March 05, 2004

Where is Salam Pax? I know, y'all have forgotten about him since the war "ended," but remember how thrilling it was to read his dispatches from the front last year, and how glad we all were that he survived? Well, he went to Karbala for Ashura and was posting pictures, and then... he stopped. And the latest post is from his friend Raed:

Wednesday, March 03, 2004 :: salam i was trying to call your phones all the day long, i hope u didnt die in the karbala explosions I'm coming back to baghdad next week :: raed 1:05 AM [+] ::

posted by languagehat 20 years ago
  • That would be awful.
  • It would seem from his last entry he went there with his mother and cousin -- if I recall aright, he has lots of relatives on both sides of his family, so I will hope he and his mother are simply having a nice visit with kinfolk. Worrysome, though, dammit.
  • Riverbend is worried too.
  • Last I heard Salam was working for the Guardian.
  • Yeah, Salam did have a column in the Guardian (the last one I saw was in mid January, but I haven't been reading so much recently), and he's been on BBC's newsnight, too (a couple of times towards the end of last year 1, 2). This all seems very worrying, and sad. And isn't it strange how a death of someone whose name you knew seems to bring home the tragedy of it all.
  • Salam just posted, dated March 6th.
  • >>I frikkin' met an Ayatollah! a real life Ayatollah, I watched him eat a banana and then he put his hands on my shoulder and prayed that I get married soon all is well.
  • The power of languagehat - it only takes him 40 minutes to smoke out Salam.
  • *strokes mustache complacently, tips hat*
  • And for your next trick?
  • What's the RFC compliant URL for his blog, again?
  • Hey, language, where's Spalding Gray?
  • /offtopic i had a really disturbing dream with spalding gray in it this past week. he was sitting at a plain table like the one in swimming to cambodia, but it was in my living room, he was talking but blood was coming out of his mouth instead of words. and he was shaking his head periodically, in that movie effect way, with some frames taken out so it looks weirdly jerky.
  • Darshon: He's in t r a c y's living room.
  • Yikes! That's pretty creepy.
  • He's in t r a c y's living room. Unfortutanely, he wasn't.