Coincidence, or alien conspiracy? You decide.

This Sunday, Samurai Shortstop got an awesomely terrific review by Elizabeth Ward in the Washington Post. Here's an excerpt I was particularly proud of:

Gratz's research pays off in vivid portraits of the walled school and the teeming city beyond it. There's violence, from a seppuku suicide to hazing rituals that Gratz tries not to be anachronistically judgmental about. There's drama in the climactic game between the Japanese high schoolers and a flashy team of American businessmen and servicemen. There's humor. The boys' efforts to run their own cafeteria are priceless, as is the school's dim-bulb cheer squad, "screeching at the top of their lungs" for friend and foe alike. And there are insights that still hold.

Thank you, Elizabeth! May your car never need fixing and your publisher give you a big fat raise.

Later in the day -- and not that I check this often, mind you -- I clicked over to the Samurai Shortstop listing on Amazon.com to check its sales ranking. #19,014! Hmmm. A coincidence that I have my absolute highest sales rank on the day this great review comes out? Or is this the work of the aliens that keep trying to contact me through my car radio speakers?

As of this writing, that number has already slipped down to 22,665, and will probably be lower still by the time you read this. Ah well, I shall enjoy my moment in the Amazon.com Sales Ranking sun.

Wait! Who knows how high it could have been ranked while I wasn't watching! I'll have to check back every hour. No, every fifteen minutes! Or perhaps there is some way I can download a widget to my desktop that will update constantly . . . yes . . .