72 hours ago, financial analysts across the country were devastated by an eleven hour lapse in their Blackberry service. Today, the Times brings us their stories, like this one, from Omniture marketing director Stuart Gold.

“I started freaking out,” he said. “I started taking it apart. Turning it off. Turning it on. I took the battery out and cleaned it on my shirt. I was running around my hotel like a freak. It’s very sad. I love this thing.”

At 6 a.m. Wednesday morning, full of anxiety about the prospect of spending a traveling day untethered, Mr. Gold awoke and made a beeline for his still motionless phone. At 7 a.m., it started vibrating with activity. “I breathed a sigh of relief,” he said. “Life was good.”

And there's so, so much more.

Meet Elaine Del Rossie, chief sales officer for HTH Worldwide, who says she quit smoking 28 years ago, and dryly notes, “that was easier than being without my BlackBerry.” And say hello to Rob Whitehouse, vice president for communication of University Hospitals in Cleveland, whose Blackberry habit has gotten so out of control that he's actually started getting "phantom vibrations, even when [he's] not carrying the thing."

Thankfully for Stuart, Elaine and Rob, the Blackberry blackout is now no more than a distant memory. But we've learned a lot from their stories of addiction, heartbreak and shame, and will take those life-lessons with us as we go forward.

Though, as far as we're concerned, anything that comes with "phantom vibrations" in the crotch region is alright by us.

Earlier:
• Blackberry Users 'Shocked And Dismayed' By Temporary Disruption Of Service. 'It Was Like Being Back In The Middle Ages.'