BobHarris.com - Friday pudu blogging: two special guest stars

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

Friday pudu blogging: two special guest stars

Tag it now -

Friday, 10 December 2004

All the pudus I know have been called away for some sort of assignment at the moment. In the meantime...

First up, as promised, a tree hyrax, distant relative of the pudu. I've never seen one myself. This picture was taken by a fellow named Michael Humbert during a trip through Tsavo National Park in Kenya. Looks almost like it's half pudu, half squirrel. Related to other hyraxes, mostly. And elephants.

Pretty damned adorable subungulate, you ask me.

And this fellow is a chevrotain -- better known as a mouse deer. Chevrotains aren't true deer, actually, and are classified in their own family. But don't hold that against them. They're even tinier than pudus -- only about 14" fully grown -- and have these pig-like little snaggleteeth that make them sort of homely and endearing.

I took this picture myself in Malaysia about a year ago. There were five or six of the little fellows in an enclosure, and they were adorable -- running around in circles, checking me out one by one, then running away, then running back, then occasionally darting under one of those big mushroom deals to piddle, then running around some more. One of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Long crammed day. Nice to see pudus are missed when they're not there. Makes me wish they weren't so endangered...