Nerdgirl Heaven

Well, I found myself blessed in nerdgirl heaven tonight. I was running late from work to go see Sarah Vowell read at A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books. The crowd was just getting to the point where nobody filling in the back was going to get more of a show than the sound of her muffled voice. But I scrambled up front and found a spot on the floor (the last spot on the floor, where I would practically be sitting at Sarah's right foot), when someone in the middle of the third row stood up and called my name. I knew I'd know SOMEone there, but what luck-- the woman she was sitting by had saved two seats, and her friend wasn't coming, so I ended up sitting next to a friend in the third row. Whoever is looking out for me up there- the patron saint of literary readings- thank you!

I noticed one other person I know - not someone I'd call a friend but someone I know, a friend of a friend - Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler (yes he has a Wikipedia entry)! He is friends with S.V. He was scooting out of the venue just as the massive throng in the back was getting surly.

The crowd was rapt. I mean, nobody moved. When I bent down to get a cough drop from my bag I felt like I was mooning the congregation at a wedding. She read from the beginning of Assassination Vacation and then from an op-ed she's about to publish in the New York Times about the need for having an outlaw secret service on prime time and the equal need to NOT have an outlaw secret service on the evening news.

Then the questions. My friend wanted to ask if she'd ever gotten a driver's license. But that was too personal and too stigmatized, she said, to ask publicly. She asked her privately when we went up to get our books signed, and turns out S.V. hasn't gotten her license yet. I wanted to ask her if she would take me up on my proposal (already e-mailed to her some months ago) that I be her guide on a European Assassination Vacation to the sites of the assassinations that came as a prelude to World War One in the then-Kingdom of Yugoslavia. So, I decided that wasn't a good public question either. I clarified her answer later. No.

What I *did* ask was - as a volunteer at 826 Valencia having just heard that she's on the board of 826 - could she talk about her role at 826? That was fun. She even said that at a reading last night - in LA - someone asked her what would give someone hope in this day and age: 826 Valencia. Her work is at the NYC 826 - the Superhero Supply Company (as opposed to the Pirate Supply Store we have here in the Bay Area). Apparently they have a "cape tester" there where kids can put on a cape and stand with their arms out in front of a big fan. This brings the kids in, and then when they find the hidden door to the tutoring lab they start coming every day and finishing their homework when maybe they had never finished their homework before. She was fairly gushing. She ended her response by giving a little "yay!" (with jazz hands).

One of the first questions was from a guy in the grumpy pushy nerd section in the back. He said that he had heard that male writers have more groupies than female writers, and was she bothered by this. So there she was, facing a completely - to the point of fire hazard - packed book store, with people crammed in who could only hear her voice from around a corner, being asked if she felt she lacked groupies. She was kind of dumbstruck for a second, doing what all good speakers do in such a case, repeating the question, then: "Well," she said dryly, "I suppose you could be forced to stand outside on the sidewalk- that would make me happier."

Now I have to run off to stalk the book S.V. recommended I read, about the assassinations leading up to WWI, The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman.