What Caused the Great Blackout of 2003?

Federal and state officials are trying to figure out what really caused the massive blackout that shut down the Northeast and Midwest on Aug. 14. While investigators have focused on power line failures in northern Ohio,
they're also exploring these other possible causes:

• Thousands of New Yorkers turned their air conditioners on high after an oldies radio station played Nick Gilder's 1978 hit, "Hot Child in the City.''

• An audacious plot by CBS executives to promote the upcoming "Survivor: Central Park."

• The escalating number of news stories about the recall of Gray Davis reached a critical mass, sparking a chain-reaction of California-style power outages.

• A mob toppled power lines in Detroit after they were turned away from tryouts for "American Idol.''

• Thousands of children in Cleveland stuck forks into outlets after watching a rerun of "The Simpsons'' that featured a voltage-themed ``Itchy & Scratchy'' cartoon.

• A scheme by Procter & Gamble Co. to boost 2004 diaper sales.

• An ominous warning from Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist; seven of the eight states affected by the blackout voted for Al Gore in 2000.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger returned from the near future as indestructible cyborg who tries to solve California's fiscal problems by diverting power from the Northeast.

• A desperate ploy by HBO executives to generate new story lines for "Sex and the City'' and "The Sopranos.''

• Seeking by avoid a three-game sweep by the lowly New York Mets, the San Francisco Giants used pine tar and cork to disable a Queens power station.

• A futile attempt by Buffalo city officials to gain national media attention, which backfired when Manhattan went dark.

• A dangerous buildup of angst among unemployed recent college graduates in New York caused electrical grid operators to doubt themselves.

• Virginia corrections officials, concerned that the state's electric chair had gone unused since April, used it to help prepare their annual summer cookout.

• A top-secret U.S. Army training exercise to prepare troops to cope with rolling blackouts in Baghdad.

- By Ted Allen

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