Lemony Snicket Reads Newspapers

How to describe the lecture at Seattle Arts and Lectures last night?

I was laughing so hard I had to pull out the kleenex.

Daniel Handler, pictured on the left, aka Lemony Snicket, was introduced by Sherman Alexie. The talk was entitled, "Why does Lemony Snicket Keep Following Me?" From the description alone, it promised to be outstanding.

An added and unexpected bonus was pre-introduction by a young writer, age 10?, who read his poem about his loathing for tomato soup. And Mr. Alexie's introduction was brilliant in his usual fashion; I don't want to trade Mr. Alexie with anyone in San Francisco, please. Keep him here. I go to as many of his reading and talks as I can, and I prefer to walk or take the bus, not fly.

The perfect tone of expectation had been set. But Mr. Handler had a deceptively disjointed beginning. Left you thinking, "Where is he going with this?" It soon became clear that he knew exactly where he was going and knew how to entertain, delight, and terrify. From many possibilities of the moral of not carrying your baby down a flight of 14 stairs while talking on a cell phone (the baby was ok, but mom ended up black and blue) to how he described the strange combination of Things That Happen when you read local newspapers, this was a lecture that ranks as one of my all time favorites. EVER.

In case you do not know: Lemony Snicket is author the books A Series of Unfortunate Events, where three orphans have to deal with disasters, also known to the rest of us as life. 53 million copies sold proves that many children and adults, like Mr. Handler, have a need to read stories that do not involve "plucky heroes who have happy endings and where at the happy ending everyone sits now to eat a nice hot meal." As Mr. Handler said, you should have a hot meal a lot of the time. Not just after adventures. Throw that plucky hero across the room. Join reality. Get a sense of humor. Invent a pen name when you are talking to a right-wing conservative organization after you have written them a letter of complaint which starts out, "How dare you!" Mr. Handler did say that this was where the name Lemony Snicket came from, but he had no idea how to spell it, so he asked the woman on the phone to do it for him.

I have long liked his books but now I know I love the author.

P.S.
Mr. Alexie, I love you too. Please read again at the Ballard Public library in the fishbowl room.