BEA is short for BookExpo America, which is sort of what happens when you cross books with Las Vegas AND Woodstock. It occurs in the Borg the Javits Center, which is so west in NYC that you can feel the big ol' building lurching into the Hudson.
Anyway: it is a trade show on steroids, where even university presses give away things like branded matchboxes, as if they were an Irish bar they didn't want you to forget.
And I love it.
So here's one of the things I learned this year:
Christopher Hitchens, witty Brit atheist maniac, who is always a little puffy when he appears on television, is Dead Sexy when he is Live on a panel, despite/because of being lit by horrible fluorescent lights.
I wasn't the only one who thought so. Because I got to his panel late, I was squooshed by the only door, and counted EIGHT women who barreled past me, after whispering: "Where IS he?"
I still have the bruises to prove it.
Comments