LAST NIGHT I NOTED THAT INTERNET SHOPPING MIGHT TAKE A BITE OUT OF 'BLACK FRIDAY' CROWDS. Today's GR Press has: Cyber shoppers skip chaos which includes:

Twenty percent of shoppers expect to buy holiday gifts online Monday and more than a quarter of those will do that on the job, according to Deloitte & Touche's annual holiday survey.

Still, it won't be the busiest cyber shopping day.

The heaviest online buying occurs closer to Christmas, based on last year's track record.

Twenty percent of online merchants reported Monday, Dec. 12, as their busiest sales day of the 2005 season.

If the trend holds, then the biggest online shopping day of 2006 should be Dec. 11. That week marks the deadline for many cyber merchants' offers of free shipping and guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.

Murdoc, for one, much prefers shopping online to a trip to the mall. I mean, are you kidding?

Still, my wife has been out most of the day as Black Friday draws bargain hunters in droves.