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The boys and I (and their Granddaddy) spent several hours on the boats early this summer. We will repaint them in the fall, but first we oiled the inside of both with great care.

The larger is a 14 foot Whitehall (named after the street in NY where they were first made and famed for their speed in the harbor (the first boat to meet a merchant ship coming in got dibs on the best cargo, speed was important)). She has beautiful 9 foot oars and she just flys (all the more so when there are two oarmen). This whitehall was retrofitted to take a small sail.

The other is a wee pram. A dear friend asked a local boatbuilder to make him the smallest boat possible that could safely hold three adults and gear. This 6 foot pram was the result. He has moved away for a bit and left it on indefinite loan, to be cared for and used vigorously by Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thing 2 is learning to row this summer...additional photos are likely to follow.

Warcarting is unlikely to be popular anywhere but MIT (or, perhaps, CalTech). It is nice to see that hardware hacking is alive and well... Do not miss the pictures/captions toward the bottom.

Absolutely...when it digs into old auction records on the fly. My old cell finally died the ignominious death it has been crawling toward and has been replaced with this lovely bit of plastic, metal and glass. As I promised KKL, one of the first things I did was log onto American Book Prices Current and set it as one of my favorites. Altogether too much fun.

As I mentioned earlier, Thing One blew by the 10 book goal this summer and was rewarded with a $10 savings account (hypothetically, matched by various others). However, it was not just any ten books he knocked down. Starting a day or so after mid-June, T1 started the Harry Potter series and finished the last one yesterday.

He was very funny about it. He decided he wanted to read the Bloomsbury special editions to start with...largely because he liked the bound in bookmarks. At book four, he had to choose the trade Bloomsbury or Scholastic edition and opted for the Brit on the grounds that he liked the British expressions, etc. The last three he had to switch to the Scholastics, but found that they did less substitution of "gits" and the like.

His best exclamation came at the end of Book 6 when, at about 9:30 at night or so (he was allowed to read late some nights), "DUMBLEDORE IS DEAD?!?!?" Book 7 added several, "Dobby is dead?!?", "Lupin is dead?!?", "Fred is dead?!?...What is wrong with this book?!?" Other than characters he liked dying, he loved the series and wants to reread it starting now. I have suggested he let it sink in and read it again in a year or so.

I just have to say that I am very proud that my 10 year-old read 4224 pages in just this series...not counting his other reading this summer (two other short sets and several stand-alone books). I could not be more proud.

My older son just opened a savings account at TD Banknorth. He did it with the $10 that the the bank gave him for reading 10 books this summer. Sadly, though the program started in June, the nice young account manager told us that he was the first customer she had worked with as part of the program. That said, they are expecting a surge in the coming weeks...the program ends at the end of September. I know my younger is on Number Seven of his ten.

To learn more about the program, see this. I think it is great that the TD Banknorth is willing to support this program. For my boys, it is definitely just a bonus, as they would read regardless...but anything that encourages kids to read is a good thing.

HuffPost is offering an interesting tool to look at campaign donations to various parties/candidates. Fundrace2008 taps into the public records database of campaign giving...and they have just created the ability to track donations by profession.

If you search (as above) "bookseller", you find that 234 people (with some duplication of names) have donated approximately $185,000. Is it surprising that $175,000 went to Obamarama and Co. and only $10,000 to the Republicans (and much/most of that to Ron Paul)?

It does not aggregate related "occupations", so you get different lists if you search "rare book dealer" or "bookdealer" or "book dealer" or "book seller", etc. Enjoy.

Thanks to Tom Congalton of Between the Covers Rare Books for the heads-up on this.

Tom Congalton is one of my more favorite humans on earth (sometimes you just have to be able to pin such things to one's sleeve). Above and beyond being a great bookdealer (and one extremely open and sharing with his knowledge), he also built [or oversaw the building of] one of the very best bookshop websites ever. Personally, I think he should license it, but I'll go into the genius of Between the Cover's website in an upcoming post (on design options and UI).

