What do you think? Check out my guns! Actually, that dude is not me, but you’re welcome to imagine that it is. I’m neither that buff nor tan.
A big thanks to Paul McCarthy, the fella who designed the cover, and all of the other folks at Wiley who helped with it.
…
Despite wanting to skip through the streets and scream from the rooftops that my book, my very own book, is going to be published in November, I don’t (other than the virtual street/rooftop you are reading this on now). I was raised to not brag and even though it’s not really bragging telling someone what you’ve spent the better part of the last year working on, it feels like it.
Often Annie will work it into conversations with people that don’t know the news. I guess it’s okay if your wife brags about you. She did this when we were home for Christmas.
“Kelsey is going to have his first book published in November,” Annie says to a family friend.
My face gets a little red and I feel…
Yesterday’s NY TIMES has a feature on slum tourism (aka Poorism). Here’s the nitty gritty:
Anti-Poorism
“Would you want people stopping outside of your front door every day, or maybe twice a day, snapping a few pictures of you and making some observations about your lifestyle?” asked David Fennell, a professor of tourism and environment at Brock University in Ontario. Slum tourism, he says, is just another example of tourism’s finding a new niche to exploit. The real purpose, he believes, is to make Westerners feel better about their station in life. “It affirms in my mind how lucky I am — or how unlucky they are,” he said.
Pro-Poorism
“…proponents of slum tourism say. Ignoring poverty won’t make it go away. “Tourism is one of the few ways that you…
Sometimes long-haired cats have issues in the kitty litter box and end up a little less than fresh in their posterior regions. And sometime those cats, decide to sit their messy little bottoms on their writer’s notes.
Annie has the kitty bottom cleaning job in our household. I hope she gets home soon. She has a lot of work ahead of her….
The SPAM
From: Henri Konan [mailto:he_konan4@yahoo.fr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 11:16 AM
To: he_konan4@yahoo.fr
Subject: MESSAGE
ATTN:Dear one.
My name is Hon Dr Henri Konan from Cote D I’ voire my
client died Three years ago leaving behind Capital
amount (US$5.6M with interest) in our bank here where
i work ,I am his account manager ,till date nobody has
come forward or put application for the claim.During the my private search for the relative recently
your name was among the findings that matches the same
surname as the deceases name is (withheld for security
reason) who died interstate with no Will or next of
kin.To maintain the level of security required I have
intentionally left out the final details. I want you
to come forward since I can provide you with the
details needed for you to claim the Funds so that I
can be…
Darke County, Ohio.
That’s right, I didn’t say a city or a town. There are only 50,000 people in the entire county and a fair amount of them live in the country. They don’t live on streets; they live on rural routes or hyphenated roads between tiny burgs (Hillgrove – Woodington Rd).
Your typical Darke Countian likes guns, is against abortion, and votes Republican.
The Washington Post featured Darke County, in a story today titled: In Rural Ohio, It’s No Country for Democrats.
Some highlights:
– Greenville is the seat of Darke County, which typically ranks first in the state in corn and soybean production.
When I write about playing in flat-fields of corn and beans as a kid, I know what I’m talking about.
– For…
Some people are calling this the most important presidential election of our lifetime. So, one might expect that all eyes would be on the Ohio and Texas primaries today, right?
Not quite.
Here’s the CNN top stories today. If you make it past the American Idol stripper and the six-legged octopus (hexapus?), you’ll see that the story of today’s primaries is at #10.
God Bless America and our strippers and our politicians (in that order).
…
I’ve noted the hotel rooms in China are equipped for nights of passion. I’ve written about the rise of Chinese promiscuity. I even wrote about Chinese hookers and ice cream. Today, on CNN there’s yet another report on xing (sex) in China.
There are several things from the piece that freak me out. The first is about the rooms that young couple rent by the hour to get their xing on:
A sign on the wall warned: “If the linens are too dirty, you will lose your deposit.”
They don’t change the sheets!
And ever more disturbing:
A walk-in abortion costs $140 at the Haidian Maternal and Child Health Hospital, a large public hospital in northwest Beijing. Too pricey? Skip the anesthesia and the price falls…
The World Vision Report aired my interview with model/designer/saint/UN Ambassador Bibi Russell. They mixed the interview with some Bangladeshi music and I think it turned out quite good. Especially, since it’s my first ever recorded piece to air.
Bibi plays an important part in my book. Here’s how the chapter she’s featured in starts out:
“Now is a good time,” Bibi said. “The electricity is out.”
I have never interviewed a supermodel before or even talked to one, for that matter. I never expected that she would be there – up three flights of stairs off the chaotic streets of Dhaka sitting in the dark.
When she stood I almost said, “Boy, you sure are tall and…
…