Earthquake!

I've never — and I'm pretty old — felt something and known that's an earthquake. I've felt some very mild things and thought it might be an earthquake, but last night — here in Madison, Wisconsin — that was an earthquake.

A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Illinois early this morning just before 4:37 a.m., with tremors from the earthquake felt all the way north to Madison.

Paul Logan, dispatch supervisor at the Dane County 911 center, said about two dozen calls came in to the center and to other police departments around the county between 4:50 and 5:00 a.m., from people wondering what was going on.

I can't imagine calling the police over that, but somehow 2 dozen of my neighbors did. What's their motivation? How do their minds work? Maybe when you live in a liberal outpost in the bleak Midwest, and the war goes on and the news media ask a candidate why he doesn't wear a flag pin, you get needy and you turn to government to find meaning when anything seems amiss.

ADDED: New Madrid awakening?