BobHarris.com - Boston terror over the Mooninite invasion

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... 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

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"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

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew 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

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"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

“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

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Boston terror over the Mooninite invasion

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Wednesday, 31 January 2007

Sigh. Too many grown-ups not watching enough cartoons.

In an echo of the kind of paranoia that thought rock music was a communist plot, and which led some people to duct-tape their entire houses against an exaggerated anthrax threat... today, Boston called out the bomb squad to handle the Mooninite invasion.

Which consisted of -- prepare to be very, very frightened now -- small blinking lights in shape of cartoon characters. AAAAIIIEEEEE!

Jeebus. I mean, I'm as big a coward as there is on the planet, but there's a bigass billboard of a Mooninite giving people the finger, right down the street from where I'm sitting, over on Pico Boulevard in Venice. And somehow nobody calls Homeland Security.

Is Al-Qaeda really going to attack by decorating its bombs with blinking lights, specifically calling attention to the bomb?

This is worse than the freak-out people had over musical newspaper vending machines. Remember that? Somebody hears the Mission: Impossible theme coming from their newspaper box, so the cops come and blow everything up, just to be certain? Because terrorist explosives always come with a recorded soundtrack.

Wow. America really has to start watching Adult Swim. Anybody who doesn't already faithfully watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force frankly deserves to panic blindly.

UPDATE: While we're at it, here's the trailer for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, plus a clip, because I like you and want you to be happy.