it feels more like high school (or summer camp!) than work sometimes, and there's a lot of overlap between colleagues and friends. For someone like me — off doing my own thing here at ETP — it has meant friendships with my peers at publications like Radar and the Observer and TVNewser and New York and yes, Gawker by dint of a common media beat, as well as great kinship with my colleagues covering this race, most of whom were far more seasoned than my goofy Canadian self, and all of whom turned in amazing, impressive, unmissable work.

I can't single out everyone — honestly, boldfacing names is annoying, you try doing party reporting sometime — but also, there are too many of you to name, and readers of this blog know who my favorites are. Besides, naming names is for maudlin little crybabies like Alex Balk. My mentors and trusted helpmates know who they are — they're the people who would always respond to my frantic emails with wisdom and good cheer, and who have provided me with models toward which to aspire. Maybe there's a maudlin litle crybaby in there somewhere.

That said, I just have a few things I want to note:

• I was girl-crushing on Amy Poehler and Rachel Maddow long before the rest of you. So step off.
  
• Please stop writing those "The Daily Show Is Actually Real News!" stories, I will claim a "first" on those, too
  
• My small contribution to the journalistic lexicon is "BriWi," so please continue to use it and grant me everlasting journalistic immortality (sorry BriWi)
  
• Musical theater references: ALWAYS APPROPRIATE
  
• After all is said and done, I still have a soft spot for Shamu.

There's more but I promised I wouldn't blather — that's for my Twitter (follow me here!). I will just name two people who have made all the difference to me during my time at HuffPo: Glynnis MacNicol and Danny Shea. Glynnis stepped in when I was in a desperate bind and was an incredible contributor to ETP, getting up at 5 a.m. to do her daily newsfeed and generally being about a s fantastic a partner as any blogga could want, back then and through our obsessive campaign liveblogging and all of our crazy gonzo adventures along the campaign trail. Danny was an intern during the first summer I spent at HuffPo and came back after graduating (from Princeton yet, oy, such nachas) during my second summer, and if there is one person I can say I learned the most from during my time here, it's been him (oooh, so that's how you fix your privacy settings on Facebook!). He really gets it, and is a great friend to boot. As Dorothy said about the Scarecrow, I think I will miss him most of all.

Oy there I go being maudlin — but this isn't the end, I do plan to keep on posting and to keep my ties to the HuffPo family strong (and to all the bloggers I recruited - stay in touch! Only not when your piece hasn't posted and you're wondering why it's not on the front page. Thanks!). I don't plan on straying far — my roots are here, after all, and whatever I do going forward, I will always look back with gratitude to Kenny and Arianna for taking a chance on a loopy Canadian, and throwing her the keys without looking back. It's been a memorable journey. To the rest of you — thanks for taking the time to read, comment, and share it with me.

And will I miss it? You betcha.

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