Not Quite So New!
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"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... unlike his buzzer skills, his comic timing never fails"
-- The Wall Street Journal
"Pulls you in like a good sports story"
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"
-- New York Newsday
"A surprisingly touching memoir"
-- Entertainment Weekly
"Hugely funny"
-- Mental Floss
"Like Jeopardy! itself, it covers a lot of ground and in snappy and informative fashion"
-- Associated Press
"Down to earth and entertaining, even for non- Jeopardy! fans"
-- The New York Daily News
"A very funny writer... the book works like gangbusters."
-- Ken Jennings, 74-time Jeopardy! winner, holder of numerous other Jeopardy! records
"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."
-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."
-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life
"Eccentric, energetic, and engaging"
-- Publishers Weekly
"The perfect gift for any Jeopardy! fan... I was thoroughly entertained"
-- USA Today, "Pop Candy"
"Surprisingly compelling... a funny and in-depth look at what it takes to win"
-- Long Island Press
"Wise, honest, and very funny... I wish I'd written it. Then again, I wish I'd won $127,000 and his-and-hers Camaros on Jeopardy!, too."
-- Jeff Greenstein, writer/producer, Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace, Friends
"Cleverly executed... solid entertainment"
-- Kirkus Reviews
"Answer: A hilarious, engaging and highly entertaining book. Question: What is Prisoner of Trebekistan? (All right... that was sort of a lame Jeopardy! joke. But what can I say? It's a great book.)"
-- Paul Feig, creator of Freaks and Geeks, author of Superstud and Kick Me
"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."
-- Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game
" Prisoner of Trebekistan is funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"
-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All
"If you don't buy this book -- this funny, learned, charming, and surprisingly moving book -- I will make it burst into flames in your hands."
-- Arthur Phillips, author of Prague and The Egyptologist
"A keeper for anyone who's even remotely a fan of Jeopardy!"
-- TVSquad.com
"If you enjoy... self-aware, geeky good humor, this could actually be your favorite book of the year."
-- The Stranger
"Highly entertaining... laugh-out-loud, absurdist funny... hilarious"
-- Akron Beacon-Journal
"Hilarious... a true treat for all Jeopardy! fans."
-- Strand Bookstore
"Everything you'd hope for... surprisingly compelling... deftly woven together... this sweet, fascinating book is a great read."
-- Book-blog.com
"If super-intelligent space aliens invaded our planet and demanded to interview one member of our species to ascertain whether or not we human beings were logical, bright, kind, and entertaining enough to be allowed to continue, I would nominate, with all my powers of persuasion, Bob Harris."
-- Emo Philips, comedian
"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew that Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."
-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history
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“Revelatory... wryly funny about some very serious subjects... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”
— Boston Globe
“Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”
— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."
— New York Observer
“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”
— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Main  Pudu Pudu, tiny deer from Perudu, always in a good moodu, cuz he know more than youdu 
This site's mascot, the pudu (actual species name: pudu pudu) is the world's tiniest deer, a two-foot-tall little ungulate with big wide eyes and a body that resembles a Vienna sausage balanced on four wobbly toothpicks.
Imagine a full-grown deer whose nose is at the height of your shins, peering up at you timidly and hoping you might give it a mulberry leaf to chew. That's a pudu.
Pudus have no natural defenses to speak of. When threatened, pudus
usually try to find a log to hide behind or possibly climb. This works
about as well as it sounds like. Overall, they're endangered and they look like they know it.
Not surprisingly, pudus are losing their habitat, like lots of wonderful species are. So enjoy them while they're here.
PS -- Pudus aren't really from Peru; they're from Chile and Argentina. But those don't rhyme with "pudu" as well as "Perudu."
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Pudu
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Horniest little pudu you may ever see. And smiling about it, too.
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Pudu
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Friday, 25 April 2008 |
Long time since I've pudublogged. Pudublog backlog. I must catalog. Meanwhile, camouflag:
Sometimes it's hard to see the pudu for the forest.
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Pudu
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Friday, 29 February 2008 |
How do pudus celebrate Leap Day?
By leaping forward and taking a piece of apple out of your hand, obviously.
Photo taken at Fauna Andina, smack dab in the Valdivian rain forest, about 300 miles south of Santiago, Chile.
When we get the PayPal thing up to support their preservation efforts, I hope you'll chip in vigorously. The pudus will thank you for it.
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Pudu
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
Pudu working it for the camera at Fernando's Hideaway in Chile:
Pudu not shy.
