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.

You haven’t seen that headline yet.

And with a little luck, you won’t.

But I won’t be blogging much this week, if at all.

There’s plenty to play with in the links on your left.  See you next week.

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.

How will Bush help America prepare for a possible deadly outbreak of Avian Flu?
Letting everyone get sick, trusting the free market to cure us all
423   39.6%
Using the morgue as a photo op after his vacation is over
319   29.8%
Filling the CDC with political hacks and fixers
215   20.1%
Transfering medical research money into the Iraq war
112   10.5%

OK, but what if Bush — who was DUI at age 30 and caught on video drinking at a wedding six years after he claims he stopped cold turkey — is actually drinking again?  (Not that the Enquirer is any less riddled with inaccuracies than CNN or Fox News, or vice versa.)

If Bush is drinking, what’s the possible upside?

New poll at upper left.