It's all good in this Aug 2, 2006 piece from the New Kerala newspaper in Goa, India, but the highlight is the fifth graf:

Cucumber feast in Goan church to beget children

By Devraj, Velha (Goa) : In a unique tradition, the origins of which remain unknown, thousands of childless couples offer cucumbers at a fourth century church in Goa, in the hope of being blessed with a child.

Welcome to St. Anne's Church in Velha, located around 15 kilometres southeast of Panjim. [read more]

For those who have asked and those who, like me, wondered: I just spoke to the great Bruce McCall, and, sadly, he said that no, he did not base this week's New Yorker cover on my Times article about outrageously jumbo backyard grills. Like me, he caught a glimpse of one of these stainless-steel monsters and was inspired. He drew. I wrote.

Despite what you may think after seeing it, it is not true that I fled here to escape attention resulting from my appearance on #1 Single, the Lisa Loeb reality show on E! No, I'm here doing some writing and recreating in the South American summer. Wouldn't you be if you could?

That said, I don’t really speak Spanish which is a problem for sure. But the embarrassment at being unable to state my needs to shopkeepers and others (“ Donde esta casa de Peepee? and “A SMALL cerveza? Mas no grande?”) is driving me to delve into a Spanish-English dictionary and actually learn some of this language which obviously I should have learned more of a long time ago. No time like the present though since the present is all we have! I’ve learned how to properly pronounce the name of the English language daily newspaper, which seems so simple: Buenos Aires Herald (published since 1876). You’ll get nothing but puzzled looks from Newstand ladies if you don’t say it like this: Bwehnuuus AYYREEES Eh-rahhhhhhllllduh.” I do like this little newspaper. It’s got the latest on the big paper mill dispute with Uruguay (which is another South American country. Buenos Aires is in Argentina where Gabriella Sabatini, Manu Ginobli and Evita are from.) [read more]

My editorializing here and in the newspapers about the NYU suicides and, particularly, the university's appalling attempts to treat them as a public relations crisis and not human tragedies, earned me a place in the new documentary, titled NYU Suicides.

I have not yet seen the film and do not know what part of my interview was used. I was interviewed last year by Adario Strange, the writer and director, a former editor of The Source. For much more information on the suicides, start here: http://www.allensalkin.com/node/view/294 [read more]