Best picture ever

For some reason, the Americans in our compound were really, really fascinated by the Larry Craig scandal. I guess it just struck us as so delightfully trivial that we couldn't resist. We read all the coverage, gossiped about the details, etc. The photo below depicts a particularly wonderful moment in which a conversation about Iraqi politics stopped dead when someone heard a CNN anchor announce the start of the audio tape of Craig's interview with the police. These brilliant, talented people leaped off the couch and crowded around the TV to hear every word. None of us could stop laughing for a good 10 minutes. Fortunately, someone had a camera, and you can even make out Craig's face on the TV (and yet, you can't recognize any of these people unless you know them personally).

Scattershot

I don't have anything cohesive to say, so here are some tidbits:

--S, one of my Iraqi coworkers, is coming to DC in November, which should be fun. The company is paying for his flight and hotel stay to thank him for being a good employee, etc. The big boss is already planning lots of parties, tours and the like.
--I think I'm staying in Iraq an extra week. It's not official yet, but that looks like the plan. That will mean I will have been here for about 10 weeks.
--Somehow I just discovered that the people next door get large shipments of magazines from the States each week. Even better, the most recent Sports Illustrated, which they gave me, has an article about Jack Cust!
--People tend to get a little... creative when it comes to alcohol purchases in Iraq. The liquor store in the Green Zone just closed, so Americans haul in whatever they can carry from the duty-free shop in Amman. Still, though, I'm not sure that excuses the consumption of Skyy melon vodka. I can assure you it's disgusting even by our lowered standards.
--There's a possibility that Tuesday will be a big day -- Petraeus is holding a meeting to talk about the Sept. report... it could make headlines.
--Did anybody see this coming?