Newley Purnell

John Snow on Ecuador, Foreign Investment, and Corruption
Reuters: “Ecuador could attract a much greater flow of foreign investment, particularly from oil producers, if it took aggressive action to curb corruption to create a friendlier business climate, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Thursday.”

Lockhart Steele
Some excellent postings from Lockhart Steele of late. Baseball, book publishing, MetroCard pricing, satellite radio: the guy covers it all.

Vilcabamba
I had a great time last weekend. A bunch of friends and I took the bus six hours south, to the village of Vilcabamba. We stayed at the excellent Hotel Madre Tierra and ate good food and swam and hiked and drank beer and slept in hammocks.

Book Publishing’s “Dirty Little Secret”
Sara Nelson says it’s tough to get accurate numbers on book publishing sales because publishers don’t reveal how well books have actually done: “The fact that very few people in this country read books is publishing’s dirty little secret, and it’s one executives are, understandably, desperate to keep.”

Colin Powell on the Allende Coup
Colin Powell: the US was wrong to help Pinochet gain power in Chile in 1973. Henry Kissenger’s aid: we didn’t do anything improper. (Via Reenhead.)

www.WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com
Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the former Iraqi Information Minister, has a fanclub.

A Plot to Kill Ecuador’s President
The BBC reports that police foiled a plot to assassinate Ecuador’s populist president, Lucio Gutierrez, last February, just after he took office. Details are scant, but it appears “Ecuadorian and Colombian hit men had agreed to a $1.5m contract” to kill Gutierrez. In a Colombian radio interview, Gutierrez said the corrupt business elite wants him dead. And as if that weren’t enough, his own wife recently criticized his political appointees.

A New Magazine from Dave Eggers
Lockhart Steele reports that Dave Eggers, of Might Magazine, McSweeney’s, and “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” fame, has launched a new magazine. Its focus is books and writers; it’s called The Believer. More info available here.

My New Classes
The new term is off to an excellent start. I’ve got three classes: a 103 level adult class from 7-8 a.m (you read that correctly–7 in the a.m.), a 403 (literature and creative writing) high school-age class from 3:00-4:20 p.m., and another 103 level high school age-class from 4:30-5:50 p.m. My students are great.

Funniest moments so far: yesterday, I prepared my 103 students for an in-class reading by brainstorming U.S. cities they’re familiar with. They threw out the ones they knew–New York, L.A., Chicago, etc.–and I wrote them on the board; they hit a wall after about 10.

And then, in both classes, in virtually the same reluctant, half-serious manner, someone volunteered another American town: Springfield. As in the home of “The Simpsons.” Or as they’re known here, “Los Simpsons”.

I’m Back from Peru
I’m back in Cuenca. It’s good to be home. My friend and I arrived here last night. Classes start again on Monday.