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You've seen the headlines, heard the rumors and probably expect more to come. We're talking about the red tide of earnings washing through the Alley, followed by announcements of staff cuts and restructurings, layoffs and business closings, even bankruptcies.

Then there are the ongoing stories about companies searching for strategic partners and possible mergers, anything to help them remain a going concern and continue operations.

Welcome to Ground Zero for reporters and editors chronicling the great dot-com shakeout, the one we all knew had to follow the fantastic run-up of fundings and online companies that flooded the scene during the past two years. It ain't pretty, but it's the main story of Silicon Alley right now, at least by day.

By night, though, the story changes. Parties for Internet plays that have managed to secure additional venture funding live on. Sure, the pink slip parties are getting more crowded too, and the launch parties aren't coming three or four a night like they were a year or so ago, but when the sun goes down, oh does the money flow.

Take, for example, a certain infrastructure play that recently received $50 million in a second round -- which is big money and big news these days, compared to business ideas that a year ago would get $10 million, only to get a thumbs down today.

At this company's launch party, held at a hip venue in the meatpacking district, extensive food stations greeted revelers with such fare as fois gras, scallops and caviar, as well as an open bar and laminated menus of special drinks created just for the event. Also part of the evening's fun: gift bags full of t-shirts and specially-printed brochures about the evening's launch party, as well as polar fleece hats.

Now, I know it may be unfair to point fingers at how a company spends its money on a launch party, especially when employees have been sacrificing home and family life in order to grow a healthy business. It's just that these opulent parties seem really, really weird for folks who have watched last year's big spenders become this year's latest layoff announcement.

So here's a modest dot-com proposal. What if the start-ups that are lucky enough to receive more funding, that plan to send expensive, formal invitations to members of the press about the next launch event, instead take those monies and start a rainy day fund. The accounts would help make sure that those hard-working employees partying today don't end up looking for new gigs six months or a year from now.