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May 27, 2004

Going to the Chapel (Hill)

On May 15, I was thrilled to attend the beautiful North Carolina wedding of my dear friend Ina Stern, the Associate Publisher of Algonquin Books [ http://www.algonquin.com ], to her soft-spoken silver-haired beau of two years, Glenn Sawtelle. Ina is in her 50s and this is the first time she's been married...True love, unexpected and much-deserved. My favorite part of the wedding was seeing the excitement on the faces of Ina's parents, Charles and Mildred -- you've never seen teeny little octogenarian Jews beam so brightly -- it made Judah Maccabee's dram of oil look like small potatoes (or small potato latkes). Speaking of which...there was an amazing New South-meets-Jew South appetizer at the wedding -- shredded barbecued duck on mini-latkes.

I had met Ina's dad, Charles Stern - a sculptor, one-time literary agent, and a complete character - once before: He was the most cantankerous audience member when I read at Chapel Hill's Regulator book store on THE BIG BOOK OF MISUNDERSTANDING tour. I'll spar with him any time, and I hope I've got as much vinegar in me in my ninth decade of life as he does. An inspiration.

Also in attendance was Anne Winslow, the fantastico graphic designer who took a simple photo I'd fallen in love with and crafted it into the evocative jacket of THE BIG BOOK OF MISUNDERSTANDING. Elisabeth Scharlatte, Algonquin's publisher was down from New York, classy as ever -- we shared our mutual hope that Algonquin author Steve Almond's confectionary-neurotic travelogue CANDYFREAK will soon hit the NYT Bestseller List. [Steve and I share a website designer...Not to mention a sweet tooth]. And I met two cool new friends: Jim Joseph - who owns a cafe in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and is finishing a book intended to help men survive the fear of social dancing (!) - and designer/entrepreneur Paul Hanson - inventor of the Page-A-Day calendar (really!) and creator of the spectacularly successful recent kids' book MY GRANNY'S PURSE (500,000+ sold!); just talking to Paul had my internal idea-factory kicking into high gear, and he's kindly offered to let me bounce some concepts off of him. Over the years, I've met so many great people in the Algonquin-Workman enterprise...It's a big goal of mine to work on a project with them someday!

Note to self: Renzo.