Elliot has been reading a lot lately. This morning, he was too busy reading a very funny book called "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" to feed the cat. I decided not to get mad; I let him read, and fed the cat myself. The book is actually really funny - and I want to support Elliot's reading habit.
Later this morning, at our local farmer's market, Elliot and I ran into Eugene Cordero: friend, science advisor to the project, and "the genius behind the Green Ninja". He was with his wife and her cousin. "Let me introduce you to Andrew," he said. "He's visiting from Australia, and he writes children's books." So we shook hands and chatted for a few minutes. Elliot ran off to get something to eat with his dad.
Eugene told me to tell Andrew about our project - so I did, and when I got to the part about pooping cars, Eugene said - "Andrew should find that familiar territory. He just wrote a book about psycho butts."
It took me a moment to register this. "Hold on." My brain was searching through inner recordings of Elliot's non-stop monologues about his favorite authors. Who was it that wrote the psycho butts book? "Are you..." click, it came to me: "Andy Griffiths?"
"Why yes!" he said. He looked surprised.
I uttered an expletive. "Oh my god. Wait! There is someone you HAVE to meet." I ran off to find Elliot.
Elliot, Andy Griffiths, and Eugene Cordero at the California Avenue Farmers Market
Andy/Andrew turned out to be not just Eugene's wife's cousin, and house-guest, and one of the most famous children's book authors in Australia - but also an incredibly nice guy. He indulged Elliot in a long discussion of the intricacies of several of his titles. He told Elliot all about how the books get made. He even promised to sign Elliot's book copy when he comes to Elliot's school next week for an author visit. (He's currently on a book tour of the US.)
Could the world be any smaller?