My Fame is Overdue.

If you own This Book Is Overdue!, flip to page 51 to see the.effing.librarian mentioned and preserved for all time.

I wasn't going to mention this here because I just use this blog for fun and not for commercial purposes. Except when mentioning those good folks at Nabisco and their fine product, Ritz crackers: Mmm, good cracker.

Also, it's a book about librarians. And why would I want to associate myself with any of them? Better to just not mention the book at all.

But then the general excitement and appreciation for Marilyn mentioning me, when she could have typed the name of any number of other (yes, less talented) bloggers, won out.

And as you can see, I have an autographed copy, signed to the effing librarian. When someone at LISNews posted that I appeared in the book, I emailed Marilyn and asked how I could purchase an autographed copy. But get this, here is what she wrote back:

"yes, effing, I do mention you....and I follow you, too. In fact, I think I wrote to you and asked to use your fab chart Should You Become A Librarian in one of my presentations. (Can I?)I will send you a copy signed to the effing librarian if you do. Send your address! I think you're great!"

Look at that, the closed quote goes all the way to the end, meaning that "I think you're great!" is something she actually wrote. Yes, I know you also think I'm great, but who are you? Nobody. This is a somebody; an author. I know your cats think you're somebody, but they're still going to eat your face when you die on that couch. Knitting.

I never heard if she used the "Should you become a librarian?" chart, or more importantly, when she used it, did it get a laugh.

Anyway, the book seems to be doing well. A big plus for it over her previous book about dead people is that the current subjects tend to buy more books than the former. Go and get a copy. I have two; the one she sent me and the one I bought which still needs signing. I guess I'll have to get this one addressed to my "real" name, whatever that is.

Banned from using my XO

So I got my XO laptop today and already I've been asked by the governments of ten countries to stop using it. In case you don't know, the XO is the computer that is part of the one laptop per child initiative for donating a specially-designed laptop to each child in developing nations. It has a built-in receiver/transmitter that allows it to connect to a "mesh" online network so kids can share and communicate with other kids all over the world. And I've been banned from using mine. But it really wasn't my fault. I mean there's lots of food around the house: chocolate, mashed potatoes, gravy, ham, and the Slim Jims used to decorate the tree. And you can't blame me for being naked in my own house. Or for getting a little sloppy when I eat and getting chocolate and raspberry fondue smeared all over my face and chest. And it's not my fault that right out of the box, the XO finds the network and connects to the Internet. And it's really not my fault that it's very easy to enable the camera function that took the video of my naked chocolate and raspberry covered body and beamed it out to children in developing nations all over the world.
So I'm not sure why Peru, Uruguay, Afghanistan, Brazil, Rwanda, Libya, Thailand, Cambodia, Detroit, and Costa Rica got so upset. That could have happened to anyone. And it's still not clear whether I've been banned for being naked or for looking like I was covered in blood or for spilling more food on myself than most of these children get in a week. But I'm not sorry. I'm American, that's what we do. Shower in food.