Sold a “Cheesesteak.”
The buyer was a short woman with short grey hair. She was from Wilmington but had gone to Tyler School of Art in 1969 and had fond feelings for Philly. She had studied fabric design but, arriving out here, had found she couldn’t make a living from it, so she had enrolled in a horticulture program at Merritt College and has worked in gardening since. I’d been seeing her at the café for years, but this was the first time my books had caught her eye. Now I have a new friend.
Incidental conversations with – but no sales to – (a) a recent emigre from Algeria (close cropped hair and beard), who has a PhD in economics but no job and (b) a free-lance programmer (tall, thin, bald, big beard), last name was Little (“As in ‘small’”). He works in conjunction with AI programs – and is looking forward to being replaced by them.
The programmer was interested in “Most Outrageous” since his mother had split the family apart with charges she had been sexually abused by her father. He joined “Rex” (See last few “Adventures”) and I for a lengthy conversation. Both Rex and he were gamers, and when he learned Rex had been an animator on “The Little Mermaid” (1989 version) engaged him on actual scenes on which Rex had worked.
“When’s the last time that happened to you?” I asked Rex the next day.
In other news…
1.) The big story is the announcement, via group email (60-75 recipients) and FB post (3-400 “friends,” with some duplicates), of the availability date of “Bob on Bob.” The emails produced 16 orders, (with three requests for two copies), and FB brought three more (one for two copies). [Added to previous orders and “freebies” set aside, only 43 copies remain uncommitted.) For the statistic-obsessed, like myself, of the 29 people I had projected as “most likely” to order, 12 did; of the 15 considered “possible,” two did; of the six friends with whom I regularly lunch, one did (but I’m still counting on the others). Two people I hadn’t expected to order did; so did one person previously unknown to me. She was a friend of a client from 45-years-ago who had recently re-established contact with me. He had received my email, which he had forwarded to her in the desert near Mexico.
She turned out to be a singer/songwriter who toured – and had a romance – with Bob (the other one) in the 1980s, about which she has written her own book. She planned to buy mine, but I proposed we swap.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.