Life is ‘nowt but queer’ I think, as I find myself standing in a lengthy queue of people snaking through the housewares section of a Macy’s department store in Portland, OR. Taken there one recent early evening by my assistant Marcy, who apparently thinks I am at a loss for something to do and just perhaps am sorely needing to learn how to pitch product while being entertaining. Trust me when I say I have never been in a Macy’s before. Heck, I think I have been in a shopping mall less than a handful of times in my life and here I am now shuffling slowly forwards through the bed linens in order to see a ‘celebrity chef’ by the name of Tyler Florence. Too weird.
The mood in the queue is jovial and patient, not at all like being at the airport and we are not at the back of the line for very long at all, as its tail keeps growing. Hundreds of people are showing up and all are expected to fit into a pretty small space between pots and pans and the bed linens. Read the rest of this entry »