Ahoy!
Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, which reminds me: as a bonus, Who Hates Whom also includes listin’s o’ t’ most buccanneered waters on this green earth.
Ahhhr, says I.
My new book is available next week, although you can order right this second if you want to:
It’s exactly what it sounds like — a brief, pocket-sized paperback guide to about 35 of the world’s major conflict zones, complete with original maps, illustrations, and photographs.
Frankly, if you’ve ever wished for a book that allows you to look up who’s who in Sudan in one trip to the can, here it is.
Is it any good? I have no idea, honestly. There were a kajillion compromises in getting this thing down to pocket size.* But I worked hard on it, and so far, WHW has picked up some kind praise from John Hodgman of The Daily Show, Ken Jennings from Jeopardy!, comedian Emo Philips, and — of all things — Men’s Health magazine, which chose it as a “Must Have” in their September issue. (Will reading Who Hates Whom therefore give you tighter abs? Possibly.)
If you enjoy the occasional political stuff on this blog, or if you liked the general vibe of last year’s Prisoner of Trebekistan, you might dig it. I hope you will.
*It’s not up yet, but I’ll have WhoHatesWhom.com at least partially up sometime next week with extras, deleted stuff, source notes, errata, etc.
More kindness in the last 48 hours, and more thanks are in order.
First, to the Dodgers, who on Saturday treated all of Team Pudu to an entire box right behind third base, practically on the field.
"Practically on the field" isn’t hyperbole. Just a few years ago, before these new seats were added, our rumps would have actually been in foul ground in the field of play. When Alex Gonzalez hit a 3-run homer in the first, you could even hear the third baseman grunt his disapproval.
So, a big thanks to Ellen and the kind folks at Dodger town.
On Sunday, Team Pudu also found ourselves all tuxed up and wandering into the Emmys, right there on the red carpet like the big kids. (Sorry for the subpar pics here; only cellphone cameras were allowed in.)
This was hardly an exclusive gig; there were almost as many people at the Shrine Auditorium as had been at Dodger Stadium the day before. Still, the TV business is often described as being about the size of a large high school; if so, then the Emmys are the big high school talent show, but with lots of actual talent bounding around, only a fraction of which gets televised. Rest assured: conversation with people who write ripping dialogue for a living is a pretty good time.
Favorite moment: the surprise Tony Bennett mini-concert in the middle of the Governor’s Ball. I mean, I’m just standing there, catching up with some people, and hey, that’s Tony Bennett!
Awesome fun weekend in puduland. Many thanks to all involved.
The L.A. Times story is here. Not surprisingly, the Pentagon dismisses the estimate out of hand, but as Jon points out, it’s right in line with this extrapolation of last year’s Lancet study, which was also dismissed out of hand, despite using widely-accepted methodology.
Meanwhile, when random Americans were polled a few months ago by the Associated Press, the median guess for the death toll was under ten thousand.
Obviously, we really have no idea how many innocent people have died in Iraq. But there’s at least a fair chance that however bad you may think Iraq is, you might need to multiply it by one hundred.
Again substituting puffins for pudus, since puffins may be the pudus of the tiny-aquatic-bird world anyway…
Forwarded by alert reader Billie after my Iceland trip, specifically this post about the annual Puffin Rescue on the island of Heimaey:
I just hope the one on the right isn’t thinking this is some sort of mating ritual.
Because, well, splinters.
Lots more Iceland stuff I’d like to post if I ever get a minute. In the meantime, if you ever get the chance, just go.