It's been a couple of weeks since I did an update on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, but that's been as much laziness as a lack of news. Some developments, mostly relating to foreign lands:
- The US paperback edition is slated for December release. I'm working on a Teacher's Guide to go with it-- suggestions on what ought to be in there are welcome, as I have no idea
- If you do the right search, you'll also find a forthcoming UK edition which will be out this fall with a slightly different title. There's a production schedule for this, and everything-- more information as things become official.
- I exchanged a number of emails with a physicist in Brazil, who was consulting on the Portuguese translation, so that is also in progress, and will be a real book ("um livro real" according to Google, which also suggests "coelhinhos feitos de queijo" as a key term for the book). No word on when it will be out, or what it will look like.
- The Italian and Czech rights have now been sold, bringing the total of other-rights sales to eight (Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Czech, UK English, audio). It's pretty cool to think of my book in all those different languages. I don't really envy the translators, though.
And that's where things stand at the moment, in case you were wondering. Upcoming appearances:
- I'm tentatively scheduled to do a talk for local high-school students on the 24th of May, which isn't really a public appearance, but whatever.
- I'm going to be at DAMOP May 25-29. No appearances are scheduled, but if you're in Houston and have suggestions of things to do, I'm happy to hear them.
- I'll be doing a signing at the Open Door bookstore in Schenectady on June 19th, 1-2:30 pm.
There's one other probable appearance, but I still need to confirm it.
More like this
Image: (Royalty-Free) Corbis.
The question came up: If referring to a person as a word for a female body part in an insulting manner is sexist, then isn't calling a man a "boob" sexist?
(I may or may not have referred to some guy as a boob.)
La Blog Atorios is a new Brazilian science blog network (somewhat modeled after Seed scienceblogs.com):
"coelhinhos feitos de queijo" as a key term for the book
I'm going to guess that that is a literal translation into Portuguese of "bunnies made of cheese". (FD: I don't know Portuguese, but I do know some Spanish.)
Eric is right, that google is referring to Emmy's bunnies made of cheese. "Coelho" means rabbit, so "coelhinho" = "small rabbit" and "small rabbit" ?= "bunny".
That last part is a bit questionable. As far as I know, "bunny" isn't a real well defined word. dictionary.com says that a bunny is a "rabbit, especially a small or young one". If Emmy was talking about small or young rabbits, they've translated them correctly. If, however, she was using a word that she thought was synonymous with "rabbit" she's being short changed, because they've made the rabbit smaller. I imagine she might object if she finds out that in Brazil her cheesy prey is smaller.
Don't approve of the British re-titling, it's less catchy, and seems pointless. Did they consult you? What were their reasons?
(I'm reminded that S J Gould's 'Full House' was retitled for Britain because apparently the publisher thought thr British didn't play poker... Oh, Lord!)