My reason for throwing up this post, however, is simply to recommend his wonderful short essay on age and aging in the book trade. Much of what he says mirrors various concerns/rants of my own...only *much* more eloquently (that is, the bits on age, the profession and [unspoken] the fun of performance art theatre of the absurd...not so much the poker). Enjoy...and avoid poker, stick with games you can throw math at... Read the rest of this post

A French court ruled this morning against eBay in yet another "stop selling counterfeits of our stuff" suit. Following up a recent ruling in favor of Hermès against eBay, the court today awarded LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) approximately $60.9MM...finding eBay had done little or nothing to stop the sale of fraudulent items on their site. With luck, Tiffany (who recently found that 80%+/- of "their" jewlery on eBay was counterfeit), Patek Philippe and others will follow suit (pun intended).

Pity the ABAA lacks standing to sue them for the countless number of bogus "signed" copies of various tomes that litter their site. Bookdealers are going to be dealing with EBay forgeries for decades and beyond as these "great buys" enter the secondary market. The worst will be caught by dealers who pay attention...then only requiring the uncomfortable experience of telling the current owner that they got ripped off. The better ones, who knows...but I wager it will cost the profession money (in buying back a bad signature, driving down the "value" of signed copies lacking solid provience and/or pushing many of us to avoid signed copies as much as possible).

Do not get me wrong, eBay serves a very useful purpose and can be an good venue to both buy and sell...but few places should the term caveat emptor remain top of mind...

eBay has said they will appeal. I know they like to stick with thier "we are just a marketplace, we can't be held responsible for the malfeasence of our sellers", but I think they are (eventually) going to lose on this claim. The legal term is "willfull blindness" and eventually they will have to do something about it...but only when the cost of suits/fines exceeds the commission from fraudulant sales.

Mounting the bookshelves has begun. The included images show the very first spacer/strapping mounted (the excitement is almost palpable) and the first foundation box in place. These will bring the cases up 9 inches off the ground to the lower box. There will be a shallow shelf (1 inch thick and about 4-5 inches deep) before the upper shelf box.

The bottom boxes are designed for folios and the like, the upper for various smaller tomes. The fascia boards are going to be 1 inch thick, to support the SIX FOOT glass doors that will eventually cover the upper shelves (with matching smaller ones below). We will be rebuilding the mantle as well (which is currently a "modern" (and ugly) 1950s rebuild). It will eventually tie the two spans of shelves together *and* have a shelf integrated into it for 12mo and smaller volumes (the fireplace is non-functional).

Finally, there will be an 8 inch stepped crown. This will come "out" from the shelves so we can sink lights in the crown that will wash each section of the bookshelves. It should be nice if and when it is ever completed.

I spent a bit of the morning at the shop of the woodworker doing this project. As you may recall, we have a friend renting our first floor who, as the fates would have it, is also a wildly talented woodworker and artist (in wood and other material)...pictures of some of his other work should follow. As I've said previously, he does amazing things with wood...our shelves are basically a weekend project. The strapping in the first image is a good example of why working with Brian is such fun.

With any rational carpenter, any strapping like this would be picked up from a lumber yard as Grade C (structurally sound, but not necessarily pretty). Just before we left the shop, Brian remembered we would need some strapping/spacers to bring the shelves off the wall. He went over the the racks of rough boards (6 to 24 inches wide, 1+ to 3 inches thick...he buys lumber "by the tree") and picked a nice 8 foot poplar board. We then ran it through the planer a few times to bring it to 1 inch thick and then the joiner to true the sides...then ripped it into 2.5 inch wide boards. Maybe it is just me...but it was so much more pleasing experientially than going to Home Despot and picking up crappy strapping.

The other images show: a laser line showing where the top of the "shelf" between the upper and lower shelf boxes will be (laser levels are extremely cool); the first foundation "box"; one of the lower cases on said first foundation (please picture fascia boards and baseboard molding).

Progress is being made. Updates to follow.

There was a nice segment on fine bindings on CBS Sunday Morning this morn. The story ranged from some modern fine/art binders, to the Morgan to a gentleman who gave his daughter $20K in finely bound classics for her HS graduation. The publicity blurb is as follows:

BOOKBINDING: In a remote corner of western New Jersey, Jamie Kamph puts her own touch on the ancient art of bookbinding. Gold leaf and intricate leather detailing help to elevate the art. Kamph’s interpretation of Huckleberry Finn won the nation’s most prestigious bookbinding prize. And the trend is catching on with people of all ages. J. Dinsmore Adams helped underwrite $20,000 worth of hand-bound books for his daughter’s high school graduation. We’ll also take you to New York City’s Morgan Library where one of the most extraordinary collections of fine bindings anywhere is housed. It was created by industrialist J. Pierpont Morgan who often bought entire collections of books just because of the beautiful hand-tooled bindings. And finally, you’ll meet Herb Weitz who designs the bindings for Oprah’s Magazine and the scripts for directors like Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese. He thinks everyone should splurge on a fine binding once in a lifetime. He’s now marketing to an entirely new crowd. Rita Braver reports on a new chapter in the fine art of hand bookbinding.

