As mentioned earlier, there was a talk and book signing this evening at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts to be given by Ambassador Dore Gold, author of Hatred's Kingdom.

I didn't know about it until the last minute, but I thought it might be fun to attend, and seeing as I had been meaning to pick up the book anyway... When I mentioned I was going, my 80 year-old father asked to tag along. Sure! We'll make an evening of it.

So, with memories of the enjoyable time I had at the last book signing I attended (Roger L. Simon's), off we went, braving the Cambridge traffic for an evening with a famous guy (What will I say when I shake his hand? Will it be OK to take his picture?).

We arrived quite early, which gave me time to leave my dad sitting on a park bench for a few minutes (he has trouble with too much walking), while I ran off to Wordsworth Books, the hosts of the event, to buy two copies of Mr. Gold's book. Returning to where I had left my dad, and finding him still there, we went off to grab a bite to eat.

By the time we finished we were still quite early, about a half hour before the scheduled start. Standing outside the hotel, looking through a glass wall to a room on the ground floor of the hotel, we could see Ambassador Gold speaking in front of another group, which, after some concern that we were late, we soon found out was actually a private talk for members of CAMERA being held before the book-signing.

So, we decided to head up to the room in the Hotel so we could have good seats for the public talk. Not many people were there yet.

While waiting, we took the opportunity to get started on the book.

(Note to self: Return to gym)

Finally, as 7:00 approached, Ambassador Gold arrived!

Oh wait! No he didn't. That's right, that's an empty podium, where just a few minutes before, right around 7:00, an embarrassed book store owner had stood to tell us that, due to unexpected last-minute scheduling problems, blah, blah, blah, Mr. Gold had to cancel - "or postpone we hope" - his appearance.

So, we turned toward home, short the cost of parking and one more book than we would have bought otherwise, and plus one feeling of emptiness and "sho ga nai" (whatcha gonna do?). /drama