I more or less accidentally sit and watch the cross-conversation of a Powells Book lecture of the "Portland Independant Press Experiment", a collection of Portland-based self publishers. I ventured to Powells knowing that the author of Five Lies Bush Told About Iraq was speaking, but not knowing that he was speaking at the other Powells location. So, the PIPE folks was a consolation of sorts.

After everyone said their slightly cliched piece, I ventured toward Shannon Wheeler to say one thing and one thing only. I'm in the vicintity as he talks with a few friends, laughing at the garish Manga ad on the back-cover of his magazine. Eventually, I see an opening, and try to situate myself so that he can easily re-co-mingle with his group.

Me: Hey Shannon.

Wheeler: Uh, yeah, hi.

Me: A decade ago I purchased some mini-comics from you, and

Wheeler: Oh man. Really? Ha ha. Did they arrive?

Me: Yes, but the thing is... they came postage due.

Wheeler: Ha. Well, I guess that comes from being inexperienced.

Me: Right. Actually, you basically just put them in a small enevelope kind of with no real concern for the weight and threw a regular first class stamp on it.

Wheeler: Right. I had a bunch of unused wedding enevelopes that were just the right size for those.

Me: You owe me a quarter.

Wheeler: If I had one I'd give it to you. Those mini-comics... you from Austin?

Me: No.

Wheeler: Factsheet Five? How'd you know about...

Me: You had put out the first regular comic at the time, and...

Wheeler: Oh. Okay. Well, if I had a quarter on me I'd give it to you. I have a dollar...

...

That's really all I wanted to say to Mr. Wheeler. I suppose could've mentioned the Japanese t-shirt and reaction #1 and Reaction #2 from Russia, but I didn't.

I'd be interested in whether the Klingon he spoke to was the man who was the initial Klingon Karaoke performing at Boadacious Classics (and volunteered to be a translator for the state of Oregon that propelled it into a modest national media flap a while ago). But... whatever.

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