ADRENALINE FOR CUBICLE-DWELLERS

Athletes have their fourth-quarter save-the-day showstoppers, weekend warriors have the thrill of hiking several brisk miles or scaling a mountain, and even manual laborers like construction workers can get a fair jolt of panic-produced adrenaline now and then.

But what about us writers, pencil pushers whose most arduous physical challenge is mashing the gas pedal in our bulbous sedans as we speed off to one assignment or another? We, too, have a means of drumming up adrenaline rushes every so often. It's called deadline.

Yes, parking one's rear in front of a computer and typing like a fiend to meet a retardiculous 10:20 p.m. print deadline sounds a lot less exciting and a lot dweebier than any physical pursuit, but so what? is our feeling on the matter.

Here's a rushed game story I had to eke out earlier this evening at the paper. It wasn't exactly Pulitzer Prize material......OK, it wasn't even N.C. Press Association prize material. But it met the length requirement--15 inches--and if I did my job correctly, you'll be able to figure out who won after only 17 readings.