Diary of a Mad County

SUNDAY, April 25 Not to pick on the Los Angeles Times—fellas, you do a great job—but today's book section runs a correction saying the book Glorious Appearing was mistakenly put on the nonfiction list. Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHayeand Jerry B. Jenkins is part of the enormously (frighteningly) popular Left Behind series, in which the world ends—but slowly enough to publish 12 books about it; God may be all powerful, but he doesn't have a quick first step. Apparently, someone at the Times thought a book about the anti-Christ—Nicholas Carpathia—amassing the Global Community's Unity Army to fight God's "Tribulation Force"—bet they have matching T-shirts—was the real deal. To be fair, Times reviewers have to read Henry Kissinger's stuff, so their sense of what's real and made up has probably suffered.

MONDAY, April 26 Thousands of Cal State University students protest proposed cuts in the CSU budget outside Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's downtown LA office. Misspelled signs and apathetic shouting abound.

TUESDAY, April 27 Last thought on the Indian question: just found out the owners of my local convenience store are named Jawad and Semeen. I am well-pleased.