So we went to the preview of the Brunswick Public Library this afternoon. It is, as I have mentioned before, one of my very favorites. This is largely because they host this very well run preview. You have to join the Friends of the Library ($10/person or there is a family membership) and you are limited to only 10 books per membership. This combination results in a much more pleasant experience for those of us who do not like throwing sheets over tables while shrieking "this table is all mine" (and then proceeding to go through said table and leaving half or so).

There were still a fair number of dealers, but only the well behaved one *laughing*. One actually told me that he was there *because* I had written about how nice it was...that'll teach me (if, of course, I was capable of learning simple lessons...). Interestingly, there was a small clot of young "dealers" (or scouts, or something) using identical cells with one of the bar code scanner tools. I watched them for a bit, as I was curious about the practice (and had already picked the 20 books Suz and I decided to take home with us). I don't know...especially at a preview like this, where you are not buying "volume"...if you can't *pick* the 10 books you are going to take home with you, you should probably find a new vocation.

One of them, in particular, was focused on trade paperbacks. She very diligently scanned book after book...picking up one here and there. More power to them. The cost/benefit of the process elludes me...but then I trust my head and my gut.

I've vetted the 20 we took home. Only one fell just below my cut-off for cataloguing ($25) but will make a nice gift *g*, four were gems, the rest solid. It was probably the second best trip to this sale we have had (the best included a lovely 1926 first of Winnie the Pooh). Interestingly, the scanner jocks would have ignored that little gem...no barcode, not interest. Very strange.

I just received my third Lakeside Press edition of Rockwell Kent's Moby Dick, affectionately called the Whale in a Pail due to its aluminum slipcase. It is arguably the most beautiful copy of Moby Dick one can possess and I am extremely fond of it. I am very pleased to have been able to have three of them in the last couple of years.

Technically, I have a fourth copy on its way, too. This one was missing its slipcase, which is a reasonably major negative. However, it has an interesting association with Kent and it will be housed in a custom made slipcase in full leather "art binding" and should be stunning when finished. I'll be certain to post images when it arrives.

I'm trying not to let it go to my head, but really...how many people have had spiders write their names. This little guy is commonly known as the Writing Spider, aptly named as the manner in which if forms its webs often results in there being embedded letters. This spider is clearly sharper than most.

Interestingly, the spider in Charlotte's Web was not a Writing Spider but an Orb Spider (this as she gives her full name as "Charlotte A[raneus] Cavatica", the later two being the scientific name for the orb spider. Personally, my favorite edition was that illustrated by Leonard Weisgard (but I am very partial to his work.

Apparently, everything is Louisiana is going so well that the Senate and House can waste time, money and...you know...their children's intellectual future on yet another "let's teach creationism as if it were a scientific theory" bill. The republican governor (interestingly, a Hindu turned Catholic), is expected to sign the bill into law. The ACLU and an untold number of other rational organizations will then attempt to save LA from its own stupidity.

I know I have ranted about ID before (see, e.g., here, here or here) and will do my best to avoid doing so again. But. Errr. Ahhh. SERIOUSLY! What the hell is going through these people's collective heads? This is a state whose students score 44th and 46th nationally in Reading and Math, 50th in Advance Placement exams, and is second highest in the nation for the number of children living below the poverty line. Yet rather than spend time/money/effort trying to dig its schools...and students...out of the mire, they spend their time trying to further muddying their already murky educational waters. Twits.

England, rather recently, issued new guidelines to teachers on creationism and ID. They included a wonderful passage on what makes and does not make a "scientific theory":

The use of the word 'theory' can mislead those not familiar with science as a subject discipline because it is different from the everyday meaning of being little more than a 'hunch'. In science the meaning is much less tentative and indicates that there is a substantial amount of supporting evidence, underpinned by principles and explanations accepted by the international scientific community...Creationism and intelligent design are sometimes claimed to be scientific theories. This is not the case as they have no underpinning scientific principles, or explanations, and are not accepted by the science community as a whole.

