Buying the New Harry Potter Book -- A Tale of Late Night Fun

INTERBLOG MEMORANDUM

TO: LOYAL READERS

FROM: THE SMELMOOO

DATE: JULY 2005

SUBJECT: THE NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK -- AN INTERESTING TALE OF SORTS OF A PRODUCTIVE ACTION PLAN


It is with great pride and pleasure that I announce the arrival of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to the Smelmooo residence.

The book was released officially on Saturday, July 16, 2005 and when does that day begin, but at midnight of course! As has been the custom with the past couple of books, America was in a frenzy to get the new book and Harry Potter parties were hosted at book stores across the country. Heck... Princeton showed the first movie on a big screen so it would end around midnight and then sold a ton of books.

There were two main options available tot he lovely Tangent Woman and muhself as we wanted to see what these late night Harry Potter parties were all about. We could go to the rather large Barnes and Noble that has its own entrance at the Menlo Park Mall on busy Route 1 OR we could have gone to the Waldenbooks that was located on the second floor of Woodbridge Center just two more miles down the road. We thought about it and went with the indoor location as we felt the crowd would be smaller.

Upon waking up the Tangent Woman at 11:20 pm and getting packed up and putting the Tuckster to bed, we climbed into the Big Blue Buick and made our way to the mall. We arrived and noticed that there was plenty of activity and security guards were strategically placed throughout our walk. at 11:45, we arrived at the store and saw a big screen television showing the first Harry Potter flick, tables with crafts, and a magic show being prepared for approximately 200 people or so. The majority of the people were kids and parents with about 15% being couples like ourselves.

After evaluating the situation, we made our way to the store where we received a number -- 0078. This explained why there wasn't a throng of people waiting outside the door to the store. We watched the rest of the magic show and then the clock struck 12. Everyone got up and walked to the front of the store. They took in the first 25 people who were cattled to the back of the store where the books were handed to people.

The line moved quickly and even with only two registers going, we had our book in hand by 12:20 or so. The simple reason was that many people had pre-paid so they were being handed their books. I was excited to have the book in hand and so was Tangent Woman who was dutifully given the task of transporting the valuable commodity to the Big Blue Buick.

As a whim, we drove past the Barnes & Noble at 12:45. We thought the other place was busy, but it made the Waldenbooks store look amatuerish. It was as though there was a street fair going on as the line was literally wrapping around the building. Folks... this is a VERY large Barnes and Noble with a lot of floor space. It was truly insane.

Tangent Woman and I looked at each other and I expressed our sentiments with just one word.

Suckers.

A friend suggested to me that "maybe they were enjoying the whole process. I didn't mind waiting last night. really lovely family in front of me, chatting about the city and such. the guy behind me, well, I could have done without him but that's because he thought he was veeeeeeeeeeery funny"

It is with this that I sign off and leave you with the following action item.

DO NOT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BOOK. I HOPE TO FINISH MY CURRENT BOOK ON THE TRAIN TO WASHINGTON D.C. TOMORROW AND BEGIN THIS BOOK.