PS -- What I call "Fernando's Hideaway" here is actually Fauna Andina, a private reserve that cares for vulnerable and endangered local species in rural Chile. The guy who runs the place, Fernando, may know more about pudus than anyone alive, and one of his favorite hobbies is caring for his tiny flock. (Some were previously mistakenly taken in as pets, which doesn't work; some have been found injured; and others are the offspring of Fernando's prior pudus.)
I'm gonna try to set up a PayPal thing where people who appreciate the pudu can chip in a buck or two to help Fernando keep his pudus healthy and happy. Thanks! |
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Pudu
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Friday, 14 December 2007 |
I'll be in South America for about six or seven more weeks, so I don't know how often I'll be blogging. But I found this place while looking for a room in San Carlos de Bariloche later in the trip.
I like to think there are actual pudus trotting around the front desk. And maybe another pudu with a bellman's cap on, scratching at your luggage.
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Pudu
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
Travelling again, which is why the blog is not so much with the blogging of late. Hope this makes your Friday better. It certainly made my Wednesday nicer.
That's from a hill called Panecillo ("little loaf of bread") overlooking Quito, Ecuador. You're at almost twice the altitude of Denver, so the air is remarkably thin -- and when it's clear, my camera can't possibly do the colors here justice. (Altitude sickness, just from being here, can be a problem. Fortunately, I live in L.A., so I got over the need for a steady oxygen supply long ago.)
Yesterday, December 6, is the local equivalent of July 4th in the US. This particular year is Quito's 473rd anniversary. It's celebrated with a major festival lasting for several weeks. So major town squares and sometimes whole neighborhoods have been filled with dancing and singing and general merriment since I got here.
Highly recommended.
Plus, the whole downtown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, filled with magnificent churches, convents, and assorted Spanish colonial stuff, all of it pretty damn gorgeous.
Here's how I've been treated since I got here: last night, I was one of thousands of people crushing together along a major avenue, awaiting the Parade of Sound and Light. Things were delayed, so this was rapidly turning into the Parade of Standing Around Freezing Two Miles in the Air While Surrounded by People With Much Stronger Lungs.
Pretty soon, I'm talking with a local named Paul. Mucho gusto. He introduces me to his wife. And his son. And another son, and two daughters. And some in-laws, I think, and maybe a couple of cousins. Frankly, I lost track. But they practically welcomed me into the family, just standing there on the street, helping me with my jagged Spanish and filling in the words when I couldn't find them.
A few minutes later, Paul asked if I had any friends in Quito. (I don't.) Then, before I could answer, and in all sincerity, he corrected himself: "besides us," he added.
Maybe you had to be there to know that he meant those words, already.
There's a thing that musicians do here after songs, at least during the Fiesta. They lead the crowd in a quick call-and-response: ¡Viva Quito! ¡Viva Ecuador!
So far, I have to agree.
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Pudu
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Thursday, 22 November 2007 |
 In a moment of supreme holiday football-induced delirium, I got it in my head today that somewhere there must be a college called Pudu State, or at least that Pudu State gear would look kinda cool.
Curious, I went to the old CafePress store, which I haven't bothered with in a couple of years, and made up a logo for a sweatshirt for myself.
 Btw, if anyone asks, the team is called the Foraging Ungulates, and the school's official colors are ecru, buff, and khaki. Other teams in the conference include Duiker College, Muntjac University, Dik-Dik School of Cosmetology, and Klipspringer A&M.
And I may have eaten too much tryptophan today.
Still, there might be between five and fifty readers of this site who might want something similar as an odd impulse gift of their own, especially with the holiday shopping season bearing down on us all. So, what the heck — CafePress made it ridiculously easy to proliferate the idea across all sorts of interesting swag. Consider the idea shared.
While I was at it, I also tried out the old Robert Indiana tribute Pudu logo, which looks surprisingly cool on handbags, dog T-shirts, and other things I wouldn't have expected.
If anyone actually buys any of this stuff, I'll make a dollar or two on every sale, which I'll put toward this site's monthly upkeep.
I've also put a couple of the old products up, just in case somebody wants a 12-language office clock or a T-shirt that simply says "Impeach."
 Whether or not you click over to the CafePress store and show your alumni pride in the Foraging Ungulate Nation... happy post-Thanksgiving compulsory shopping trauma period, everybody.
PS -- CafePress has a banner ad they want sellers to run for the next few days, shouting about free shipping on orders over $75. But I hate giant banner ads, so here – click away if you like:
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Pudu
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Thursday, 22 November 2007 |
Regular visitors know that I spend a good deal of pudu-related space spewing purest balderdash about the habits of small creatures. This week's absurdity is actually real.
Last week I posted this note about participating in the European Quizzing Championships, which included some of the most lunatic and delightful questions I've ever seen -- one of which asked us to name a kind of civet, common in the Balearic Islands, which marks its territory by doing handstands.
