WASHINGTON, D.C. - Picture this: Dan Brady is the Republican state representative from Bloomington who gets to so many places and appears at so many hand-pumping functions, he has become legendary, ranking only behind God and oxygen for seemingly being everywhere at once. The other day? | More Flick

As part of a national conference of state legislators in Washington, D.C., he was at the White House, on an "insiders" tour of the building and grounds.

Catch a glimpse of W.?

Nah. It was potentially better.

As he and his wife, Teri, and the two Brady kids, Danielle, 10, and Tommy, 6, milled, Brady suddenly felt his wife's elbow wedge into his mid-section, followed by a hushed "Hey, that's Pamela Anderson behind us!"

Anderson is the much-married, Playboy-exposed, ex-"Baywatch" star.

Always at a loss for words, Brady instantly piped, "Hey Pamela, how about a picture?"

She retorted: "How about the same?"

The result thus appears here, in Brady's photo of Anderson taking video of him taking her picture, with the West Wing in the background.

Yes, we can't wait for the next time Pamela appears on some TV talk show.

She will be talking away, about her ties to the White House and a recent visit there, when suddenly she will pipe: "And lo and behold, I turn around and there's Dan Brady! That guy is everywhere!"

Today's deep thought:

As mulled by Corey Case, of Clinton:

"Which makes more sense with these gas prices - to win the Indy 500 and get the purse or to just slow down during the race to get better gas mileage?"

Newest meaning of Excedrin headache: Good news these days in Taylorville, the Christian County town wedged south of Decatur and Springfield:

Its brand-new $4 million runway is done and ready to accept air traffic.

One small problem, though.

The FAA says planes now will come within 9 feet of crashing into the city's water tower.

First Tuesday, first tornado?: It finally happened.

Tuesday was the first Tuesday, the day each month when, at 10 a.m. exactly, they set off the warning sirens in Bloomington-Normal to see if they are working correctly.

It was also at 10 a.m. on Tuesday that the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the area.

So the sirens went off just as the dark storm clouds moved in.

Were those sirens real? Or was it just First Tuesday practice?

We continue to say if the Russians ever decide to invade, they should do it at exactly 10 a.m. on a first Tuesday. The sirens will be going off and, as the missiles fly overhead, we will just smile and wonder when that danged noise is going to stop.

Read this and weep: As gas prices continue to hover around the $4-a-gallon mark, allow us to now pause for a moment of silence for a headline that appeared in this publication only nine years ago, on March 8, 1999.

"Why Are Gas Prices So Low?"

The story explained how a glut in the world's oil supply was hurting OPEC producers who had "been unable to reverse a trend" and were "worried" they might have to begin shutting down refineries if gasoline prices "get much lower."

Apparently, they were able to stem the tide, though.

The cost of a gallon of gas in Bloomington-Normal on March 8, 1999?

96 cents a gallon.

Finally, the day's "high" point: When a motorist pulled over as a DUI suspect in Normal the other night opened his jacket to police to prove he had no open alcohol, he did, in fact, prove that.

But that is when his bag of marijuana fell out, too.

Contact Bill Flick at flick@pantagraph.com. More Flick at www.pantagraph.com/flick.