Our main national story on FirstNews Wednesday morning had to do with the Senate staying in session all night debating Iraq War policy. Now, of course, that is an important issue demanding everyone's attention but, watching what they were doing in DC was a little odd. They had cots set up in the cloakroom in case a Senator needed to take a break. They also ordered pizza by the cart-load. Mostly, the chamber was filled with lots of talk. I could make a crack about Washington hitting a record high temperature today due to all the hot air. But, that would be a cheap shot so I won't...make a joke about hot air...in Washington....due to all the politicians....talking....and talking....and talking...leading to a record high due to all the hot air. I just won't. At one point, a reporter referred to the occasion as the Senate's All-Night Pajama Party. Well, if they start painting each other's nails, braiding each other's hair and, then, getting into a pillow fight, I'm never voting again! Co-anchor Donna Pitman said maybe they'd watch movies like some all night parties. She, wisely, suggested the Capra classic Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

For some folks, the phrase "all-nighter" brings back memories of college. Staying up late studying for an exam or, in some cases, I guess, attending a social function. At least, that's what my wife tells me of her university days. I never did either one in college. I was far too serious a student! I worked my way through school and didn't have time for such frivolity! I paid attention in class and stayed caught up on the reading so the idea of having to "cram" was completely foreign to me! I had no friends to hang out with anyway! So, there!

As a little kid, it took me awhile to get up the nerve to spend the night at anybody's house. Once, I went to a friend's place with every intention of staying up all night and having fun. We had pizza and played kick-the-can. We watched TV and, then, it got to be about 10:00 p.m. and I got homesick. I wondered what was happening in my own house. I missed my dog. I wanted my own bed and pillow. I wanted to have a snack. I wondered what the weather was like back at home. Finally, I got up the nerve to leave. I felt liberated as I crossed the street and returned to my own home. I was 27. Actually, I did participate in sleep-overs as a youth that were really more like "wake-overs." We'd play Monopoly and euchre (that's that Wisconsin card game I've mentioned before which is a requirement for Cheesehead Citizenship.) We'd watch Love, American Style which, for the time, seemed kind of racy. Then, again, anything with Adrienne Barbeau seemed racy to me at that point. Around midnight, Channel 15 out of Madison, would broadcast Lenny's Inferno which was a scary movie show, featuring Mr. Mephisto. Mephisto was more goofy than terrifying but the commercials feature Crazy TV Lenny did leave me with lingering nightmares. We rarely made it through the whole night without falling asleep. But, we always lied about that in the morning. "No, I was awake. YOU were the one who fell asleep. I stayed up all night!" Of course, because everyone had, at some point, dozed off, you couldn't really dispute the point too much.

Now, on Labor Day weekend, as I've written about before, I did stay up all night to watch the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Thanks to cold wash-cloths, strong-smelling, skin-stinging Aqua Velva and lots of chocolate, I would make it through the whole deal most years. I will always treasure those glimpses of Julius La Rosa, The Amazing Kreskin, Charo and a kick-line from the Tropicana at 3:30 a.m. It felt pretty classy and show bizzy for a kid sitting in his dad's recliner in Wisconsin.

Today, around our house, our oldest son pulls all-nighters or near-all-nighters on a regular basis. Many's the time I will be heading downstairs at two in the morning or so, and Alex will be awake. Doing something on the computer or watching TV or eating or all three at the same time. My response to his bat-like habits varies depending on my mood:

Bad Mood: "GRRRR. Go to bed. What's the matter with you? Get some sleep. GRRRRR."
Moderate Mood: "GRRRR. Go to bed. What's the matter with you? Get some sleep. GRRRRR."
Good Mood: "GRRRR. Go to bed. What's the matter with you? Get some sleep. GRRRRR."

Okay. Maybe it doesn't vary all that much.

Alexander's sister, Samantha, also stays up too late too often. She claims she uses the overnights to clean. Right. The orderliness of her room runs the gamut from cluttered, on a good day, to toxic waste dump used for HAZMAT training, on a bad day. However, she can quote whole portions of dialogue from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Roseanne. At least she's getting something from being up in the wee small hours.

The youngest, Harrison, makes a run at dawn but doesn't make it. The trick here is finding him in the morning. He may have fallen asleep on the sofa or in our bed or on the floor of a sibling's room or, rarely, in his own bed. Once, he crashed on his sister's floor and we didn't find him for three days. He had subsisted on half empty bottles of water, bits of popcorn and already-been-chewed gum. This only served to bolster our daughter's case for NOT keeping her room clean.

Finally, the second oldest boy, Taylor, actually goes to bed. He has a nightly routine that would be right at home in any rest home anywhere. He washes up. Brushes his teeth. Flosses. Does a little reading. Then, turns off the light. Shuts the door. Gets under the covers and goes to sleep. Often by 10:00 p.m. Sometimes earlier. Nothing haphazard or helter-skelter about it.

Well, as for my lovely wife and I, "all night" ends no later than 11:00 most of the time. Although, last Saturday night, after I filled in on the evening newscasts, we did stay up watching TV and talking until almost two in the morning. That's when I'm usually just getting up for work. 2 A.M.! It was youthful! It was decadent! It was exciting! It was...it was...it was exhausting.