I couldn't answer the question myself. I was too busy giggling at the mental picture, and at the absurd sight of seeing competitors from fifteen countries nonchalantly nodding and writing down their answers, as if handstanding Balearic civets are in no way unexpected or wondrous. Can the world truly be this comfortable with its own weirdness? Apparently so.
Here's our answer, as it appeared on the tournament's big projection screen, and in four languages, no less:
The genet, dear readers, is our little self-inverting anus-gland-exposing gymnastic Mediterranean friend.
What am I thankful for in this year's installment of socially compelled Two Minutes Gratitude? Many, many things. But most of all, to live in a world so strange and magnificent in the first place.
Have a gleeful holiday. If you're in the Balearic Islands, please hug a handstanding civet for me.
(And yes, I know genets don't really like to be hugged. But millions of Americans are getting hugs they don't really want today, too. So think of it as sharing the holiday spirit.) |
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Pudu
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
We get a lot of questions about pudu maintenance. For example, some people's pudus wobble through corners at high speed.
So how often should a pudu's legs be rotated? Is it better to switch out the front pair with the back, or to rotate them four ways, like with a car?
Generally, you can just switch the front legs with the back legs and get improved mileage and stability. (Above, a pudu in mid-repair.)
With proper care, your pudu should be reliably tiny for many years to come.
Photo by an Argentine named Ricardo Cenzano, whose work I love looking at and who probably has a wonderful life.
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Pudu
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Friday, 12 October 2007 |
Meet Australia's increasingly vulnerable quokka, courtesy my Trebekistan pal Dara (who in turn I think cribbed this guy from Cute Overload):
I've seen quokkas in Aussie zoos several times, but their natural range (the southwest bit of Western Australia) and mine have yet to overlap in the wild. Quokkas may look more like children's plush toys than any other species. They're still found in abundance on Rottnest Island near Perth, which got its name (Dutch for "rat nest") from a 17th century explorer mistaking these fuzzy marsupials for large rats.
Of course, quokkas are much more closely related to the kangaroo. Like everything else in Australia. If Russell Crowe someday slugs a guy in a bar and then bounds away on two giant feet, don't be too surprised.
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Pudu
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Friday, 05 October 2007 |
Go watch some actual footage of a live pudu birth. (Click on "Nacimiento Pudú" and enjoy.)
I have to warn you first, though -- there are three stages in witnessing pudu mulitplication:
Cute!
ICK! Aaaaagh! Ewww!
Cute again! And getting even cuter!
Now that you're warned -- and maybe putting away whatever you're eating for a while -- go for it.
The footage is the work of Fauna Andina, a private organization that works for the conservation and protection of Chilean wildlife, with reproduction and rescue centers tending to all manner of beasties. I gotta go visit these people someday.
By the way, the cheesy elevator music? Not their fault. All pudus naturally give birth with a soundtrack of cheesy elevator music. It helps keep predators at bay during this vulnerable time. Some big cat wanders up, smelling dinner, and next thing you know, it's running away, holding its ears.
So every time you see a predator looking a little confused, like it's trying to get a song out of its head? Somewhere a new pudu has been born. |
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Pudu
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Friday, 28 September 2007 |
The Great Singing Nyala live in the mountains of Ethiopia, where they travel in pairs, munch on wild grasses, and never tire of explaining that they're not really related to the Not So Giant Nyala of South Africa (which can barely hold a tune), but more closely related to the Kudu and other antelope.
Their scientific name comes from their unusual natural defense instincts. When startled, they freeze, then do a charming song-and-dance number, complete with a little soft-shoe thing on their hind trotters. The duo below were photographed just before bursting into song.
Usually, the lyrics go something like this:
Nyala, we're the
Singing Impala,
Ethiopian Kudu,
Giant African Pudu!
(repeat until predators are charmed, dig for spare change, smile, and move on)
I gotta get to East Africa one of these days. (Actually, between everything else, I'm spending some spare time writing questions for a quiz show in Tanzania that a Trebekistan buddy works on. Would love to see a taping. So, you never know.)
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Pudu
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Friday, 21 September 2007 |
As you may have seen mentioned here before, this site's tiny mascot has also been chosen as the symbol of the Chilean version of the One Laptop Per Child movement, which is using these a series of adorable little soft figures as part of the campaign.
Turns out the talented source of this cuteness is named Lizette Greco, and her Flickr set of puduitude is presented in slide show form here. Prepare to want one for yourself.
Thing is, the money you'd spend on it could help put a laptop in a kid's hands. So that would be even cooler and cuter.
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