A random observation: Why is it that I have yet to read in the NY Times what the word peshmerga means? (TheTimes spells it as two words: pesh merga.) I happen to know, since the Kurdish fighters whose name means either "one who faces death" or "one who seeks death" made a cameo appearance in a certain insanely wide-ranging post-Cold War Czech novel titled City Sister Silver (see "my links" at left). But it would be nice if the Times would mention that, at least every once in a while.