"Newspaper people are the salt of the earth," says the novelist Tom Robbins. "And the pepper."

Tough times for salt and pepper. One month ago, the Hearst Corp. announced it would shut down the Post-Intelligencer in 60 days unless a buyer steps up, and if you’re holding your breath for that we have some securitized subprime mortgages we’d like to sell you.

One editor responded with a rah-rah speech to the shellshocked troops. C’mon guys, here’s a last chance to get your best stories in the paper! Let’s show them what we can do! Let’s put out a newspaper!

Some of her colleagues shrugged and started casting about for new careers. "Why should I try to get more clips?" asks one P-I veteran. With the whole news business cratering, "there’s no place to go." And what’s Hearst going to do if he slacks off—fire him?

But others are working overtime to get those great clips, or get hard-won stories into print while there’s still print to get them into. Lewis Kamb’s double-barrelled investigation of how regional Boy Scouts councils have clearcut donated wildlands, defying givers’ best wishes, is a shocker worthy of any paper’s best days.

Likewise Paul Shukovsky’s incisive report on how the FBI warned Congress clear back in 2004 that runaway mortgage fraud threatened just the sort of financial mess we’re now in—but got sent to chase terrorist networks instead. Other aces, from seen-it-all business columnist Bill Virgin to double-Pulitzer cartoonist Dave Horsey and total-recall regional pundit Joel Connelly, are on their games as ever.

So, though it sounds like a raunchy blues song, there’s some pepper in the old shaker yet. And a reminder of how much this town will likely lose when the P-I’s 60 days toll.