FROM THE DESK OF MEGAN MCCARTHY — Is it possible to have a crush on a Twitter stream? Cause I do. Whoever you are, mysterious TC40 guest posting as "TechCrunch40" on Twitter, you need to call me. Now. A girl has needs.

News flash: Valleywag's editor revealed as "snarky," party correspondent "leggy." Who knew? We're still hoping for a swanky receptionist, though. [The Inquirer]

Newsweek, from 3,000 miles away, bills TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington's parties as "harder to get into than Studio 54 in its heyday." So much for the periodical's vaunted factchecking: I waltzed right in. And the scene? Last Friday's TechCrunch9 was, at heart, the same meet-and-greet that takes place several times a week somewhere between San Francisco and San Jose. Except on steroids. A reported 900 people showed up on the Sand Hill Road patio of August Capital to schmooze, deal, and — oh, yes — sucking up to Arrington in the hopes of a mention on his site.

Prickly, volatile tech blogger Michael Arrington has disinvited our party correspondent, Megan McCarthy, from this Friday's TechCrunch gala. Anyone care to report from the scene and tell us what he's so desperate to hide from the Valley's eyes?

There's a new wag in town. And I'm feeling good. This sleepy little burg has a thousand secrets, and I can't wait to start telling them. But for the curious, I'll start, briefly, with the real story of how I got this job. Nick Denton has his version, of course, but I think mine's better, because it involves tormenting Denton.The short version: Much as I wangled a gig at Suck.com by being a complete pest, I got this job by bothering Denton. Nonstop. For two years. The torment, of course, mostly consisted of repeatedly turning down the job of running Valleywag — and then turning around and IMing Denton daily — no, hourly — no, minutely — to tell him how, precisely, I thought he ought to do it. My passive-aggressive campaign for the job culminated in drinks in San Francisco's Mission District a couple of months ago, when he finally confronted me:

The 300 block of University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto is aflame, according to Megan McCarthy, who's on the scene. "Flames are shooting 20 to 30 feet into the air from the rear of the building," reports Palo Alto Online. Threatened by the blaze: The Peninsula bureau of the San Jose Mercury News. A block away: Accel Partners, the VC firm which funded Facebook and BitTorrent, among others. Anyone know of other businesses that might be affected? Leave a comment, and Megan will update us if there's more news.

MEGAN MCCARTHY — The CommunityNext conference opening night open bar at Blue Chalk Cafe was far more entertaining than most of the dry, posh networking events held in the Valley. Noah Kagan of Entrepreneur27 put together the conference to focus on "successful online communities and social networks" and, with conference topics including "How to monetize with ads and not piss off your audience" and "The Patent-Pending skinnyCorp Method for Creating Online Awesomeness and Other Cool Stuff", one would expect a fun-filled opening night. Photographer Lane Hartwell accompanied me to the event last Friday night in Palo Alto. Check our full gallery, and hit the jump for more details and a few select snaps.

So, who was there? Unfortunately, Fark's Drew Curtis, a speaker at the conference and the one guy I wanted to meet, wasn't flying in until the next day. So I missed my chance to have a beer with the king of the Farkers. Boo. I spied Techcrunch guru and Valleywag fan Mike Arrington, who politely asked Lane to refrain from taking his picture. He was much kinder to me, shelling out for tequila shots when we both ran out of drink tickets. (For the record: Patron, no salt, no lime.)

As the night went on, the venue opened up to the general public. Suddenly, there were girls! And dancing! And then, commotion. It's a barfight! Two of the infiltrating inebriates started shoving each other by the stairs, while a group of peaceful conference attendees surrounded them and gawked. Among the venue's biggest hits were the LEDs imprisoned in ice cubes, which even now may be making their way through the intestinal tracts of recently inebriated youngsters.

Valleywag party correspondent Megan McCarthy says where to throw down tonight and tomorrow.

A report by Valleywag's new party correspondent, Megan McCarthy