Hugo: Venezuela's answer to Oprah.

That's what it should feel like to Noam Chomsky anyway. Hugo Chavez's remarks at the U.N. — where he urged world leaders to read Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance — sent Chomsky's online book sales rocketing to the top of Amazon.com's bestseller list — up from #20,664 before the speech.

Meanwhile, Chomsky has been inundated with e-mails — over 10,000 — at his M.I.T. office since the Venezuelan president's remarks on Wednesday.

We can confirm at least one of those e-mails arrived with the subject line "are you dead?"

Chomsky, for his part, understands Chavez anger, pre-emptive obituary notwithstanding.

"The Bush administration backed a coup to overthrow his government," Chomsky told the New York Times. "Suppose Venezuela supported a military coup that overthrew the government of the United States? Would we think it was a joke?"