Book blog

Read all about it at bodypiercingsavedmylife.com.

Advance press

An almost embarrassingly nice post from J. Edward Keyes' blog today about my book, which I guess must be available somehow already, which in turn makes me pretty nervous that I haven't gotten the Body Piercing Saved My Life website together yet. This, and the City Paper softball game, is looking like my weekend plans. You ready, Paul?

Learn something new every day

Sorry, can't help it: I just gotta quote more Very Little Known Facts:

• The inside of an ordinary 40-watt lightbulb can become hotter than the surface of the sun.
  
  
• So-called "steam locomotives" are actually fuelled by coal or other combustible materials in a small, controlled nuclear reaction.
  
  
• 30 is technically the lowest prime number.
  
  
• Albinos are actually black--it is the refraction of sunlight that makes them "appear" white or colorless.
  
  
• Dogs have eight more senses than human beings.

Things I didn't know

Many of which I learned this evening, from Britt Bergman and Jon Black's Very Little Known Facts blog:

• After the globalization of [Ping Pong,] the sport they helped popularize, Siamese twins Chang and Eng died of grief.
  
• Wild horses can regenerate a leg if the herd has been culled too low.
  
• Ceiling fans cause more finger and lower arm amputations each year than all the wars in the world combined.

God, if only blogs had been around when I was in college, I might have emerged smarter. I might even know the difference between Australia and New Zealand.

Rob Lacey, R.I.P.

Rob Lacey, who wrote The Word on the Street, a retelling of the Bible in "hip" language, has died at the age of 43. I saw Lacey when I wrote about the Cornerstone Festival for The Washington Post, and I mentioned him in my upcoming book. From the Post piece:

There's also a table selling "The Word on the Street," a hip retelling of the Bible by Rob Lacey, a Welsh performance artist. Lacey himself takes the stage between main-stage bands to share some of his material: a three-minute version of the entire Bible as well as an update of the story of the Prodigal Son, in which "Sam Aritan" stops to help an injured stranger.



Lacey then starts shouting "Rewind!" and casts several others in the role of the Good Samaritan: an illegal immigrant, a Welshman, a homosexual (who minces and lisps and calls the man's wounds "just beastly") and, to loud boos, a Frenchman. ("Boot ah em a pacifeest!" he protests.)