Last night I was in Portland, OR to speak at Powell's Books. The branch of the store I went to is in the Hawthorne district of town, an extremely hip (and hippy dippy) area, where bikes are parked all over the place on the sidewalk, and crowds of people are walking between all of the stores, and sushi restaurants, and the Ben & Jerry's. So I'm thinking, "Perfect. This is totally my spot! These are my peeps! They'll come out in the thousands to listen to me! I'll be the voice of reason! I'll talk about policy and the environment! They'll be enthralled! I bet they're craving a speaker like me to come, and spread the liberal hippy gospel! I mean, what the heck else better do they have to do tonight?"
Then I arrive at the store, and look across the street at the billboard of the Bagdad Theatre. It reads "Madeline Albright. Tonight!" A mass of folks are lined up outside. Need I say any more?
The crowd that did come to Powell's to listen to my talk wasn't too bad, considering, and they asked a lot of good questions. And Powell's is a very impressive store. I enjoyed checking it out and spending some time there.
