Et cetera

It's one in the morning. About 12 hours before the Tennessee Titans square off against Baltimore's Holy Trinity. I can't sleep. Plus I need practice typing with a broken hand.

A few random notes:

1) I have been watching Planet Earth. Both the narration and imagery are incredible. Beyond first rate. Buy it yesterday. It's guaranteed to be better than whatever terrible reality TV show you've been watching. Voyeurism is better when nature is the main character. Humans? We're boring, selfish and terrible by comparison.

2) During my ten-hour visit to the emergency room on Tuesday, I read "Agents of Innocence," by David Ignatius. The unsettling sounds of the E.R. provided an eerie albeit appropriate soundtrack for a story that takes place in the war-torn Middle East of the 1970s: seedy spies, car bombs, terrorists, people dying and screaming and crying, and so on. It is an excellent book, although I was slightly disappointed with how the plot came together at the end. Much of the action takes place in Lebanon, and it reminded me of a great P.J. O'Rourke story I read a few years ago, "A Ramble Through Lebanon," which appeared in an anthology that I reviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle.

3) I bought a new iPhone last night. For some reason, it synced using a backup from months ago instead of a more recent backup that was available but has since disappeared from my hard drive. I lost all of my phone numbers entered since August. Kind of a bummer. Oh well.

4) Did I mention how much I love Baltimore's hottest new drama? The Joe Flacco Show!

5) I watched the first couple hours of Band of Brothers. So far, so good.