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Most of today's mail was about tomato juice, and how I should have covered the dog in it.

There were two reasons I didn't:

1) I didn't want a pinkish-coloured dog,

and more importantly,

2) I watched the Mythbusters episode where they tried a bunch of different things to get rid of Skunk smells, including tomato juice and beer and Skunk Odour Removal Liquid, and they concluded that the most effective thiol remedy was a mixture of Peroxide, Baking Soda and liquid soap.

So I googled last night, with an odorous dog beside me, found the page of the discoverer of this miracle mixture and read about it...

http://home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/sk00001.htm

Then I put it into practice. (It sounds so simple, put like that. It sounds like the dog cooperated. Hah. There was half an inch of water on the bathroom floor by the end of it...) It worked.

The bees were in a foul temper this morning, which is also probably skunk-related. Apparently, skunks do what they can to upset bees so they'll come out of the hive, looking for trouble... whereupon the skunks eat them like peanuts.

Hey Neil --Wasn't sure that you'd seen the news yet, but the McClouds' car was recently broken into on their tour. Fortunately, not much was lost; unfortunately, what *was* lost included Sky's extensive software and DVD book, to the tune of thousands of dollars. Sky is looking for donations of any extra copies of the items lost -- can you pass the word if you know anyone? The list is at http://tinyurl.com/2mtu2t and mail goes to:
Sky McCloudP.O. Box 115Newbury Park CA, 91319Thanks. Shawn

Happy to post it. Send Sky stuff.

Fortunately, not a question! Just something I thought you might like to know about. Sherman Alexie mentions you in an interview at powells.com, http://www.powells.com/interviews/shermanalexie.html in which he mentions how glad he was to run into someone he knew in Sydney. Loved his description of the two of you recognizing each other. Just thought you might like to see the interview. Thanks for all the information on Stardust. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this summer. Congratulations on the new dog. He's gorgeous and looks so happy, just the way a dog should look.

That's so true, and it was just like that. He's an amazing author. I loved his upcoming YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and over at http://www.ellenforney.com/blog/2007/05/25/absolutely-true/ you can see the cover and learn about it from the perspective of the illustrator....

...
An edited version of my H. G. Wells The Country of the Blind intro is up for the curious at http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article1900709.ece