Thanks to the NYT and my mother-in-law for the the following list of "other things that happened on May 3rd...other than my birth:

N.B. Missing from the following is that it is also the birthday of Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, b. 1469 (which is also the last four digits of Lux Mentis' phone number...as I like to point out to bewildered tele-marketers).

On this date in:

1802 Washington, D.C., was incorporated.

1898 Israeli founder and prime minister Golda Meir was born Goldie Mabovitch in Kiev, Ukraine.

1916 Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter uprising.

1921 West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.

1936 Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.

1937 Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Gone with the Wind."

1948 The Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.

1960 The musical "The Fantasticks" opened off-Broadway, beginning a record run of nearly 42 years and 17,162 performances.

1979 Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections.

1988 The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule President Ronald Reagan's activities.

2000 The archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O'Connor, died at age 80.

2001 The United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

2005 Iraq's first democratically elected government was sworn in.

2006 A federal jury in Alexandria, Va., rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

2007 Astronaut Wally Schirra died at age 84.

This is going to be short and sweet...as it has taken me too long to get it out as it is. It was, as my previous posts probably make clear, a great show for us. We had strong sales and strong buying and...perhaps best of all...strong stickiness. We had great conversations, what I hope will turn out to be a great interview with a trade journal and, well, just a great time. Enough "greats".

Eli was a lot of fun and remarkably well behaved for a 6 year old boy spending about 10 to 11 hours a day at a book fair. Joyce and Ken (and the rest of their crew) were lovely to and with him. He was very pleased with his bow tie, though was as disappointed as I that it was a clip-on (J. Crew's site did not indicate it and I assumed, wrongly, that the absence of the term meant it was "real"). He is getting a real one for his next show. He is overly excited about this. I am certain it will embarrass him later in life.

The promoter did, I think, a great job getting bodies in the door. The site was much better than last year...attractive and centrally located. $10/day is a genuine treat the week after a NY fair (and $45/day). The 7-11 next door even had cherry in the Slurpee machine (I know, embarrassing, a geeky but wildly addictive remnant of my tainted youth).

I was very pleased with the volume of humans in the aisle and in the booth. Admittedly, we were on the central aisle and I am not certain how steady the traffic was on the other three rows on the book side. We definitely did have a fair number of people really "there" for antiques stop by and look...and geared our front display case specifically to draw people in...it seemed to work.

In the end, it reaffirmed my belief that these kinds of hybrid shows are very good for us (Baltimore is another great example). I like any fair that draws in good crowds...the more the merrier. For these smaller and regional fairs, drawing in larger crowds seems like a good idea for all involved. I think it is great that MARIAB was willing to give this format a try...while it has only been two years now, it seems to me to have been a great decision.

Full review and follow-up to follow as it is late and I beyond fried. Sunday was a nice. Solid traffic pretty much all day...a lot of "stickiness" and a sale or two. One or two old friends and/or clients stopped by. Fun was had by all.

My presentation went well...particularly as I could not see my notes. I realized as soon as I was done (of course) that I had forgotten to turn off screen mirroring. 26 twit points to me...urgh. The people there seemed to enjoy it and asked some good questions. Eli asked "What is Ulysses?"...so I get to explain that to him for hours and hours *laughing*. It was a little rushed, as it is aimed at about a 45 min. session and I realized it was only for 30...Oh well. It was fun.

I packed out with Eli's help. It took about 10.5 hours to set up and about 4 hours to pack up. On the plus side, by the time I was done packing, most of the other dealers where gone and I was able to bring the car very close to the booth. Peter Luke and one or two other book guys were still there when I left...it is very nice not to be the last. I will have to get Peter a present *g*.

The drive home was uneventful. I am completely spent. Going to bed. I'll post one more on the fair tomorrow. It was, in brief, a great weekend for us on pretty much all fronts. Just a great and fun show.

We came back into the city on Sunday to spend the day at the Armory show and catch up with people (rather, some people...there really just isn't enough time in the day...). We managed to find a few other things for various clients and I managed to arrange for someone to pick up a Kelmscott on vellum from an auction house on Monday (as we would be back in Portland) and bring it to Boston for the show next weekend (thank you, Joe).

