Repeating an experiment

So, I tried the same experiment with Elayna that Scalzi tries with Athena here. The major difference -- and arguably either the difference between a nine-year-old and a thirteen-year-old, or the difference between having Scalzi as a dad and having me as one, is that Elayna's assumed I must be asking a trick question, instead of a stupid one. But otherwise, yeah. She also knows more about Africa than the vice-presidential candidate of a major political party.

And yes, Elayna was very amused by the video accompanying the story above. Appalled, but also amused.

Gold Gloves!

Woohoo! Go Beltran and Wright (and yes, Wright damned well deserved his; he made errors, but there's nobody at the hot corner who was better at stopping potential extra base hits. Oliver Perez will see his ERA rise by at least half a run if he moves to a team with anyone else at third base.)

Congrats to Maddux, as well. Great way to end a great career.

Amazon deals: Musicals, Obama, and McCain

(DVD Deals from yesterday (tons of TV deals) and Monday (Supernatural and animated DCU) remain active; yes, Amazon's likely doing a soft kick-off of their holiday sales)

Amazon's now got a sale on Musicals, featuring 40-43% off 1776, Annie, Oliver!, Rent, Pal Joey, and others. "Others," incidentally, includes Spice World and Glitter.

Also, while supplies last, if you buy the Barack Obama action figure, they'll throw in the John McCain one. Really.

Reason #86 that I love A. Lee Martinez

The dedication page in Too Many Curses concludes with, "And to Booster Gold."

Reasons 1-85, of course, deal with the actual books he writes, which range from funny to brilliant.

(The only thing I don't like about Martinez, actually, is that he's one of those people who uses forum software to blog. I like my RSS reader, dammit.)

Dear China: Kim Newman called, and he wants his plot back

Chinese Students quarantined during epidemic.

Okay, when Newman wrote about it, it was zombies (kind of).

And when Bentley Little wrote about it, it was an ancient, evil, sentient university that made people go crazy and kill themselves, except for the heroes, who simply craved anal sex.

Seriously, China. Cholera's not half as interesting.