Okay, I know I said I was leaving the country last week. Well, that little trip got delayed but this time I swear, I am in Brussels. I left on Tuesday night about 10 pm and landed in London around six in the morning. I am saying all this in the past tense because it all happened days ago. You should be reading this on Thursday and once again it is Monday night.

I am nestled all snug in my chair flipping the channels and looking for some inspiration. I could be knitting. I am trying to finish a little bag for my camera before I leave. I think I can get it finished up tonight if I don’t spend too long rambling to you all. I will do my best to keep this short.

I was trying to think of something to tell you about that you may not have heard too many times this season. I mean, how many times do you have to hear about Tree of Smoke before you decide whether or not you are going to read it? Some things you just aren’t going to do, no matter who tells you it is a good thing. In fact, sometimes there can be too much talk about an issue, ending with you/me hating the very idea of whatever it is. For example, I like Barack Obama. I think he has a shot at being the president and think he would do a fine job. But if Oprah doesn’t shut up pretty soon, I am going to vote for Huckabee just to make a mess.

Right. I finished a book recently and I thought I might tell you about it. It has nothing to do with an event, but it is part of our gift guide and I actually liked it. The book is The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Now, some of you might know how I fell about Bennett. If you don’t, I dislike him. I think he is a pretentious prat. When I was working in London at Waterstone's, Bennett came out with his two-volume tome Untold Stories. He then made a public statement that the whole world should not buy his book at Waterstone's. A Waterstone's opened a branch in the same area as a little bookshop he used to frequent. From what a friend of mine told me, it wasn’t great bookshop to begin with and having a good bookstore nearby was the straw the closed that shop.

It is never good to see bookshop close, but it does happen. It happens here all the time. One bookstore closes and two more open. Think of it as the circle of life. Anyway. For an author to go public saying to not buy his book from a bookstore is just ridiculous in my eyes. I work for an independent bookstore, but I still shop at other bookstores. I frequent all the bookstores in my area, corporate and independent. We are all trying to keep books in the world, why would you tell people to not buy them? Doofus.

I disliked him so much, that every time my manager, Mark, would bring the book on to our floor (the art floor), I would take them back downstairs to the fiction floor. I wasn’t an art book; therefore it wasn’t going to live on my floor. We fought over it everyday for a month. Ah, good times.

So, I don’t like Alan Bennett, but I did like this little book. It is obvious that Bennett is a playwright because he writes in a very brief style sparing us all the superfluous details you find in regular novels. Passage of time occurs, but there is nothing to let you know that happened. Overt descriptions of persons and their clothing are left out. That would be the job of costuming. Describe the surroundings? That would be set design’s job.

Sparse though the book may be, it is quite elegant. I won't tell you what it is all about, I would hate for you to grow weary of hearing about the book and end up not reading it. I will ask you to imagine what it would be like to discover reading at a late age and then imagine that the person doing the discovering was the Queen. Think about the implications of that, and then pick up this little (less than 200 pages) book. You can burn through it in an afternoon, but also gather more from it with a second reading and perhaps a third.

You might even notice that Bennett makes a reference to Hatchard’s. He even holds it is high esteem and treats it with a bit of reverence. I wont say anything about that but I will give you three guesses as to who owns Hatchard’s.

Wish me luck on my trip. I will touch base with you upon my return.

Oh, Alan Bennett’s little book can be picked up at Olsson’s Books for $13.50.

Hi ho, Everyone. Today is Monday Dec 10th. I am typing my blog from the comforts of my apartment. I am writing this so far in advance because I will be out of the country (I know, again) on Thursday. This time, I am headed to Brussels for few days of Christmas Markets, Chocolate and Beers. I will fill you in when I get back.

All that aside, I am writing to let you know that we have reached the end of the Events season once again. From now, until January 3rd, Olsson’s will be focused on Holiday sales and helping you find the things you need for the people on your lists. In an effort to help out those of you who shop in the stores that read my blog, I thought I might talk about a few things from our gift guide. --In my own way--

Over the weekend, I was flipping channels while staying up way too late. I stumbled across a WETA program on Eric Clapton. It was a tribute concert with the moneys going toward the Crossroads Centre in Antigua for chemically dependent persons. Recorded on July 28th at Toyota Park in Chicago, the marathon, guitar-fest is the second concert of this type. The first was in 2004 and I missed the whole thing. But not this time. In honor of the cause, I cracked a cold beer and sat down to watch.

If you missed the show on WETA, you can buy the DVD and watch it as often as you like. You can see a rough looking, 63 year old, Johnny Winters parked on a stool doing some lovely slide work while he growls his way through “Highway 61 Revisited”. Not only Johnny, you will see loads of fabulous bluesmen cranking away. B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Robbie Robertson, Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and loads of others. As a fan of the blues, I would love to find this under the tree on Christmas morning. I would like it very much, so much, that I may not be able to hold out for Christmas. I might just go buy it right away.

But this is the blog based around events. To keep things on track, I have put together my ultimate fantasy event built around the man that made this all possible, Eric Clapton. The event will take place at Lisner (here in DC) and because this is MY fantasy event, it will be populated with lots of interesting characters.

