Good morning John, it's Friday. It's Question… Tuesday? The day that we answer real questions from real Nerdfighters?
Why do you always get to do question videos just 'cause you do videos on Tuesdays? Not fair.
I went to Twitter. I got questions. Here they are. "Are numbers real, or did we make them up?"
Uhhhhh.
[whispering] I feel like we started out hard!
Question videos are supposed to be easier!
[breathless] I…
Okay? Next question? "What's the best book you've read lately?" Yeah,
I often don't like to promote books by…
dead people, because there are so many great books being written by people who are working right now.
But, the actual answer to this question is "Dawn" by Octavia Butler, part of the Xenogenesis trilogy.
And it is somewhat timely, because it's being turned into a TV series by Ava Duvernay.
And this is, shockingly, the first time an Octavia Butler work is being adapted for TV
or movies… ever?! How did that happen? Anyway, "Dawn" is very good and it gives enormous
insight into what it… m—is like to be a human, and also what "human" means, which is…
Yeah. "How is book editing going?" You know, not great. Uh, it's been a busy week.
I have a deadline that I may miss, but I'm workin' on it. It's a lot of stress in my life right now.
"What is our official emoji slash emoji combination for your new book, Hank?"
Well, I!…don't know, so let's ask people to come up with stuff.
So we'll come back to that at the end of the video. My book is called "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing"
It's available for preorder now, and it will come out on September 25th.
"How do I stay informed of current events without having them take over my life and stress me out?" If you figure that one out,
I…I think that all of us would really like to know your answer.
"What was the first thing you did after you finished writing your first book?" I sat and watched a French guy play his
accordion in the airport while his little French children
ran around and were silly, and thought about how a lot of weird things happen in my book,
but also a lot of weird things happen in the real world. And then I got on a plane and I went home.
I think that was Po—I think I was going home from PodCon.
Which is interesting, 'cause the next question: "What is this adorable rainbow
I saw under the plane wing on the flight home from PodCon?"
That's called a glory, and it's very similar to a rainbow, in that it's an effect of the
diffraction of light when it hits water droplets. But a glory happens with smaller droplets of water than a rainbow, and you have to be
between the Sun and the cloud
in order for you to see a glory, which means you don't usually see one when you're on the ground.
It can happen, though, and so glories were seen before planes happened,
Mostly from people who were on the tops of mountains, which is really cool. And also, those people were often inside of the cloud,
so there was fog, and so in addition to the glory you get what's called a Brocken spectre,
which is very cool, and a super creepy thing that you're seeing right now, right? Creepy! "Can you sing your last text message?"
(singing) Good morning to things!
(singing) Today is Julie's birthday.
(Singing) And also will you be able to record Dadcast on Monday?
Yes, I can record Dadcast on Monday, and happy birthday, Julie.
Thanks, Marianne, for keeping my life in order. "If you could wear any Elton John outfit, which one would it be?"
I—don't know! We—I guess we have to go look at Elton John outfits now. How big is he? Five-eight.
Um, feedback. No errors, just give general feedback,
Um—This is helpful.
Thanks, Google. I mean it said if I *could,* so if I could, I don't know. 'Elton John outfits.'
Um… that one's real good. With like, Beetlejuice, but with a sparkly banana.
Think it would be real hard to see with this one. My God, now
I want to do an Elton John outfit review podcast. I definitely cannot compete with the chest hair.
"I play piano and also *am* a piano!" Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with Sparkly Banana Beetlejuice, and, actually, that reminds me,
It's time to look up our emoji sequence! Uh, Katherine says that she has one but it has spoilers,
so that's the advantage of being Katherine, and also April May says "robot dark-haired white girl Statue of Liberty burrito,"
and, you know, feel like she knows what she's talkin' about. John, I'll see you on Tuesday.