Baghdad Journal: May 6, 2006

— -- I meant to look for the Saturday morning cartoons on TV today, but I woke up too late.

There is an 8-hour time difference between Baghdad and New York, which means that World News Tonight airs at 2:30am here. Often we don't get to sleep until 3am or so, which requires a slightly later wake-up. It also means that I go to bed without knowing the Red Sox score.

I am trying to get Faisal, one of our Iraqi producers here, interested in the Red Sox so that I can have a little conversation every morning. Something like, "Hey Faisal, did you hear about Big Papi?" But so far, no dice. "Who gives a _____?" is generally the type of response I get. I am trying to figure out if Faisal is hiding some secret affinity for the Yankees. That would be a bad thing. But he has a good heart, so I doubt it.

I am also trying to teach Faisal as much American slang as possible. And by slang, I mean dirty words. Thankfully he is reciprocating and helping build my Arabic vocabulary, although it seems that this vocabulary only includes words that would get me beaten up if I ever used them.

On the Jefferson front, a fascinating question from New York: Is the biography like the musical "1776?" So far the answer is yes, except for the singing. But I continue to hold out hope that there will be some. Honestly, it would be so much more palatable if Jefferson's fixation on what to plant was set to a little music.

One programming note; the Fallujah piece ran last night. Sorry about the back and forth. The struggle that the news business is having with the Iraq story is pretty interesting. By my count, Monday through Friday of this week, the big 3 networks ran a total of one spot combined from Iraq. I am relieved to say that the one spot was mine from Fallujah. But there is definitely the sense that the public feels like it knows what is going on here, and doesn't want to hear anymore about it.

As members of the public you will surely protest and say you do want the news from Iraq etc. etc. etc., but honestly, it seems the evidence is sometimes to the contrary. As a result, there are some periods that pass when it seem like we report about as much from here as from Sri Lanka (where incidentally violence continues to rage between the government and the rebel group, the Tamil Tigers. My college roommates used to keep a "Wall of Revolution," charting the various insurgent groups around the world. The Tamil Tigers always seemed to have the catchiest name, begging the question, who is batting clean-up for the Tamil Tigers?)