Boston politician wants to yank down the Citgo sign that has stood behind Fenway Park’s left field wall for the last 65 years.  That’ll teach Chavez to insult the president, see.

Because if the last five years have taught us anything, it’s that cosmetic solutions change everything.

Now that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has made Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony and Survival a surprise best-seller, here’s a sampling of what Chavez had to say about other recent books in various speeches before the United Nations.

On Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck:

On James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia:

On John Grogan’s Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog:

Next week: speaking at the Organization of American States, Hugo Chavez reviews the season premieres of Grey’s Anatomy and The Office.

Desi points out — as if this should ever need to be pointed out, but apparently so — that no religion has a monopoly on violence.

(And apparently she posted this at 4:32 am.  Desi probably needs sleep.  Although for the CuteOverload crowd, while you’re there, you might also check out the scenes of cutting-edge dog fashion.  Gotta get me one of them spider dogs.)

We’re getting a bunch of new visitors of late, so if you’re unfamiliar with Friday pudublogging, you might want to click on "Pudu" in the main menu (or just click here) and scroll around, enjoying the numerous cool species we’re fond of here.

I’ve been busy, so this week, let’s look back at the South African rock hyraxes I photographed on Table Mountain a while back:

These are not to be confused with their distant relative, the jazz hyrax:

I’ve updated the Extras page to include stuff left out of the book as far as Chapter Three, including, among other tidbits:

More to come.  Of course, some tidbits will only make sense if you buy the book, but most should be fun by themselves.  Enjoy!