{"id":3363,"date":"2018-08-29T07:50:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T15:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2018-08-29T12:01:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T20:01:15","slug":"mrt-a-reminisce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=3363","title":{"rendered":"MRT: A Reminisce"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3364\" style=\"width: 489px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3364\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3364 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/thompson.png\" alt=\"thompson\" width=\"479\" height=\"359\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3364\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Thompson, photo courtesy of ILAB.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This past Saturday, the ABAA\u2019s Southern California Chapter held a memorial for our recently departed colleague, Michael Thompson.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Through the good offices of Brad Johnson, my following remarks were read, as I was unable to deliver them in person.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I offer them here too, in an effort to pay wider homage to our dearly beloved friend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I suspect that I\u2019m like most of you here today, in that I knew Michael for over 2 decades, our acquaintance first being made, as I recall, in the mid-90s, at one of the then bountiful California book fairs.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We recognized in each other a kindred spirit, that is, we both loved the \u2018hunt\u2019 for books, and it\u2019s in that vein I\u2019ll relate a story from the late 90s that, I believe, epitomizes Michael\u2019s joy in bookselling\u2026<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One summer, we decided to share a booth at Rob Rulon-Miller\u2019s Twin Cities Book Fair.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Like most regional fairs, Sunday morning that weekend was, shall we say, slow.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Standing idly in our booth, hands in our pockets, Michael looked over at me and inquired,<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMind holding down the fort?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m gonna wander around for a bit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cNo problem,\u201d say I, \u201ctake your time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">20 minutes later, I see Michael purposely striding back to the booth, clutching a little \u2026 something, in his left hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Entering the booth, smiling triumphantly, he exclaimed, \u201cI just made my weekend!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cDo tell!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cDo you know what this is?\u201d he queried, waving the little pamphlet, leaflet.. I couldn\u2019t quite discern which.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s the press announcement for Saul Marks\u2019 Plantin Press!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ve never seen it before, and what do you know, I find this LA item in Minneapolis!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>For twenty bucks no less!\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He grinned, and continued, \u201cYoung man, just remember, anything can be anywhere!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well Michael, I\u2019ve never forgotten that advice given decades ago, just as I\u2019ll never forget you.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Godspeed my friend, may you enjoy this new journey on which you\u2019ve embarked with as much joy as that you experienced in the one just finished.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\"); var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_title_t=\"MRT: A Reminisce\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past Saturday, the ABAA\u2019s Southern California Chapter held a memorial for our recently departed colleague, Michael Thompson.\u00a0 Through the good offices of Brad Johnson, my following remarks were read, as I was unable to deliver them in person.\u00a0 I offer them here too, in an effort to pay wider homage to our dearly beloved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\"); var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_title_t=\"MRT: A Reminisce\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[376,12,9,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3368,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}