Leslie (recently hosed by Verisign) wonders if anyone else rises early, hates afternoons, yet is also a night person. Chalk me down as rises early, can't take afternoons, night person only when maniacally obsessed (reading, programming, driving) otherwise it's early to bed.

A Sergeant in our Air Force squadron went to bed around 4pm and woke at midnight, an artifact from a previous assignment. He liked the quiet of post-midnight, brewing a pot of coffee, watching taped TV, reading a book, house chores, and then off to work at seven. Said he burned out two girlfriends with his odd schedule.

I tried this while working in Bangor. Woke around midnight, jog, shower, then work on a pot of coffee and writing. After a month or so my book was cresting four hundred pages without a sign of ever letting up, reaching an end or having a point. Gave them both up to re-enter society. From midnight to sunrise it's easy to believe you are the lone survivor, a cast away from humanity.

It's certainly different than sign-on shift in Radio. Waking up at four or five to put on a morning show you don't feel isolated so much as having a secret. People are waking to your voice from plastic clock radios as you break the news that their car is under a foot of new snow or a government has toppled. Afternoon shifts suck big time. You and your listeners could care less, blood pooled at the stomach leaving the brain to slip into Barry Manilow mode.

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