BobHarris.com - Friday pudublogging: ¡Viva Quito! ¡Viva Ecuador! edition

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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Friday pudublogging: ¡Viva Quito! ¡Viva Ecuador! edition

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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.