As I write this, there is a troupe singing opera on 6th Avenue, a few stories beneath my office.  They have microphones and amplifiers, and sadly I'm not a big fan.  So, I just increased the volume of my iPod here in the office.  Problem solved.

To the news: a primary story on our broadcast tonight happened last evening when the man once known as "Richard Nixon's Favorite Mayor" -- Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar -- gave a speech (after much deliberation) breaking with the president over the war in Iraq.  While not quite an "if I've lost Cronkite ..." moment, it was a moment given Lugar's reputation. We'll talk about the speech and the fallout and the policy tonight.

China is in the news on a few fronts, and we're going to double-team that story tonight, between Pete Williams and Andrea Mitchell, who's been here in New York with us all day.  We'll revisit last night's lead story -- the Lake Tahoe fire -- and look at how it's developing into something of an environmental debate.  George Lewis remains on post.

The Cheney series in the Washington Post is getting a lot of attention, and one of several components in a generalized heightening of the scrutiny surrounding the Vice President.  We'll be doing our own reporting on that subject this week.

We have a story right out of our own back yards tonight: the scourge of what seems like a new and bionic strain of poison ivy this year.  As a victim myself, I raised my voice on this topic at the editorial meeting this afternoon.  Additionally, we're going to look at hedge funds tonight (as part of a new series of reports) and we'll even take a whack at explaining how they work.  We already know a lot of people are making a lot of money -- many of them with money in the first place.

How great is Chris Colvin's prairie dog video selection today?  I had already caught that little gem on the Web.  Yes, it has come to this.  I'm discussing an animal video, and said animal has signed a development deal.

So we're moving on a lot of fronts toward tonight's broadcast.  We hope you can join us for the Tuesday night edition of NBC Nightly News.