From Friday at Dachau to Saturday in Vienna to Sunday in Prague to today, rushing from a train to lectures to dinner to a Skype meeting to watching and discussing early Holocaust documentary Night and Fog, I'm a bit all over the place and looking forward to falling asleep.

But one indisputably bright and shiny thing about today is new Post Sports columnist Tracee Hamilton's look at new Nat Nyjer Morgan. Good column, good player, with promise to go around. The kind of thing that makes me glad I haven't followed through on the bad days.

Absolutely insulting comments in today's Post. If I didn't have other people in my season-ticket package, I'd cancel the damn thing right now. The commenters on the story are similarly fired up over these quotes. Are these guys kidding us? Are they really okay being the biggest losers in baseball? Do they really think the fans are holding them back? The hell with all of them. The apologies better come fast and furious. This is disgusting. We should blast air horns outside their houses until they lose some damn sleep. Losers, every one of them.

Before the game, down in their clubhouse, the Nats did their usual ballplayer things, dressing and watching TV and kibitzing. Willie Harris, a utility player, sang along with Michael Jackson and dismissed the notion that a losing season could dampen his mood: "I'm not going to lose sleep because I lost a ballgame. I lose sleep when my mother's sick."

He turned to Zimmerman and said, "Hey, Zim, do you get bummed out if we lose?"

Not after he leaves the ballpark, the third baseman replied.

Sitting at his locker, Joe Beimel, a relief pitcher, acknowledged that losing can make it tough to get excited about going to work. "I keep saying it can't get any worse, and then something happens," he said. Referring to the fans, Beimel said: "I've been kind of shocked no one gives you a hard time around here. Maybe they just don't care enough."

Somebody doesn't care, Joe. I don't think it's the fans. How this team can find so many ways to break our hearts, I just don't know.

After this blog's last roundup, colleague Denny suggested I track Chico Harlan's existential ledes over the course of the entire season. Given the past two weeks, and the end of the first half, I'm digging in.

July 14, not a gamer but a sad firing: "Employed by an organization with a tenuous infrastructure and in charge of a crumbling team, Manny Acta, in the end, ran out of support both from those above him and below him." July 13: "During the 87 games that constituted the first half of their season, the Washington Nationals performed combat on conventional wisdom." July 12: "On very rare nights, when the sum of their parts adds up just right, the Washington Nationals play baseball at a level unbecoming of the company they keep in history."

July 11: "The Washington Nationals tried to stage an uprising on Friday night, and uprisings only work when you begin at a very low place." July 10 (late game): "For all he gives them at the plate — a patient approach and a prodigious power stroke — the Washington Nationals know that life with Adam Dunn is a trade-off."

July 10: "The Washington Nationals on Thursday completed a game that lasted 11 innings and took precisely 65 days 5 hours and 40 minutes." Bonus on this game (and in a sec on the previous game): "Between the first pitch and the winning run, the Nationals replaced six members of their bullpen, traded their pitcher of record (Joel Hanrahan), fired their pitching coach, sent their starting pitcher to the disabled list, activated him from the disabled list, and demoted Elijah Dukes while he stood on first base. Technically speaking."

July 9: "If ever there comes a day, years from now, when historians gather up the courage to revisit the 2009 Washington Nationals, perhaps they can begin and end their study with a quick, purposeful look at the 21 1/2 hours between 6:40 p.m. Tuesday and 4:14 p.m. Wednesday." Hardly gets worse than this. Bonus from the game:

Uniquely adept at losing, unmatched in their willingness to make a beautiful sport unsightly, the Nationals finished perhaps their most degenerative series of the year with help from every comer. Adam Dunn played first base as you would expect of a non-quality left fielder, Ron Villone pitched as you would expect of a 39-year-old, Julián Tavárez pitched as you would expect of a 39-year-old (except he's 36!) and Ross Detwiler pitched as you'd expect of a 23-year-old, or at least one who belongs in the International League.

