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So I was on the subway on the evening of Marathon Day, and a French woman (I think French, though I suppose could be French-Canadian or something) asked me about my book A Year in the Merde, which she pointed out might be a play on "A Year In Provence".

It was cool because I was able to confirm that "My Tea Is Rich" (the book's hypothetical name for a chain of English Tea Rooms) does strike French folks as funny... it's a play on "My Tailor is Rich" which was a common sentence for French-speakers learning English.

The woman mentioned she likes cross-cultural books so I recommended Hellenga's "The Sixteen Pleasures". The whole incident made me wish I had a personal business card to hand her... not in a "trying to give women by number" kind of way, but just on the off chance there could be some followup communication, making it a smaller world. Or, it could just be a bookmark!

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Hobo of the Moment

--"Kirk the Jerk", my own hobo, ordered through Adam "Ape Lad" Koford's Hobotopia project, where for $10 he would draw your Hobo name on a postcard. (He's now doing fairy tale scenes for $20.) (thanks Bill the Splut who got his own hobo)

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Business of the Moment
I am so bummed that my first knowledge of a 1,428-Year-Old Business in Japan was that it was being closed down! It was Kongo Gumi, builder of Buddhist Temples. (via boingboing)