Steampunk is so overplayed, how could Gibson not have heard of it?

Keep in mind that according to this report NZ cocaine use is dramatically lower than in the States - 16.2 in the US compared to 4.3 in NZ - down close to other countries including Columbia, Mexico and Spain.

Even so, it would surprise me too if we really had cocaine use rates even up with those countries.

This whole argument seems rather ridiculous to me. Sure, some albums are designed as a cohesive whole - and a whole lot aren't. Sometimes I want to listen to an album all the way through, sometimes I don't. Franks Wild Years, for example, is a great album, but sometimes I just wanna hear "Hang On St Christopher," or "Temptation" (or *gasp* I just wanna listen to my whole dang collection on shuffle). Surely if you are familiar with the album, you don't need to listen to it all the way through every time to provide context for an individual song?

In summary: albums - yay! Songs - also yay!

They have one on display, in a jar I think, of a rat king consisting of a family of juvenile rattus rattus at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, NZ. Apparently horse hair used to build their nest started the knots. It's in the ""Animal Attic" at the top of the museum, which is a very cool/creepy place indeed.
http://www.otagomuseum.govt.nz/rat_king.html

I voted for Fragile Things, for reasons already covered well here, but I am glad to see that it is likely to be American Gods, as it's one of the few Gaiman books I haven't yet read myself, so that helps me out. I'm just starting work on a Masters thesis on The Sandman, so shall be spending much time with Mr. Gaiman this year (I hope I still feel as fondly about his work this time next year as I do now!).

@ #10 - #8 was pointing out a sp. mistake in the original post - using "principal" as in headmaster, rather than the correct "principle."

@ Gobo - are you saying that Rowling was implying a sexul or romantic relationship b/w Dumbledore and Harry? Considering what kind of response this new information is going to draw from the ultra-conservative witchcraft-is-the-devil's-work crowd, that would be an absolutely ridiculous thing to do. I guarantee that the mere fact there was an elderly homosexual man teaching at a boarding school will prompt further calls to ban these books by crackpot religious conservatives. Rita Skeeter said a lot of stuff that had no basis in fact, anyway.

I like the idea of Dumbledore being gay, and this having no real bearing on the story - in fictional world populated by so many characters, it stands to reason that at least one or two of them will be gay. However, the way that Rowling now explains the back story, Dumbledore's love of Grindelward IS relevent to his motivations, and for this not to be clearer in the books is a cop out. It didn't have to be a big deal, but you know if it had been a heterosexual relationship in which one partner felt betrayed by the other one turning to the dark side, it would have been made loud and clear.