Back from Brazil

Tudo bem? Muito obrigado. Those are about the only things I learned to say while in Sao Paulo (plus a few things that I can't mention here). The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and I'm the type that generally doesn't care much for Catholic rituals. As for Brazilians, after dining at a churrascuria I think it's safe to say that Americans aren't the only ones with a super-sizing problem. (And yes, I also drank plenty of cachasa. Now it's seriously time to get back to work.) The weirdest thing of course is that while I was in Brazil, the news about the foiled British terror plot came out. I consider this a personal affront, and not just because of the annoyance of having a dry throat for the first hour of the flight because I can't bring bottled water onto planes any more. Consider: I flew back to JFK from Heathrow on American Airlines on July 31. So I suspect that the would-be murderers must have considered my plane as a possible target at some point during their planning. That freaks me out; but it also pisses me off. Time to find that online video game where you get to beat up Osama Bin Laden... Anyway, I'm back, and even though the rest of the world is now on vacation, blogging resumes as usual. We'll continue to follow hurricanes, assuming that there are any (it looks increasingly like the big action this year is in the Pacific). And there will be a renewed emphasis on politics and science in anticipation of the paperback rollout towards Labor Day....more soon.