Susan’s Book Talk: Beer! Good!
I don’t know how many of you remember — assuming you even saw it — the Camp Choas spots, lambasting my favorite real band and the whole Napster debacle.
Even if you’ve never seen it, you need to. Ten years later, it still cracks me up. The Tour Manager and I used to mimic the Cartoon James and announce “Beer! Good!” Hell, to this day, I still say, “Fire! Bad!”
But we’re talkin’ beer here. And books. Because, while beer is the booze I prefer, beer and books just don’t get along.
See, here’s the deal. I went to the post office on Wednesday. It’s a small post office, and the two women who work there know me. So it was with some chagrin that a package was handed to me. It had arrived that morning — and it was wet. Another package had erupted in the mail sack, and wouldn’t you know, but this 9×12 catalog envelope headed for me had gotten the worst of it.
By the smell, it’s beer.
Now, it turns out this is a very very bad thing. Not merely because inside this package is a book I’d been expecting and intending to review. But because the author was kind enough to send me THREE COPIES so I could give them away.
All ruined.
My postmaster tried to get some restitution for me. But… the post office is buried under layers of legislation protecting their profits. They aren’t going to pay to replace my books, even though this happened while the books were in their hands. And they aren’t going to try to track down the sender of the beer, even though if you hunt around the USPS.gov website long enough, you’ll find that you’re not actually supposed to mail beer.
To add insult to injury, there was the implication that this was partially the author’s fault, for throwing three books into a 9×12 catalog envelope and not wrapping the books better. Like he was supposed to know some schmoo was dumb enough to mail beer?
Now, this is where it gets good. No, not that I contacted the publicist who’d set this whole thing up and she was quite understanding and wonderful.
It gets good the very second that I tell you that these books are about the 80s glam metal frontmen — a group of Aqua-Netted, bleach-blonde men who were known for their copious beer consumption. You know: who partied hard and lived to tell the tales.
These books certainly partied hard, whether or not any of us wanted them to. Lived to tell the tales? I’m not so sure.
Still. Who mails beer?
If you were in Canada or Russia, I could think of a couple of people who might have been responsible. Except guys like that will probably send it by courier.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:14 pmAlice Audrey´s last blog ..13 Video Games
I’ve had things ruined by water at the Post Office, but not beer. Sheesh. Those books must reek! Even people who like beer (I personally can’t stand it) don’t like the smell of old, stale beer. Very nasty.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:26 pmbunnygirl´s last blog ..Bunny in Need: Pancakes
Oh my. How awful! I detest the smell of beer. Big raspberry on the Post Office.
March 6th, 2010 at 3:02 amThomma Lyn´s last blog ..Snow Eater
Oh, now I’m curious about the (unfortunately beer-drenched) book! Mainly because when I was at RIP, I usually covered the black-haired junkie bands, not the blonde-haired beer drinkers. Hm. Maybe I should do a book.
March 6th, 2010 at 3:47 amJaniss´s last blog ..Bee for Me?
That is awful!
Beer?? Maybe they were drunk when they mailed it??
March 6th, 2010 at 2:29 pmNot only was someone dumb enough to send beer through the mail, they didn’t pack it very well. Just watched the Camp Chaos spot. In some cases, beer very bad. Though I am partial to an IPA in the evening, I tend to drink it and not spill it on my reading material. Sorry that happened to your books.
March 6th, 2010 at 7:47 pmJennifer´s last blog ..I promise that, after two days of sunshine, I will smile
Oh that’s so frustrating! Maybe the books used their magically booky powers to break the beer open so that they could be soaked in it? You know, given their subject and all.
hehe
I thought you could mail beer. Don’t some states allow you to order liquor over the internet? But maybe they are shipped with something like UPS.
March 7th, 2010 at 1:16 pm[...] Susan’s Book Talk: Beer! Good! [...]
March 8th, 2010 at 7:14 am[...] off, be sure to check out my interview with author David Grant. Remember the books that arrived in my PO Box, covered in beer? You can find out all about them now — and enter to win one of two copies that aren’t [...]
April 25th, 2010 at 8:01 am