Plugging 2: Still Plugging

Are you aware that the second Plug anthology is available for purchase? I got my copy yesterday and spent a happy 45 minutes eating chips and dip and reliving Jay Carlson’s funniest bits of genius circa 2003. I think this one is actually funnier than the first one. There were several things I’d forgotten that made me laugh out loud (most of all Here’s Something!). Jay is one of those rare people who is so stuffed with ideas that they must trickle out at a steady rate just to keep his head afloat, and I bet if you had to take the trash out with Jay, he’d be like, Wait, I know, let’s do it like this, and afterwards you’d have this great story to tell at bars.

This would make a great gift for siblings, or friends, or cool cousins, or maybe someone who you really like so far but you’ve only been dating for like a month or so and it’s almost their birthday. DO NOT FREAK THAT PERSON OUT AND BUY THEM A NECKLACE. Buy them this book instead. You can thank me at your wedding.

Book signing, Cringe Wednesday

Cringe is this Wednesday, May 7, at 8:30 pm. Before Cringe, there will be a book signing for the Dooce fatherhood anthology at Soda Bar, from 5:30 – 7:30. I will be there with Heather Armstrong, Alice Bradley, Greg Allen and Doug French. I will be the one signing books as John Grisham and V.C. Andrews.

Soda is just a five minute walk from Freddy’s, so I hope people can make it to both events. I personally hope I can make it to Freddy’s in time to save myself a seat for my own reading.

Cringe Reading Night
Wednesday, May 7, 8:30 pm
Freddy’s Bar and Backroom
485 Dean Street (6th Ave. & Dean), Brooklyn
2/3 to Bergen, any train to Atlantic/Pacific
More directions
Cost: as always, free dollars

What I Think About on the Subway

I wish I had a button on my keychain that I could push whenever the world is a bit too much with me, and I would immediately be dropped slow-motion into a warm swimming pool while the first bars of “Crimson and Clover” played all around me.

Things I Learned About My Dad: He Rules

I have an essay in the book that Heather edited, Things I Learned About My Dad (in therapy). I haven’t read what I wrote since I turned it in last fall, over a month late, so it will be almost as much as a surprise to me as it will be to my father.

When Heather asked me to contribute, I said yes immediately, before even considering the subject matter, because Heather Armstrong has been supportive of me since my website was less than a month old. I have no idea how she found it, back when it was just a tiny orange blogspot blog that no one read but my friend John and me, but she sent me an encouraging email, demanding more content, and that led to more emails and phone calls and finally real-life bourbon drinking and air mattress sharing. I know that girl is a lightning rod for controversy, and sometimes people think it’s cool not to like her or her site, but let me tell you something: Heather Armstrong is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, not to mention one of my favorite writers, and it is a real honor to be involved with her first book.

I’m also in very good company in this book, with essays written by so many of my other favorite online writers, and I’m really looking forward to reading everyone else’s piece -- especially Jim’s, because Heather told me in San Francisco in February that his essay was so good it would bag him a book deal. I hope so, because I’m ready to read that book on the subway.

You can buy the book online at several places, including Amazon, where they’ve bundled it with the Cringe book, which warms my cold dead heart.

In a funny turn of events, my dad actually met Heather in November 2006, at the Cringe pilot taping, and has since started reading her website, and will occasionally email me a link to an article about her in the Wall Street Journal with the note, "Tell your friend congrats!" This also warms my cold dead heart, which, I guess I have to admit, is not very cold or dead these days.