Here is the Basic premise, Clapton will be talking about his Foundation and selling copies of his new Biography (Clapton: The Autobiography, $23.40 at Olsson’s) and the DVD I spoke of earlier ($29.98, ditto). Because he is Eric Clapton and everyone and their dog would want to interview him, I have chosen, local rock star Dave Grohl to sit and have a chat. What better combo could there be? Dave asking questions, Clapton answering demurely. Perfect!

After the interview portion, in lieu of the typical “questions from the audience” portion, Dave and Eric would play a short acoustic number. Dave being a Beatles fan, and Eric knowing and working with them on a couple albums, I imagine the set would include “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and a rousting acoustic version of “Black Betty”, finishing with, “Before you Accuse Me”. (This is my show.)

At the end of the evening, there would be a signing portion for the 1,500 people at the show with everyone buying a book AND a DVD. I (along with some burly types) would make the signing run smoothly and everyone would be as happy as clams. Because this is my fantasy event, Linda Carter and Nigella Lawson would be in the crowd, they would both be invited backstage after the event, and we would all go to Linda’s house for a late night snack. Nigella would cook in Linda’s kitchen. I would help (just like Shake an' Bake) while Dave and Eric talk music and pick tunes until the wee hours...

That would be my Christmas wish. Now that it is well after midnight, I am going to drift off to sleep while visions of sugar plums dance in my head to the beat of “Boom Boom”.

Good night.

Editor's Note: For those of you with filty minds out there, this is a family website and there would only be cooking eating and singing at the after party. The whole family would be invited.

Oh, also, The Blogger did not go to Europe yet. His trip was postponed until Tuesday of next week.

I read an interesting thing the other day. It was a small question about luxury.

"Is it still luxurious if you got it on sale?"

I found this question wonderful!

Is it? Is that cashmere sweater you purchased at the end of last season at the Gap for $78 as luxurious as the one Bob sports from Lucien Pellat-Finet for $2,000? Is the Toyota Corolla LE (Luxury Edition) a step above The BMW 310 (Not the LE) that it is parked next to in the Wall-Mart parking lot? The word "Luxury" is bandied about a lot these days. Everyone wants to think that they are ridiculously special and slightly better than the people around them. And when I say "Everyone", I mean Me.

Luxury isn't just in what you wear or what you drive, it has seeped into every section of our lives like cigarette smoke. We are unable to brush our teeth anymore without some wonderfully-silly looking toothbrush or even shave without a 7 bladed, vibrating, monstrosity clutched in our fist. Has it all gone too far? Are we becoming victims of our own misguided, attempts at pampering? I don't know. I will get back to you all with the answer in fifteen years. By then, I am certain we will come up with a new word for luxury given that all the luxurious things we have will then be commonplace.

There is a real point to all this talk of luxury. I don't go in for all the luxury items, but there is one thing: One item I will indulge in is food. I love to eat. I live to go out somewhere lovely, be treated well and sample the best offerings from the best chefs. I have a hard time believing when people tell me they eat just for sustenance. I like to think I can remember at least one dish from every place I have ever eaten. I can describe the pumpkin farotto I ate from Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe last month. I could tell you about the Roasted Lamb and Goat Cheese Panini from Cafe Deluxe last year. If you like I can tell you the first and the last things I ate in London too. Food is important to me.

I have been making a list of places here in DC and have been ticking them off the list as I can. I have even added a few New York locales to my list as well, given that I travel there on occasion. One of the things I missed out on doing when I lived in San Jose, was having dinner at the French Laundry. I have sold hundreds of Thomas Keller's cookbooks in my tenure at Williams-Sonoma and pushed Bouchon down the throats of English foodies stuck on Gordon Ramsay. I own the film Spanglish (Keller taught Adam Sandler how to cook for that film) I even read the French Laundry at Home blog, but I have never eaten in his restaurant. I hear good things about his new place, 'Per Se'. Such good things, that I have put it on my list.

Where do I hear these good things? Once upon a time, a little bird named Phoebe worked at Per Se as a waiter. She then wrote a little book about it. I am dying to hear some of the things that she did in her tenure with Keller. I am also dying to sink my teeth into Keller's Gigot d' Agneau, but I will have to travel to the west coast for that one.

All of this is a long - not as bad as some - way of me telling you that Phoebe Damrosch is going to be in our Penn Quarter store on December 10th. She promises to regale us with stories of her exploits and mouth-watering descriptions of the food. I have worked in the food industry before, I understand that you get downright sick of the food by the end of your shift but I am not sure how she got to the end of working at Per Se without weighing 200 pounds. Of course, I would have been the waiter licking his fingers and sampling your soup when you told me it was cold. I would have been fired in the first week for hanging out in the kitchen "testing" all the food for seasoning.

"Sorry Chef, table fourteen said the pork tenderloin was too salty. I had to try it to make certain. Oh, and the four-top in the corner said their wine was 'corked'. I think they are wrong, because it goes great with the mustard sauce on the pork."

So! get out of the house on Monday night. Give up the foot-bore and come enjoy a talk at Lansburgh. Have a glass of wine before and maybe one or two after, what else have you got going on Monday night? That's right, Nothing! Be there!