Mystery guest in Alaska

Whose eyeball IS that?
It's Karl Vick's. The Alaska corruption trials lured him north. See the FBI surveillance videos yourself, as seedy as can be, taken in Room 604 of the Baranof Hotel in Juneau, the state capitol. An oil guy bribing state legislators to hold down state taxes on oil companies.
But that's not the news. The news is, Karl Vick is visiting us. The first night, we met at Humpy's, a divey kinda place with decent food, cold beer. Another night, we managed to feed him at home, with Pete's marinara sauce. He's off to Iliamna to check out the Pebble Mine controversy. We hope to see him again before he heads south to sunnier, and warmer, climes. He's lookin' good, fellow Knights. And writing up a couple of good stories out of the far North. We sat around our kitchen table, dialing phone numbers to Knights, but only succeeded in leaving a phone message or two. Wishing you all well!/ Pete, Kathleen, and for a brief time, Karl

PS: Here's a better picture of us.

A name for Lentil

OK, we have a name. Actually, lots of names. Officially, our girl is Phoebe Keahi Ka-Young Kim. Unofficially, she has several more names. Her full Hawaiian name is Keahi Lanakila o Keola Mau Loa, which means the fire that will live on forever. And she also has a Bhutanese name, Dechhen, which according to the Bhutanese elder in our midst, means supreme bliss. As with Emma, these names have been given to us by respected elders, including Kale's mother, aunt, my parents, and of course, our friends in Bhutan. We picked Phoebe, although Emma voted against it. But when we mentioned it to the baby when she was still in Kale's belly, she kicked rather vigorously, so we figured that was the deciding vote. At home, we will probably just continue to call her Lentil.

There are more pictures on the flickr website.

User name = knightfellows2007, password stanford2007

International friends, if you have trouble getting to flickr, e-mail me and I'll send them to you individually if you'd like to see them. Again, thanks for your good wishes, which have poured in from all across the globe. It feels wonderful to know that our new baby has admirers in so many places.

More Lentil

thanks everyone for the kind messages...here are more photos....

Lentil meets the world

Hello dear Knights, we have some good news. Lentil is a girl! She was born on Oct. 2, 9:22 p.m. 6 lbs, 11 ounces. Kale is doing very well, she had a very short labor, and is now getting some well deserved rest. Lentil is sleeping on my chest as I write this, we just got home from the hospital tonight. We are all very happy (and tired), Emma is thrilled with her new baby sister. We miss you all and are thinking of our extended Knight family. Personally, I am very, very thankful that everyone is safe and healthy. We still don't know what we're naming this baby, but we should figure that out pretty soon. I will post more pictures soon...

Wired slams Rheingold

I was thumbing through my Wired Magazine this week when I saw a very funny piece on creating a sellable name for your next book.

At the very bottom, the writer totally slams Howard Rheingold. Some of you should remember Howard, since many of us took one of his classes (William took two of his classes).

If you're unsure of your premise, run it by Howard Rheingold. If it's any good, he'll claim to have been thinking the same thing since the 1980s.

Wow, that was harsh. Sounds like this author has had some dealings with the master in paint-drippy shoes.

check this out

Hey gang, we just published a series that you might find interesting. It's about the Gates Foundation's fight against malaria, and it's got a great deal of interactive storytelling devices. Note: I had absolutely nothing to do with this project. But I think it does a lot of interesting things to illustrate the problem and the solutions underway. I also hope we can use this blog to share things that we think are cool, either our own work or stuff we discover.

click here

McBride in Bhutan