6
Oct
2009
Where I’ve Been, Who I Saw, Where I’m At, and Who Won
Do you recognize this man? I didn’t.
But let me back up…
Last week I went home to Michigan for my friends’, Mark and Kate’s wedding. We flew from Seattle to Denver to to Detroit. Out of the way, I know, but not terrible. I once flew through Atlanta. That was dumb. I prefer to fly through St. Paul/Minneapolis or Chicago if I can’t get a nonstop, but otherwise I just go for cheap.
So, that is why I was at the Denver airport on Thursday. Every time I go home, I bring my nieces/nephew who live there what we call “visiting presents”. These are things you get every time you visit me or I visit you. I spend around 5 bucks on each kid. I didn’t have time to pick anything up before we left town, so I left my carry-on with my husband and went wandering off through the Denver airport. I found a toy store and bought a little science kit for my niece, 7, and nephew, 4, but for my other niece who turned 1 over the summer, I couldn’t find anything. So I went to the bookstore.
Outside of the bookstore, the guy in the picture above was signing books. I didn’t recognize the bright yellow cover of the very thick, hardback book on display so went for a closer look. It was “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!” by Ralph Nader.
Truly, I was a little surprised. How is there any book out that I don’t know about? Clearly, I am not as cool of a book blogger as I like to think I am.
Well, I was a little bit intimidated. I went to pick out a book for my niece, all the while thinking, is that really Ralph Nader? I mean, there were no bodyguards. Shouldn’t he have bodyguards? So I got to thinking that maybe it was co-written. Because, and here is the crux of the situation, WHY WOULD RALPH NADER BE DOING A BOOK SIGNING IN THE DENVER AIRPORT? Was he just passing through?
Well, once I finely got up the nerve to go say, hi Mr. Nader, can I contact your publicist, see I have this blog…He got up and left. So I did not actually meet him.
It’s O.K. To be frank, I don’t want to read his book. It’s like, 2 1/2 inches thick. Amazon tells me it’s 736 pages.
So, I go back, and tell my husband all about my Ralph Nader sighting and we hear John McCain paged overhead. Now, that, I think must not have been him. He’s far too rich to fly commercial.
When we flew back through Denver yesterday, I looked at the display. There were still about a dozen signed copies.
The wedding was lovely. It was a Universalist Unitarian Church in Ann Arbor. For the reading, they read from Rilke. It was untraditional, sure, but perfect for the couple.
And guess what Jason, Ian, Lindsey and I talked about with the rest of our table at the reception? The Zombie Apocalypse.
So, that’s where I’ve been, and who I saw.
Also, that’s why I’ve been MIA since last week. Upon return, my Google Reader says that I have 1000+ posts to read. I’m sorely tempted to mark all as read, but I’ll try to get around to everyone. Just don’t expect many comments from me this week…I’ll probably be scanning a lot.
This reminds me. Rebecca from I’m Lost in Books is at her sister’s Wedding in India and recruited a bunch of us to blog in her stead. My post about my Trifecta of Useless Information is up today. If you read my review of Everythings Sucks and my interview with Hannah Friedman, make sure to read this post, as it kind of informs those.
So, you probably want to know who won my copy of Strange but True America by John Hafnor?
It was…
Carrie K from Books and Movies!
Carrie, I’ll be e-mailing you for your shipping info!
Carrie’s weird fact was that the town of Sedro Woolley, WA, where she grew up was originally called “Bug”. But my question is, WTF does Sedro Woolley mean? I mean, Bug I get…
Other facts from entrants included a Loch Ness-type monster, a ghost of a girl looking for her head, and of Hank Williams, a roof equivalent to 4.8 million pennies, and an abundance of Dunkin’ Donuts (I hear ya, we have the same problem w/ Starbucks…in fact, in Shrek 2, they run out of one Starbucks and across the street into another), among others.
Remember, there’s still a few hours to enter my give away for the audiobook of The Bookseller of Kabul!
How weird. I looked at that picture and my first thought was “is that Ralph Nader?” although I don’t follow him at all and really don’t know what he looks like. Living in Colorado, I’ve been to the Denver airport a few times. Maybe there was a mention in the paper about Nader and it absorbed into my subconcious?!
And, when you said you were attending a wedding in Michigan, I was thinking, “I wonder if it was Ann Arbor?” We lived there for several years! As you probably know, the very first Borders was established in Ann Arbor.
LOL – Sedro Woolley was named after two people – some guy named Sedro and some guy named Woolley. It’s an odd name, and when people ask my where I grew up and I answer, I get a lot of “Sedro what?”
Thanks for the book – I look forward to reading it with my husband, he loves neat trivia like that.
I’m so proud of myself … I thought “That might be Ralph Nader.” Woo hoo!
And was the toy store on the second level near a Crocs store? If so, we were there recently too. We have trod upon the same ground (assuming this is the same toy store — it was pretty darn good for an airport store.)
: )
Fun to snap a pic, even if you didn’t talk to him. I’m not as quick as Valerie or Jenners …. are you ready …. I thought Nader looked like Steve Martin!