BobHarris.com - Greetings in your miscellaneous languages!

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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Greetings in your miscellaneous languages!

Tag it now -

Monday, 12 December 2005

After this post, where I wondered if server logs showing a constant stream of visits from the "Unknown Country" might be visitors from beyond the grave, I got a flood of emails from people certain that they themselves were writing from the Unknown Country. I'm not sure this speaks well of one's civic pride, but I appreciate the tips nonetheless.

So far, this claim has been made by people who live in Ireland, Northern Ireland, South Africa, China, Ireland yet again, and Canada, although I think this last one was kidding.

To all of you kind writers, thanks -- but I don't think it's you. And Ireland must be pretty damn depressing this time of year, since the island accounts for fully half of emailers who consider their own land as a better candidate for the Unknown Country than death itself.

Even more puzzling, however, is this newer graphic, creating a new, even more delightfully ambiguous category of visitors:

Hello, visitors from the land of Miscellany!

You guys were nine percent of our traffic for a while. And yet you're from places apparently even more miscellaneous than Cyprus, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, and (of course) Ireland and the Unknown Country.

I greet you with miscellaneous body gestures, and welcome you with miscellaneous words! I hope someday to learn your miscellaneous customs, eat your miscellaneous food, and do miscellaneous things in a most miscellaneous way.

That all said, I am highly disturbed by news of your growing border tensions with the Nondescript. And I frankly question your treatment of the Higgledy-Piggledy among you.

We all know that terror strikes are Random events. It is unfair to slur the Higgledy-Piggledy and Nondescript by association.

Unless peace initiatives work, this could lead to many of you having to log in from the Unknown Country.