For a couple weeks, you may have noticed, nothing was happening on this Web site. There were no new blogs, no new TV columns, no signs of life.

That was due to a quirky hotel system, which may or may not have been biased against the island of Tuvelo. Now, however, things are back to normal. I've updated the TV columns through tonight and will soon add more, through the weekend.

Also, I have a lot to blog about. First, I should explain:

OK, Conan O'Brien's third "Tonight Show" was much better than the first two.  That's because:

-- He finally had two people on the couch, the way Johnny Carson used to do it. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bradley Cooper were able to have some exchanges; that sort of thing happened a lot, back when these were called "talk shows."

-- Instead of having a complex and semi-funny filmed bit, he did a variation on "The Year 2000." That is, simply, joke after joke after joke; it's fun.

The second night of Conan O'Brien's "Tonight" feels like more of the first:

1) Yes, he works hard. Still, an elaborate taped bit -- a "Pretty Woman" sort of shopping spree on Rodeo Road (in South Central Los Angeles) instead of Rodeo Drive -- was maybe half as funny as a guy would be telling really good jokes.

You've probably met someone like this: He works terribly hard, to get where others get easily.

That, roughly, is Conan O'Brien. His opener tonight was pretty good; to get there, however, he had to work 10 times as hard as Jay Leno or Johnny Carson ever did. Here are a few of my comments; please add yours; also, please do the same for my previous blog, on tonight's debut of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here":

1) What Leno and Carson did was basic. They simply stood there and told jokes. Many were funny; laughter was huge.