This link will only work today, so click right now to see what’s so amusing.

    UPDATE: here’s what I was referring to, in Amazon’s daily list of books by their order in sales.  The new book was exactly one place ahead of an old book by somebody I used to criticize pretty roundly, something that just looked pretty damn strange when they appeared on the same page:

    And yes, I do think that is a very hard choice, but the price, I think. . . the price is worth it.

    (If you don’t catch the reference, clickityclikkikikickit.)

    My friend Neil Innes just breezed through town the other night.  He and the band gave a terrific show, and I’ve been humming the melodies for days.  The tour’s over by now, but if you ever do get the chance, go.  If the Monty Python, Rutles, and Bonzos stuff don’t do it for you, and his more recent solo tunes don’t climb into your head to live, you are clinically dead.

    Keep an eye on this young man.  I see big things ahead. 

    PS: I have several friends, acquaintances, and mere objects of admiration who have great projects out of late, and when I get a minute I’m gonna try slapping a Recommended Stuff module over on the right.  When I get around to it.  Neil’s show was my weekly trip out of the house.  Amazing thing

    If you click on Espa

    If you’d like to toss a few bucks toward folks who had little and now have nothing, this would be a good time.

    I’ve never been to Java, but in my one brief visit elsewhere in Indonesia I was treated with more friendliness than I knew how to react to. (Some of this, no doubt, was because I was a relatively     well-off tourist, and thus a possible source of income, granted. But I do think a great deal of it was just general human decency.)

    I’ve put a long list of reputable charities currently active in helping out the people of Yogyakarta at left. You can scope these out or find others via the Charity Navigator, and find out more

You’ll notice quite a few changes around here. We’re updating the look a little. It might mutate a few times in the new few weeks. So enjoy that.

Also, you’ll notice that Prisoner of Trebekistan, my new humor book about not winning so many times on a certain quiz show, and how stuffing a whole slew of seemingly-disconnected info into your head can have unexpected effects, is now available for pre-ordering.

The book is already getting some crazy-nice blurbs from people I admire so much I could plotz. But more about that later. Lots more.

For now, if you’d like a copy, you can be the first kid on the block to pre-order. Then brag to your friends about it if you like.