More Rats!

Did you ever have one of those days when everything turns out just right?  That's what happened to me last night.

As I mentioned yesterday, Robert Sullivan was giving a reading from his book, Rats, last night at McNally Robinson.   I would be able to make it to the reading on time only if I got a ride from work back into the city.  It was looking bleak all afternoon but I managed to find a ride a few minutes before 5 O'clock (thanks, Jon!).  That was lucky as the bus was stuck in traffic coming out of the city because of the retaining wall collapse on the Henry Hudson Parkway.  As we crossed the GWB we noticed no less than five news and traffic helicopters.

I got home in plenty of time to drop off my stuff, get a drink of iced tea and head downtown.  On the W train I noticed I was sitting beneath one of the MTA's anti-rat posters.  This one:   

Very appropriate, I thought.

The bookstore is just a couple of blocks from the subway stop.  There was only one other person in the section of the store where the reading was to take place.  A bookstore person brings out three bottles of wine.  I've never been to a reading where wine is served.  She offers us wine.  The other person declines.  I get a full glass (what you see missing from the bottle is what was poured for me).

After a bit of a delay to allow a few more people to show up (maybe ten total), Mr. Sullivan begins reading.  He's a bit quirky and apologizes for writing a book about rats and now reading a book about rats.  He learned today that the paperback version is on the Times best-seller list.

You might think he reads a bit, answers a few questions, signs a few books and then we go home.  Most of the time you'd be right, but not this night.

Conclusion after the jump...

During the question and answer session Mr. Sullivan brings out a rat!  It's a stuffed rat but a rat nonetheless.  He said brings it everywhere he reads.  He carries with him when he flies.  He's never been questioned by the TSA about bringing a stuffed rat on a plane.

Wine, a reading, a Q and A session, a stuffed rat.  Quite a lot for one evening.  He puts the rat back in its box and it appears that we're done.  He stops, reaches into his bag and says something like "There's one more thing we can do."  He pulls out a concertina, bought earlier in the day.   

Sullivan also passes around lyric sheets.  We're going to sing!  "McNally's Row of Flats" a traditional Irish song with lyrics written by Edward Harrigan in the late-19th century.

Here we are, singing!

What a blast!  He did the song thing in St. Louis as well.

Afterwards I talked to him for a few minutes and got him to sign my copy of his book.  He wrote "To Joe, Thanks for bearing with me during a rat reading.  Sincerely, Robert Sullivan"

Comments

[judy]

sounds like you had the perfect day!

[citycrab]

holy moly I wish I had gone. Wine, song, rats... perfect evening.

[New Yorker]

I showed this entry to my husband who said, "What a madman!" (Mr. Sullivan, not you! ) It sounds crazy but as they say....Only in NY!

[joe]

It was definitely a good time, and the weirder it got the better it got. Good thing there's no recording of us singing!

[Romy]

I love rats!!!

[joe]

Yes you do! Are lab rats what are known as fancy rats (which are rats you would bring home as pets)? Sullivan told a story that a young couple told him. They had a fancy rat. The pet sadly died. Soon after, the husband was out walking when he noticed an injured baby rat. He brought it home, where they nursed it back to health. This was a bad move as the wild baby rat got wilder and wilder as it got healthier and bigger. They had to get rid of the rat but were afraid to open the cage.