adventures in bookselling

So, the posts have been sparse lately because I just started a job (actually, two jobs, but they only actually add up to like .75 of 1 job). I'm working for a bookstore that you've definitely heard of before: here's the first of a number of anecdotes from the world of the written word (and its wares).

Working at the register the other day, who else should walk up to be checked out but celebrated character actor Andre Braugher?

When he got to the register, I immediately recognized him and said, "Are you Andre Braugher?" I then told him I loved him in Homicide: Life on the Street, which happens to be based on a book by David Simon, the Baltimore journalist who went on to create The Wire. Bonus tidbit: when my car broke down in St. Louis one year I was coming home from college, I waited with a cop for the tow truck. I asked if he liked any cop shows, and he sang the praises of "Homicide" while dogging on NYPD Blue and the Law & Order constellation.

So, what's the bottom line of my latest brush with fame? It turns out that Andre Braugher is a super nice guy. He was more than gracious as I stumbled through the transaction. And I'm glad I didn't bring it up, but it's funny that I saw him because Amy and I had just talked about him a few days before, totally out of the blue. Amy loves the karaoke movie Duets and she even bought the soundtrack - but I had noticed some time ago that most everyone in the movie does their own singing, but Andre Braugher does not (I guess he was cast solely on the basis of acting, radical as that idea may be). So I really burst her bubble pointing out that he didn't do his own singing.

Perhaps I should have asked him to regale me with a few bars in the store...