Bryan Bilby of Appledore Books and I had great fun (as always) talking about books and the business. I managed to buy a nice book from him and plan to pick up several more when I see him next (Boston?!?). Bryan is a great young dealer and has a gift for finding really wonderful books.

We stayed until the bitter end, took our new toys and began the journey home. We made our traditional stop at Rein's Deli for dinner...I had a very healthy First Cut Corned Beef Reuben Fresser...even with the lean, I could pretty much feel the artery in my chest harden as I ate it. Yum. Several cups of coffee later, we were back on the road. The drive was uneventful. We are listening to Heinlein's, Stranger in a Strange Land. It's the first time in years I've read (well, listened to) the book and it is Suzanne's first time...great fun.

Home by 11pm, unloaded the van. Twitched for a little bit. Crawled into bed and were lost to the world. It has been a very long week...exciting and great fun...but very, very long. Nice to be home...cataloging new finds and shipping things off.

Oh...yeah...and getting read to next weekend's MARIAB fair in Boston. I need to pack books. And prepare for the seminar I am supposed to give. I am going to bed. I may or may not get up in the morning.

Saturday morning was the ABAA breakfast and annual meeting at The Morgan Library. I somehow managed to get my wires crossed as to the start time, as I thought the breakfast was at 8 and the meeting at 9...when it was 9 and 10. Luckily, I was not the only one to make this mistake...strangely comforting. They kindly let us in early and it was, in the end, just extra time to enjoy the Morgan and the exhibit in the hall we were eating in...not a bad thing.

Breakfast and the meeting were nice. I had a very nice chat with one of the curators there and was able to catch up with several people and meet several new (to me) dealers. There appears to be some consensus that the ABAA needs to focus on both young dealers and young collectors...two things I could not agree with more strongly. I look forward to see where this focus leads and hope I can be involved...we shall see.

Bob & Lynne Veatch kindly offered me a ride back to the Armory/Hunter College after the meeting. Little did I know it was to provide extra padding... We were having a nice, if stilted, chat...stilted as the cab ride was slightly more "exciting" than is typical. Every now and then you get a cabbie whose sense of place on the road (and that of other movable and immovable objects) seems slightly...er...off. We were chatting, but all the while trying to anticipate where the hit was going to come from so we could brace appropriate. As it turned out, it was from the right hand side as our cabbie chose to ignore the massive Muni bus that was clearly pulling out into the lane. He hit (ok, rubbed) us from about my door (passenger side) down the rear quarter panel. He waved out the window, I assume the bus driver waved back...and we all went on our merry way. Mind you, the three of us in the back were a bit taken aback. This is why Muni bus bumpers and cab panels are mostly made out of plastic...they rub, they slide, they don't actually crumple.

Apropos of nothing, it was a nice "full circle" event. When I did my very first "real" show, the Radison shadow show to the Boston ABAA event, Lynne Veatch came into my booth and spent a bit of time looking around and then gave me two very nice complements. First, she told me that my booth and books were lovely and then she gave me a very serious look and said, "you will join the ABAA when you are eligible, won't you?" (or words to that effect). I told her that I was planning to do so as soon as I was able and she was pleased. Our wee run-in with the bus notwithstanding, it was very nice to ride back from my first ABAA meeting with the Veatchs,
four years later.

Day Two started for me at The Morgan (see next post). Suzanne (wo)manned the booth alone for the first time and did a masterful job. She even sold something whilst I was wandering about.

I made it back to the Huntington College site by about 11am and found it reasonably busy. It has just occurred to me that I have not mentioned the most interesting aspect of the Hunter College venue. It is a gym complex...buried THREE STORIES UNDERGROUND. We were so deep underground that there was no cell coverage. We were, effectively, in a dungeon. A very nice, roomy, carpeted dungeon...with champagne...and good books. The only downside is that there were apparently some reasonably strict rules about signage...so it was a little hard to find from the outside...but there were "show staff" at every turn to help shepherd the cats down the various escalators.

There was more champagne in the afternoon and a nice, steady flow of people until the show closed...not huge numbers, but steady and engaged. Two of my favorite new clients showed up, which pretty much made my weekend....young, focused and really just all together too much fun. I pretty much always love what I do...sometimes I love it even more...they just made my day.

Credit where it is due department: I was hoping to be able to make it off the waiting list and be able to do the Armory show as my first ABAA event...though I knew the likelihood was very slim (and, as it turned out, impossible). We had more or less decided that we would just come down for the weekend and shop both shows and visit and try to get a better feel for the proverbial landscape. More or less at the last minute, we decided to take a single case at Bruce and D's show and bring a small amount of really nice material...mainly because it was just such a great location, a block and a half from the Armory (and 3.5 stories down). Logistically, it was a very difficult venue (60ish dealers, two elevators, a loading bay that holds about 3ish vehicles and a rather narrow street). D arranged for valet parking (so you could take your material in and your car would just disappear at the garage rate), great porters and just generally had things running so smoothly and efficiently that it seemed effortless...not small feat given the complexity and number of moving parts. There was carpet covering the gym floor, all the tables were draped, there was food and drink (snacks and a boxed lunch) during set up and problems, when they arose, were resolved quickly and with apparent ease. It was a great show, extremely well run and we are very pleased we decided to roll the dice on it.

Also making my day was Susan Weiser Liebegott of Enchanted Books fame. I stopped by her always lovely booth to see what she brought with her and just to say hi and chat. Centered in her lit case, on the bottom shelf, surrounded by her dozens of wonderful children's' books was a lovely of "Pose Please" in the original box. This, by itself, would amuse me....the naked woman frolicking among the children's books. What pushed it completely over the top, and Susan *swears* it was unintentional, is her placement at the bottom left of a lovely copy of "Somebody's Pussies" (click on the image to blow it up). I tried to convince her that moving the copy of "Wee Willie Winkie" and other appropriately tawdry titles around "Pose Please" would be great fun but Susan is a much more proper and presentable human than I (and much the better for it). [N.B. She did give me permission to post this wonderfully prurient image.]

I spent a fair bit of time at the Armory and did find several good thing to pick up for stock and clients. This weekend in NY is unlike any other for a book lover. There is simply no other place where you can see so much, from so many genres, in one place. I feel badly for those who loose their ability to be taken aback from the sheer volume and scope of what can be seen and examined at these shows.

Well, one would think that setting up a single glass case would take almost no time at all. Then again, clearly "one" has never met me *sigh*. It did take a bit longer to get set up than we had hoped, though part of this was just the cleaning of the glass...by "cleaning", I am not only referring to a bit of glass cleaner to get the fingerprints off, but having to take a razor to the remains of duct tape on several of them...urgh.

We did add a small, 4 foot table...in part to hide my computer and printer, in part to give us a bit more space to display two very nice 1790 and 1792 French atlases. In the end, we were able to get everything looking as we wanted. The case is see-through, which is nice as I am able to display items in both directions...effectively doubling the usable space. We had a potential minor disaster when, during set up, one of the brackets holding a shelf failed (having been checked more than once by...well...me). Luckily, Natalie Bauman's quick reflexes saved the day and no harm was done to any of the handful of books on the shelf (or Natalie).

I have pictures to post, but the hotel apparently blocks FTP ports. Well thought out security structures are a good thing...the "let's block everything, that way we'll be safe" is really quite lame (and annoying). I'll update with images tomorrow, with luck.

I attended the ABAA Fair's preview evening benefiting the Morgan Library. The usual suspects were all out in force. There are some simply amazing items in NY this weekend. I picked up a nice Wyeth item from a Bryan Bibly of Appledore Books fame and have my eye on a few other things...we shall have to see how the weekend progresses.

Rented the car and ran about as needed. Rental pickup was interesting...there was one woman at the counter with a line of 8ish people, all looking reasonably annoyed and giving off “we have been here too long” vibes. I noticed, however, that there was a small “self serve” kiosk at one end that was unused and, given my pleasure of using the JetBlue kiosks, I thought I’d give it a try. Several touch screens and no more than 3 minutes later, I had a receipt and Slot Number where I could find my car. The agent was still taking to the same woman.

As I have mentioned before, having a good GPS is an amazing thing. I’d have never bought one myself, but have trouble thinking about functioning without it at this point. I did not spend one moment looking at maps or trying to figure out where I was going. I just dropped the address into the GPS and let it lead me.

