To any visitors from Chile or Argentina who swing through the site:

I’m considering taking a few weeks to go see some of your part of the world. 
Beyond Santiago and Buenos Aires, which I’ll definitely visit if only
in transit (and probably a good deal more), what’s don’t-miss? 
Patagonia, the Lakes district, the Chilean coast, the Atacama desert,
Cerro de la Ventana, San Carlos de Barriloche?  What’s overrated?  Any
other tips or advice will be much appreciated, especially if it
involves hints on viewing the elusive pudu.

Y pienso que los pudus hablan espa

Book still dominating my life for at least a few more days.

After that, comic books and another DVD project will jump up fast.  So this place will
lie fallow for a day or two sometimes in the coming months.  Just a
courtesy heads-up.

End of the week, a new pudu (and when I say new, I mean new) that will make you want to hug everything in sight.

When I get a few spare hours, a full final update on Upsidedownland,
with comparison maps with other states and storms, the blithely
irrelevant official response I got from FEMA, and details of how Brownie said stuff that just wasn’t true under oath when the subject of how parishes were chosen came up.  But that will take a bit of time to pull together into one post. 

Thanks!

If you like hard-to-find kinds of soda, anyway.

Galco’s is up near Eagle Rock, so I had no idea it existed until a friend of a friend told a friend.  I took a day off from the book yesterday and ran errands, and this was the best stop by far.  It’s run by this cool guy named John, who is the kind of happy small businessman who loves what he does so much he can’t seem to imagine why everyone isn’t in the same line of work.  So now my kitchen is filled with Nehi and Faygo and Red Rock and Vernors and all sorts of sugary exotica.

I don’t think they ship alcohol, but they also had an impressive collection of this planet’s beer.  Sort of testing them, I went looking for Efes, which I haven’t seen since, well, Efes.  Sure enough, I’ve got a six in the fridge.  (It’s an average pale lager.  But the memories it brings for me taste great.)

If you’re from one part of the planet and miss a taste from back home, or you’d like to give someone in that situation a cool present, you’ll get a kick out of this.

This question has been flying around the ‘sphere since George Stephanopolousolousus hinted as much over the weekend.

Bush made some funny noises about two and a half months ago that I noted at the time.  Some unprovoked denials of knowledge that sounded very curious to my ears.  Nobody made anything out of them then, so I’ve assumed it was nothing.  Wondering even more now.

But I don’t know any more really than I knew then, which is next to nothing.  So your mileage may vary.

Also, this gives me the chance to be completely wrong about something over and over.  This will be handy if I ever decide to get back into talk radio.

Reader Richard sends this along from Barbados, a photo of a mystery beast:

Is it a kind of deer?  A bunny?  Some kind of kangaroo?

None of the above, it turns out.

This is actually the endangered Hutia Conga, native to Cuba.

Developed as an attempt to fill the notorious Cuteness Gap during the Cold War, the Hutia was a key part of the island’s defenses.  It is said that Fidel Castro personally oversaw the breeding of the Hutia in secret underground labs.  In case of a second U.S. invasion, massive numbers of Hutia would be released on the shores.  Incoming troops would theoretically be stopped in their tracks.

Wallaby?  Giant hare?  Pudu with giant flat trotters?  The invaders would be stopped cold by wonder.

Unfortunately, now that the Cold War is over, the Hutia’s numbers have fallen.

The Hutia Conga, in fact, is a large variety of rodent.  A giant Cuban rodent. 

A giant Cuban bunnyroo pudurodent that likes cigars.

Now it can be told.