On a day when several veterans received the day off, bench players seized the opportunities to showcase absolutely nothing. Shortstop Alberto González, ranging right for a hard-hit third-inning grounder, muffed an attempt that wasn't ruled an error but sure looked like one. Catcher Wil Nieves, mask off, dropped a foul pop-up. Austin Kearns grounded into a double play, his 12th in 157 at-bats, and later whiffed on a one-strike pitch while losing hold of his bat, which sailed 130 feet down the left field line, landing at the feet of third base umpire Randy Marsh. Kearns struck out two pitches later, on a check swing.

July 8: "The Washington Nationals have now played 81 games, their season's midpoint, and the manner in which they passed that marker on Tuesday suggested they are in no way done with preposterous losses." July 7: "Pitching is baseball's lion, perched fierce atop the food chain." July 6: "Ninety-eight pitches into his afternoon, Scott Olsen stood on the pitcher's mound, watching everybody converge on him like some claw closing its fist." July 5: "The 300th career home run of Adam Troy Dunn, when ball met bat, followed the flight path of so many before it." July 4: "On the nights when the Washington Nationals do not invent new ways to lose, they merely perfect the old ways."

June 29: "With his first at-bat still 2 1/2 hours away, Willie Harris sat down in front of a laptop Sunday morning and searched for a way — even a fractional one — to boost his odds." June 28: "Situational hitting is the blanket term used to describe what plagued the Washington Nationals on Saturday night." June 22: "The enduring image was also a repeating image, because Ryan Zimmerman did the same thing five times yesterday." June 21: "Willie Harris is a small guy, just 5-foot-9, sometimes with a small role to boot."

June 19: "Waiting is all relative."

Following up on the Nats existentialism post, here's the Chico Harlan lede today on the team's surprising and solid 3-0 win over the Yankees last night: "Waiting is all relative." At work yesterday, somewhat near the water cooler, Denny suggested tracking Harlan's ledes over the entire season, and Joel said we should then run them through a word cloud engine. May try to set up a process at least for the former soon.

What's the New York Times lede today on the Yankees' loss? "The incessant rain was as welcome as the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Thursday." The reader is four grafs into the story before learning the Yankees were shut out by the worst team in baseball. (Our team!)

When you cover the worst team in baseball, how do you even begin to write each day? With this bullpen and defense, how does one fend off nihilism? Nats beat reporter Chico Harlan, finally a worthy daily Post baseball successor to Dave Shenin, has developed a coping technique somewhere between being and nothingness. Ledes on recent gamers:

June 18: "The place mattered." June 17: "The Washington Nationals treat quality with a predatory intolerance." June 15: "On Sunday, for perhaps the final time, Manny Acta sat in the manager's office and called it his own." (Emphasis Harlan's.) June 14: "There is a difference between defeats and losses." June 13: "For all their drawbacks, the Washington Nationals warrant at least one superlative."

June 8: "The winning streak, or at least what counts for one inside the beltway of bad baseball, had a lifespan of one night and one short morning. A beer before closing time and a coffee with breakfast."

June 7: "Yesterday, 25 members of the Washington Nationals reported to the ballpark for another regular workday and encountered nothing regular whatsoever." (We were there.) June 6: "Maybe you've heard that the Washington Nationals have the worst bullpen in the major league." June 5: "Randy Johnson never cared much for convention."

June 1: "Baseball designates no special day for reckoning."

May 31: "Because they kept the score close on Saturday night, and because they executed a rough majority of the defensive plays that big leaguers should execute, and because their combustible and adventurous style again helped the entertainment quotient, the Washington Nationals shouldn't be entirely upbraided for their latest loss, a 9-6 decision against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park." May 30: "So long as night after night that passes without a win, the Washington Nationals — and in particular, the subset of rookies in their pitching rotation — must grow without the gratification." May 28: "Enough things had gone wrong for the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night even before people started watching the lowlights twice." May 27: "Adam Dunn is not some old warhorse." May 26: "On Monday, the game-changing play actually lasted six minutes."

May 24: "If Ross Detwiler lasts much longer in the big leagues, he'll forfeit the memory space for every big moment." May 23: "The Washington Nationals had no game plan to defend themselves against the guy who beat them yesterday."

