So the president’s heading for Rio just as Brazilians are storming their bookstores to get copies of WAD.

Coincidence? I think not.

And I hope the president, having by now perfected his command of the Austrian language, is brushing up his Brazilian.

A reader, perusing that Brazilian review (later he’ll brazile the Peruvian one):

Derb — This line caught my eye: ”We Are Doomed é uma polêmica sagaz, ocasionalmente hilária.” Though I speak no Portuguese I must dissent: it’s hilária far more than ocasionalmente.

Thank you, Sir. Charles Dickens’ advice to novelists is also worth bearing in mind when writing polêmica: “Make ’em laugh; make ’em cry; make ’em wait.”