Dance the night away!

who moved my cheese? is weird

I'm at work and completely one-woman-ing the front counter. Thus, I haven't had a lot of time to fuck around on the computer. I guess it's important to actually do my job occasionally. I have lots to say, as to be expected, but I think I post a little too much wordage so I'm trying not to be so excessive in my prose. Maybe I should get a chapter blog? Do those exist yet? They should.

We use old calendars as scratch paper at Anderson's since we're constantly writing book titles, ISBNs, phone numbers, etc. down. Today's scratch paper was the 2005 calendar of Who Moved My Cheese? I remember hearing about that book so frequently a few years ago, I figured there must be something to the hype behind this self-help book. But I was still mystified by the title: an allegory of some sort? Just a funny story the book starts out with? I never found out until today, bc ever since I got here this morning, I keep seeing these bizarre cartoon characters on the page. Then I looked more closely and actually read the quotes; some were inspirational and well-known (or said by well-known people) but then the guy who wrote Who Moved My Cheese? inserted his own cheese-centric advice. Here are some, and you're welcome to take a gander at hypothesizing the meaning...I realize it's summer and that's essentially a very school-ey thing to ask, but it's almost too strange to resist.

"every empty Cheese Station you encounter brings you closer to Cheese Station N. even bits and nibbles of New Cheese are better than the Old, moldy Cheese of Cheese Station C. "
[editor's note : I did NOT insert this capitalization; it has some weird symbolic meaning but I have no idea what]

Here's another fun one, this time in story form: "Haw [?] spotted another Cheese Station and became excited as he noticed little pieces of New Cheese near the entrance. They were types of Cheese he had never seen before, but they looked great. He ate most the New Cheese bits that were available and put a few in his pocket to have later and perhaps share with Hem [ahhh, I see]. He entered the Cheese Station with great excitement. But to his dismay, he found it was empty."

I am almost more confused after reading these little "niblets" of Who Moved My Cheese? than I was when I only knew the title. How was this a best-seller? Is this a way of living, like the Atkins Diet? I wish I could post the pictures of Hem and Haw, and then there is a mouse eating a piece of cheese (excuse me, Cheese) on a plush red sofa.

The only other thing of importance to mention is that I talked with Sean Wilsey yesterday when he read from his memoir, "Oh the Glory of it All." He is co-founder of McSweeney's (with Dave Eggers--can you tell they're friends?) and this is his first book, one I found in the basement of Anderson's as an advanced copy and I picked it up simply bc the title and the cover caught my eye. Now I can't imagine not having read it. Or I wonder what YourUP (I heard Lainey pronounce it the other day, and her emphasis is definitely on the "up" in Europe) would have been like had I not been reading it while I was there. Completely fate that I figured out he was going to be at Barbara's on tour, and that my first copies of the Eckerd Review arrived two days prior so that I could bring one to him. I hope I hear something from him, not even a "let's get you signed with RandomHouse, girlfriend!" but just a hello.

holy shit, a boy was just hit by a car out front of Anderson's and there's tons of police cars and I can't stop crying! What the fuck! I've never been that close to an accident before, especially a kid. I don't want to type anymore today.

posted by SES @ 2:11 PM