In today's Portland Phoenix, I have a short piece about Ken Gloss, proprietor of the Brattle Book Shop in Downtown Crossing, who'll be in Portland next week. Unfortunately, he tells me my signed first edition of David Sedaris' Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim is worth peanuts.

Good story though. See how it says "To Deirdre / Don't ever quit"? Well, this reading/signing took place at the Brookline Booksmith, and it was packed. When he'd finished reading from the book, the masses began to assemble, ready to swarm for the author's signature. But Sedaris, lamenting the fact that smokers are increasingly ostracized in this health-crazy world, said that anyone who could produce evidence of their smoking habit could jump to the front of the line. Back then, I was a real smoker (not just a fake drunk smoker like I am today), so I gripped my P-Funks and proudly weaved my way forward.

Thus, when he wrote "Don't ever quit," he was referring to my cigarette habit, as opposed to, say, my burgeoning writing career or my young, ambitious life. How inspirational!  

(Also, it was at that reading that someone asked [or he volunteered, I can't remember] about what he'd been reading recently, and he responded that he loved Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family, which I proceeded to read, and count today as one of my favorite books.)

You know you're a huge nerd when news of George Eliot's Middlemarch being made into a movie (by a competent director) makes you shiver with excitement. Holy crap! So awesome. Except if they get Keira Knightley to play Dorothea, which would break my heart. Sorry, Keira, I do buy you as smart and spunky, but there's something missing -- a sense of refinement, perhaps? or maybe quietly yearning self-awareness? -- in your characterization of nineteenth century female heroines.

Speaking of Sam Mendes, he's also directing wife Kate Winslet and her old co-star Leonardo DiCaprio in a film adaptation of Revolutionary Road. I've never read it, but it comes highly recommended by several folks and I just got a copy of it. If I ever finish The Brothers Karamazov (my noble summer reading project), Rev Road comes next.

DaCapo Press sent over an advance copy of Toni Fiore's first cookbook, Totally Vegetarian, to be published in the fall. Fiore, a Portland resident, is the host of Delicious TV's Totally Vegetarian, which is broadcast on public access channels nationwide. Many of the recipes sound absolutely delicious -- Greek Stuffed Cabbage, Kasha Crunch Burgers, and Pumpkin-Bulgur Chili, for example. Here's my goal: Try at least one recipe per week, and report back to you readers, complete with food-porn photos and perhaps even the reviews of some outside taste-testers.

[Cross-posted at Word Up/About Town.] 

This is hysterical and brilliant.

Now, if only someone could make a Shop-Urban-Outfitters at Work, a Deal-With-Romantic-Problems-Via-Email at Work, and a Stalk-High-School-Classmates-on-Facebook at Work, I'd be all set.