The flight back was one of the more painful I’ve suffered in recent years. The seat and legroom was lovely (exit row, 36 channels of Sat TV...though it was the redeye and about 3am “my time” when I left...so sleeping was a higher priority). The plane was totally full. I was at the window next to this early middle aged couple giving off “first flight ever” vibes. He was trying to be pretty cool about it, but she was a twitching bag of neves...seriously. For the fivish hour plan ride, I do not think she ever stopped moving, She fidgeted right, She fidgeted left. She shuffled her feet around, She adjusted her coat over her (each time partly over me). She put her hand on my thigh...not once, not twice...on the order of 5 times or so. I honestly think that she thought it was her leg as she always seemed a bit confused that she could not feel it… All the while, her SO/husband was on the aisle, trying to be mellow and cool… He served her drinks...that is, when they gave us our drinks, he gave her a glass and would pour about 3-4 sips into her glass and refill it.

It went on like this for hours...fidgit, fidget, touch, shuffle, fidget, touch, shuffle, fidget, fidget, touch. AARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Also, there were two wildly cute 2ish year old twin girls. Wildly cute in the airport. Wildly cute for the first two hours in the air...less so later. They spent the last 2-3 hours wailing….steadily...the cool thing in being twins is, of course, if you are tired of wailing, your sister can spot you for a few minutes. Also, you can try to pair your wailing...so that it remains steady, with no noticeable breaks...for hours. Mind you, I have these really nice noise suppression ear buds (they fit inside the ear cannel and fill it). They are outstanding on planes...especially ones with wailing small humans. Not so good in cars or when walking…as you really can’t hear anything else.

The final straw was, and I am not making this up, that as we approached the gate we were told to stay in our seats as security would be boarding the plane to resolve “an issue”. So they open the door, TSA and some other patched human come on board, walk to my row and asks fidget lady and her husband for their IDs...and then escorts them off the plane. Don’t ask. I have no idea. It was, however, a perfect end to a horrid flight. [N.B. JetBlue and its minions were great, as always…]

In the end, the day is shaping up well. I was able to the AirTrain (the logo is a plane with track coming out the rear) all the way to the Jamaica Station. Then I got to take the E train all the way to 53rd and Lexington...then up the wildly deep escalator to the 6 train one stop to Grand Central Station. Then I took the Track 32 train up the Hudson to the Tarrytown Station. FOUR TRAINS. I should mention that I am really fond of trains in all their flavors. I know, I know, if you use the subway/comm. rail daily, it’s no big deal...but I only get to ride trains of any flavor when I go to big cities...what fun.

I am now in my room at the Tarrytown Marriot. As I have said before, it is just a great hotel and very convenient for easy in and out from the city and the GM is a book guy...oh, and it has the best mattresses of any hotel I’ve been in quite a while. Admittedly, having spent about 12ish hours on planes in the last 36 hours, my opinion may be skewed. Suzanne is driving down with the van and the books (on her birthday...I have to think of something suitably doting to make amends) and should be here in a few hours. Into the city tomorrow for set-up and the show starts Friday (8am to 8pm *shudder*) and I have a breakfast to attend and the big show and any number of other things. It should be a great weekend. I’ll try to keep you posted... Read the rest of this post

Because the chaos of trying to get ready for a major show is not enough....

So, I was already a bit tweaky because I had the NY shows (ABAA and Westside Shadow) this coming weekend and the MARIAB Boston Fair the next weekend. This would normally be enough to bring me close to the edge.

On Friday, I committed to flying to the west coast to visit a client...leaving Monday and returning on the redeye Tue/Wed...landing in NY (where, I hope, I will meet my wife who will drive the van down...with the books...on her birthday). Flight, hotel, car arrangements are all made...I should be packed for the show tomorrow and all will be well *twitch*.

I met today with new clients with some truly exceptional items...that I must catalogue between now and...you know...Thursday. While packing, driving, flying, twitching, twitching, twitching.

I love what I do...truly, deeply, passionately....perhaps masochistically. Wish me luck, I should be in rare form by the Boston weekend. *twitch* No loud noises or sudden movements.

Anyway, I may be a bit silent here for a bit...I will, however, do my very best to blog the three fairs.

Not too long ago Travis McDade wrote a nice book on a book thief called, aptly enough, The Book Thief. He has, I have just discovered, also been running the blog Upward Departure...subtitled, in part, "Thoughts about book crimes and punishment..."

I have skimmed it and will be returning, when the dust of the next week settles, to delve deeply...as I know there is much to read and learn and grok. Enjoy.