I had been planning on letting Mac tell our story about the NBCC awards ceremony because he had an assignment from the NY Press to cover both NBCC events, but then the story got killed. After a while it didn't seem timely anymore, but after today's announcement of the Pulitzer winners, I thought I'd give the story a reprieve. So here goes:

We got to the NBCC Awards Ceremony a little bit early. The auditorium was crowded, but no one had sat down yet because people were schmoozing, so we were still able to get a good seat on the aisle. I noticed how sharp everyone was as compared to the evening before and I thought it was sweet, all the writers all gussied up for their big night. We don't get to look pretty too often, and I think glamorous writers are often mocked anyway. (You shouldn't spend too much time on your looks - it takes away from your writing time. Or something like that.) It wasn't Academy Awards-like glamour, but people were definitely wearing their Sunday best. Good for them.

After a few minutes, a woman asked us if she could sit in our row, and we rose and let her pass by us. A minute later, she waved someone else over, and then a few more people followed. They stood in the aisle, trying to figure out the exact placement of their party, some in the row behind us, some in our row. As they strategized, Mac and I stood and waited. Mac grumbled a bit about it, but I shrugged it off, because I saw over his shoulder that they were with Edward Jones, one of the fiction nominees, and while I don't think anyone should ever get treated differently than anyone else no matter how famous or successful they are, it was his freaking awards ceremony, so it kind of mattered where he sat.

Jones knew the people in his party were being a pain in the ass, so as he passed us he said, "Don't worry, this is the only time you'll have to get up tonight." The implication to that statement being that Jones wouldn't be winning, and wouldn't have to go up to the stage.

So of course he won, and of course, we rose again.

Once on stage he admitted that he didn't think he was going to win so he didn't have anything prepared.

"In fact I told the nice young couple at the end of my aisle that they wouldn't have to get up again, so to them I apologize."

It got a good laugh from the crowd. Mac said, "Well, I just got the lead to my story," and I thought, "Ooh, he just called us a couple."

He apologized again to us at the end of the speech, because we were going to have to get up again when he returned to his seat.

Afterwards Mac and I walked to the East Village and laughed a little nervously that he had called us a couple from the stage, but then when we got to the bar we told our strange little story to anyone who would listen.

Anyway Jones just won the Pulitzer for Fiction. From what I could tell, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

archives | w-w home | mail