martha book signing

Today we went to Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena for the Martha Stewart book signing. Martha was signing her 66th book, Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Recipes and Lessons for the Home Cook. I didn't realize when we bought our books a couple of weeks ago, that our tickets were numbered. Turns out we were 81 and 82, so got to be pretty near the front of the line of what was close to 400.

Parking was our first and really only issue. The lot was crazy, and people were started to get a little huffy. We ended up paying for parking, but worth not fighting over a parking space.

The signing was held upstairs, but we were lined up around the perimeter of the store. Groups of 15 or so were let in as the line moved up the stairs. The event was set to start at 4pm. Martha arrived early and those with small children or handicaps were taken care of first. We were done by 4:40pm, so not bad. The line was still snaking around the front of the bookstore when we left around 5:15pm.

The highlight of the signing was a guy a few people ahead of us, Tony Briant. He told Martha that he loved her daughter's show. Martha was thrilled, picked up her cell phone and tried to get Alexis on the line. She got her answering machine, and Tony left a message. It is in the video above.

I found the video using Twitter Search. It comes from Anotorias also found a couple of other people who were there. Vroman's is on Twitter, but really missed an opportunity to connect with their customers today. They need to read Twitter Revolution.

Tomorrow Martha Stewart will be at B&N in Glendale at 11am. There are no details on their site. I called and it appears they are handing out wristbands when the store opens at 9am. A wristband guarantees that your book will be signed. They did not know how many they will be giving out though. It was recommended to arrived before 9am though. It should be a zoo. Still a part of me wants to go because I have a copy of the book I would love to have signed. Don't ask. And yes, I know I have issues.

on the night stand :: Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Recipes and Lessons for the Home Cook

i did something cool today

B forwarded me an email he received from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business (GSB) about a historic announcement. They were streaming it live, so at 3pm PT I joined the party. It was almost like being back in the Winter Garden.

Beforehand we tried to guess what the big announcement could be. We figured with all the news about appointments to Barack Obama's team, perhaps several of the GSB faculty had new jobs. We were wrong, and that has been done before, so not exactly "historic".

It turned out that David (class of '71) and Suzanne Booth, had given the business school an endowment of $300 million. This is the largest single gift any business school has received. The school announced the $100M Booth Matching Fund - also the largest matching fund in business school history. It was further decided that the business school would now be called The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Since I had Twitter open, I told the world (all 200 something of my followers) what had just been announced. Apparently I scooped The Wall Street Journal, among others. It isn't like I told the world, or was the first to know (reportedly there were 3000 people logged in to view the announcement). And clearly this has been known for a bit as at the end the current students were invited to take Booth swag after the event.

Of course I immediately went to the GSB bookstore, as B wears his GSB tshirts often. Hate for him to be out of style. There wasn't anything there, but I did email. Hopefully I will hear back soon. B said he also needs a new decal for the car - the one that has almost 200,000 miles on it. It looks like the site is under construction, so maybe that is good news.



on the night stand :: Not A Box