May 22: "Joel Hanrahan is a closer who just earned his job back, and now must prove he can close games." May 21: "The rise and fall of emotions ended with a fall, because it always does."

May 20: "Last night, the Washington Nationals recovered just enough to make it close and maximize the pain." May 19: "Six professional pitchers performed for the Washington Nationals last night."

I know I rag on their Twitter, image fees and buskers, but add last night to the solid performances I've seen at the stadium this year.

While the game a couple weeks ago had all the drama, last night was notable for its lack thereof. John Lannan pitched a complete game win, rare in the Nats' history and certainly the only one I've ever seen. The Nats' sad CG win history: 2005, three. 2006, one. 2007, no CGs at all. 2008, no wins. 2009, two. Lannan needed only 96 pitches and 2:00 of game time to do it (box score). On top of the CG, the game was also likely the fastest Nats game I've ever attended. Lannan only game up four hits, and the only Mets run scored on a rough Dukes error in right.

Other game stuff? We tied the franchise record for double plays, with five. Dunn, Dukes and Johnson homered, and both Dukes and Johnson were 3-4 on the night. I loved the AP lede: "It was a rare night when all seemed right at Nationals Park. The weather was splendid after a solid week of rain that played havoc with the schedule. The crowd of 31,456 made the ballpark feel lively for a change." Yeah, tons of Mets fans at the park, but we outcheered them. And I've gotta echo on the weather. Amazing, especially after the week. Forgot you were outside.

Non-game stuff? Had a great time with Alan, Emily and Wes and was happy to run into former USAT contract star Kevin. Skipped the pretzel bites for the first time this year, proving they're neither a good nor bad luck charm. Cheered for Teddy's early lead in the President's Race, but he looked back late and lost it then. Had the T-shirt throwers come up to our section, had never seen that before. Minimal Screech and Clint. Also, with the Mets playing Emil Brown in right, this was the closest I'd come to being at a game with someone with the same name as a guy playing in that game. (Dave Wright played but was not in the stands.)

There was also, at different points: an owl promoting conservation, the busker wearing the same shirt as the other day, a Joe Biden lookalike (sorry pic didn't turn out), hula-hooping, and a return to Artomatic.

Artomatic shots, including a special USAT guest appearance, to come later. In other news, the Nats' Twitter page is still white-on-white bad.

They're so bad even the buskers can't hate the teams that beat them.

(But I'll be in the stands and cheering for a rare win Saturday night.)

As just linked in a team e-mail. Not kidding. White on white. Come on!

The Coopers were all in town last weekend and saw a Nats win, the combined odds of which are about five billion to one.

The Dunn slam was wicked, probably my favorite Nats homer since the Zimmerman walk-off against the Yankees. After the O's intentionally walked Zimmerman to get to the big guy, the crowd wanted the come-from-behind shot bad. And everyone played well. Take the AP's sentence on the grand slam setup, "With Washington trailing 5-4, pinch-hitter Anderson Hernandez led off the seventh with a single against Chris Ray (0-1). Willie Harris singled, Cristian Guzman sacrificed and Ryan Zimmerman was intentionally walked to load the bases." Want to engage the fans? Be consistent.

Meanwhile, Kearns ran into everything to catch stuff, and Martis was less wild than he could've been and redeemed himself for giving up a hit to the opposing pitcher by getting a nice hit of his own. Hanrahan looked surprisingly confident with two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 9th.

Other highlights: Good to run into Penn Beth in the concourse. Teddy held a wide, wide early lead in the President's Race, but he lost when he stopped to beat up the Oriole Bird. Worth it. (Update since writing but before publishing: Meghan links to the video.) Missed her National Anthem, but the ending of God Bless America from five-year-old Kaitlyn Maher was way above expectations. Bird beating, kid song pix here. No idea if the kid behind Rob is about spit up a tater tot or what.

(@amzam and @wplauracochran also captured Us Weekly. Go team! Nats played 21, lost 10-6 in 12. They lost us three at 6-6 after 11.)