The week that was and what a week it was

If I had any doubts that Easterly and I are in the best possible hands, they were resolved in the last two days.  I have come back from an incredible two days doing pre-publication publicity stuff in London. I am moved and elated by the support and commitment Faber is giving to this unknown writer.  

One of the highlights of my trip was  a dinner with some great books people  - what I thought would be a highbrow dinner ended up with about four of us rapping the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and I am ashamed to say that I still remember all the words. Another highpoint was a visit to the offices of The Guardian, to record a story for a podcast and do a reading and an interview. 

Now, it turns out more people read this blog than I had thought, so I have to step up my game a little. This post is the first of a new weekly feature where I post links to various stuff of interest.  Please check out this incredible series of portraits of Obama's peeps, wonderful studies of the simply brilliant team Mr. Obama has put together, including two of my favourite Obaminas, Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power, the power couple with a Zimbabwean connection. Okay, the Zimbabwean connection is a bit of stretch, as it comes in the form of their Rhodesian ridgeback, Perry.  Can you tell I have been stalking them? 

Also check out Obama's new bodyman, the incredibly attractive Reggie Love, the real life Charlie Young. Drool.  Is it me or is this looking more and more like the West Wing with even hotter looking people??  Gawker certainly thinks so, they ran a poll to elect the Hottest Obama Hottie ... and Rahm Emanuel won!  Nothing against Mr. Emmanuel, but I cannot believe he won over  my man Reggie, Eugene Kang and Jon Favreau.  Maybe it is that whole missing middle finger Rambo thing he's got going.

This portrait series is a sobering contrast to the portraits of Bush's old guard in the February issue of Vanity Fair.  Even though Bush is gone, Vanity Fair is not letting up. It looks like we will be reading about Bushian misdeeds for the foreseeable future. 

I like all of Obama's decisions this week, especially the Guantanamo one and the lifting of the funding ban on foreign organisations that provide abortion help. Nice one. The thing about having a president everyone likes, well, the funny people anyway, is that the comedy suffers. How do you make fun of the guy? Post-inauguration, American late night comedians focused on Bush, because, I guess, Bush jokes never get old,  while The Onion had this really funny story: Hillary Clinton Mouthing Along to Presidential Oath.  Now, I love Hillary, but hee hee.  

The most memorable blog entry for me this week was my best and only Danish friend Peter Fogtdal's joyous celebration of Slumdog Millionaire, which included this great line:  After seeing the film, I wanted to move to Mumbai and live like a beggar.  And the headline of the week came from the front page of Friday's Guardian: Flood warning: Kate (Winslet) gets Oscar Nod.  

Hee hee.

Meanwhile, in the land between the Limpopo and the Zambezi ... 

Nothing is more entertaining when you are in bed with the flu than a gladiatorial contest.  I developed a nasty flu in London, and spent the weekend reading Zimbabwe Times editor Geoff Nyarota's stinging zinging response to Jonathan Moyo's wiffle waffle attempts to interpret the constitution, and MDC No. 3 Tendai Biti's withering blistering critique of Arthur Mutambara.  Now, Mutambara may be his own worst enemy, his stements lately are such self-parody that it does not seem to be worth the trouble to respond to him, but read the piece in all its splendid verbosity at The Zimbabwe Times.

All eyes will, of course, be on the SADC summit in South Africa tomorrow, where we can expect revolutionary things from the guardians of our nascent democracy.

Or not.

Have a good week, good people.