Bombarding

I recently began reading Richard Rhodes' Pulitzer-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Even in paperback, it is a cinder block of a book. It's a pain to carry around, but I don't like to be without reading material in case I get caught out in a rainstorm and have to kill time.

Red like a fire engine, with a mushroom cloud on the cover and "ATOMIC BOMB" in extra-large type, the book never fails to make an impression, especially when dropped on a table or countertop. "Anyone have an opinion on Iraq? Anyone? You, in the corner, you got something to say? I didn't think so."

I'm just trying to do my part as an unofficial ambassador of the United States.