And while I’m busy catching up with thanking people, J. Keith gets a hearty hurray for the invite to the panel on his live version of What’s My Line? a few weeks ago, which you could probably just think of as a 1950s cocktail party with live music and an audience.

My thanks to all.  Robert even handed us all spiffy silver letter openers as friendly parting gifts which can also double (in true Tarantino fashion) as stylish shivs.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area and you haven’t yet trotted down to Acme to go see the show, do.

I’d also like to say a belated public thanks to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who stunned this blog and a small swarm of guests with not just a primo batch of seats behind home plate, but a personal escort and pre-game field passes, allowing us to tromp around the edges of the field itself while the pros were taking warmups.

When I was a kid in Cleveland in the 1970s, Dodger Stadium was this unimaginably faraway place where it never rained and the team never sucked and the players seemed friendly and the stands were filled with people from TV.

Sure enough, we got a perfect night, the Dodgers were playing for first place, and while we were hanging out, closer Takashi Saito wandered by to greet a Japanese guest near us. Then Dodgers manager Grady Little wandered over for a quick chat with us all, and about five seconds later I started noticing the stands behind me filling with recognizable faces. So this was exactly what I had imagined about 35 years earlier. I wondered briefly if I was actually still eight years old and only daydreaming.

Anyhow, this whole thing was unexpected and severely cool, and I’ve been meaning to grab a minute and say how much I appreciated it for weeks. So to Ellen and the entire Dodgers front office: thanks from all of us for a wonderful, memorable, terrific evening.

Didn’t mean to let the site go slack for so long, but life got busy on me. I’m sure you survived. Meanwhile, much fun cooking here.

However, now that I’m briefly home again, I must first head to the dentist, because the other day a poppy seed challenged one of my molars to a duel, the molar accepted, and the poppy seed promptly kicked the molar’s ass. So I’m down several minor tooth chunks and an aggravated tongue, actually, although that didn’t stop me from some weekend goofiness I’ll write about later today while the novocaine dissipates.

Said goofiness made me feel like a pudu among giraffes for a little while. And, handily enough, when the L.A. Zoo’s docent was leading Team Pudu around the facility (see below), I got a shot which may or may not have depicted that very thing, shown at right.

The pudu would have been just slightly out of frame.

A small festival of gratitude and contentment will likely begin occupying this page for a while. I know the world is a nigh-hopeless mess, yes — I just wrote another book about that, if fact — but kindnesses should be acknowledge, and there have been many in my own life lately.

Not sure of any details yet exactly, but next weekend includes both (a) the Game Show Congress, which I usually enjoy as a wonderfully geeky event akin to a Renaissance Faire with less fashion sense but a better knowledge of history, and (b) a promotional thing for the new GSN (formerly the Game Show Network) program Grand Slam, which I’m not a part of, but have several friends competing in, all of whom I will cheer for.

The Utah Computah himself should be around for at least some of this, and there’s some chatter about a joint book signing or even maybe a quizzy thing happening. Not sure what yet, to be honest. I’m out of town all week and booked up to the neck, so you might also want to watch Ken’s blog or the GSC site for further info. I’ll update here if I get a chance, of course.

Btw, if you liked Prisoner of Trebekistan and haven’t picked up Brainiac yet, do. It’s what Trebekistan might be if written by a guy who actually, um, knew stuff and won a lot more.

Finally, I should add that the UK version of Grand Slam rocks, and I assume the US version will as well when it debuts. Take all the big winners from other quiz shows and pit them in a tournament of single-elimination, one-on-one games requiring math, wordplay, general knowledge, and general balls under pressure. Here’s a clip of the UK version to see what Ken and Bradzilla and some other friends of Trebekistan have just put themselves through for your upcoming basic cable amusement:

Man, that looks like a blast.

WARNING: The following photo contains intense adorability. Observe at your own risk.

On the left, a tiny duiker, the stackable South African ungulate.

In the middle, a trained professional capable of withstanding high levels of cuteness.

On the right, an even tinier baby duiker. Ankle high. The neutron bomb of cute.

Once you regain consciousness, just remember: you were warned.

This picture (and others which are coming shortly) only exists because of the kindness of some nice folks at the Los Angeles Zoo who have recently taken a shine to this site’s weekly pudublogging. In fact, last weekend, the entire puduland braintrust was given a remarkable VIP tour of the whole place, complete with a well-informed docent explaining all sorts of magnificent things about which animal puts what unexpected thing in some unimaginable orifice for unanticipated reasons, making it all sound so utterly cool. I have rarely been so entertained and delighted.

This was an amazingly wonderful day. Many thanks to Suzanne, Nancy, and Joleen.

Incidentally, if you live in SoCal and haven’t been to the zoo lately, go. Take the kids. Want to help save the world? Teach young people to appreciate wildlife and the environment. Plus, it’s fun as heck.

The pudus are sort of in the back to the right. The nursery, where you’ll find baby whoknowswhats, is in the front to the right. The baby duiker is probably still there if you hurry.

PS — I should also add that I’ve had a fabulous run of fortune lately, and there are lots of other people I need to thank profusely — folks with the L.A. Dodgers, in NY publishing, and doing several varieties of Hollywood thingies. I’m traveling and visiting family at the moment, but there will be much gratitude here asap.