ALIEN ASTRONAUTS AND ANGELS: Oh, do I have a world-class freak-thing to pass on this week. To stay in theme, it remotely has to do with Iraq encouraging anglers to fish there. Yes, that’s a desert-wide stretch … but what else is new herein.

Egged on by US big-bucks war reparations, Iraq is building a new airport in its southern Dhi Qar district. It seems that socially isolated Iraq is willing to sell the Kasbah in hopes of cashing in on world commerce – most juicily, the tourist dollars suddenly raining down upon neighboring Iran and Saudi Arabia.

So, how could something as mundane as the airportization of Iraq vie for a full-blown freakiness evaluation?