February 22, 2008

In Praise of Sharpies

I'm not a corporate shill, but when I like something I say so; and I like Sharpie pens--the intoxicating permanent black markers made for autographing and writing on your skin. Anyway, yesterday I was at the Embassy of Iceland signing fifty copies of my book for all the honorary consuls here in the US. I was a little light-headed by the end of it and felt drab writing 'with best wishes' over and over again, followed by my scribble. Really, I wish most people the best most of the time. For someone about to read my book, I think it would be more appropriate to say: "Feel free to take lots of breaks" or "Don't feel obligated to read this cover to cover." Many thanks to the Icelandic embassy staff and to the kind Ambassador who took me out to lunch.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, aroma of Sharpie!
Another good scent: jet fuel. Jerry V. Haines wrote about it convincingly on World Hum:
http://www.worldhum.com/speakers_corner/item/fueling_desire_20060819/

Congrats on your Iceland book!

Reminds me of this silly fantasy on the Dilbert Blog where Scott Adams imagines himself signing books when suddenly some frozen poop falls from an airplane and hits one of the people on line at the booksigning:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/02/death-by-frozen.html