For a few seconds, the questions stopped and the doubts quieted. As Alex Balk's 756,000th post went live on Gawker last night, there were no thoughts of controversy or chemicals.

You ever get the feeling you're being persecuted based solely on your personal creeds and beliefs? That a sinister cabal is against you because they don't like what you represent? Then you know how I feel today. Friends, I want to tell you something: The Jews are after me. That's right, using their powerful positions in the media, this master race is coming at me like an elite team of Israeli special forces. (Is it an actual simile if you compare the Jews to the Jews? Hmm!) Anyway, they have a problem with some of the larger truths I've been telling about their secretive ways and financial acumen.

Today's New York contained one of the most self-indulgent articles ever written. It was by James Cramer and it was, of course, about James Cramer. Could Gawker do better? We naturally turn to look inward. It was editor Alex Balk who came up with some answers.

As those who (for some reason) care may recall, no one over here can agree about anything regarding Dana Vachon's debut novel, Mergers & Acquisitions. Crap? Genius? Sign 'o the times? Horseman of apocalypse? Honestly, it's been tearing our office apart. Because the book party is tonight—more on that tomorrow!—we made Alex and Emily get together to work it all out. This sort of thing will be mainly of interest to those who first have an interest in books (cutting out most of you!) and, second, those who have read the book or are interested in so doing. (There go most the rest!) There are a few minor SPOILERS, so keep that in mind if, but other than that it's like listening in on a book club. And we all know how fascinating that is!

A blind item in Page Six today struck a nerve:

You may recall our World Series wager with Will Leitch of Deadspin: Should Leitch's Cardinals win it all, we'd do a full day of his posts on the sports site in addition to our duties here, while if our Tigers prevailed Will would be forced to do twenty-four posts in a day across the sites. Well, after last night's 5-4 Cardinals victory, it's looking increasingly likely that you're stuck with us. Yeah, you gotta believe, anything could happen, teams have come back from bigger deficits before, etc.; barring inclement weather the whole thing will be over one way or the other by Sunday. We're reminding you of this bet not to elicit any sympathy for our plight (don't worry about us, we've got a shoebox full of crank and a copy of The Sporting News) but as a warning: Should we, in fact, be manning both helms on Tuesday we have a very strong suspicion that Deadspin's commenters will be following us over here and, to be frank, those people are animals. Be prepared.

So if you're a New York baseball fan of any variety your last remaining postseason hopes died last night on Carlos Beltran's called third strike. But fear not, New Yorkers: Much like walking angioplasty advertisement Tommy Lasorda, we're here to tell you that even though the Mets and Yankees are out of the playoffs, you still have a reason to watch the World Series. As it turns out, an editor of this site is, for reasons too complicated and extensive to go into here, a longtime fan of the Detroit Tigers. The editor of Deadspin (pictured above), Gawker Media's sports blog, is, for reasons of geography, a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, Motown's Series rival. Much like publicity-seeking big city mayors who engage in jerkoff bets in the hopes of favorable news coverage, these two editors have also engaged in a wager, the terms of which are this: The editor whose team loses the Fall Classic will, on the Tuesday after the competition's conclusion, be forced to cover not only his own site's post requirements, but additionally pick up the other guy's posts for the day. So if you hate our guts and would much prefer to have the dynamic Mr. Leitch guest here for a day, you'll be rooting for the Tigers. Conversely, should you wish to see how we handle pictures of drunken backup QBs, you'll be pulling for the Cardinals. Who will prevail? Will it be Balk and human chimney Jimmy Leyland of the Tigers or Leitch and Tony "My only World Series win required an act of God" LaRussa of the Cards? Ultimately, the only real losers are the readers.

So yes, a few developments here at Gawker. Let's chat.