Sunday night we joined Daniela Mercury´s bloco for Salvador da Bahia´s Carnaval.  It was wild–more details on that later.

I think we joined the best bloco.  The way Carnaval works is that you have these trios, which are like floats, where the singer or band performs. On the trio, which is a jerry-rigged semi-truck, are the [...]

It has been said that the North Korean diplomatic outpost in Uzbekistan has probably the worst diplomatic staff on the face of the earth.  The second worst is probably the staff of the Brazilian Consulate in Los Angeles.  Horror stories abound, the most recent of which comes from poor (name withheld to avoid any risk [...]