By George!

I had a great time at the First Person Arts festival in Philadelphia yesterday. Thanks to all of you who came out! In addition to reading and signing, I got to see a documentary about the Philadelphia Complaint Choir, heard Rita Mae Brown give a talk about animal intelligence, and had AJ Jacobs sign a copy of The Guinea Pig Diaries (to AJ, from AJ). And I sold out of books! Yeehaw!

My dad came to the festival with me. Afterwards, while at dinner with my cousin and her husband, we ran into a guy you might know: George Washington.

Dean Malissa was there to play a part in AJ Jacobs’ presentation. He is the country’s official George Washington impersonator. He doesn’t usually wear jean jackets. He does usually wear his hair in this manner. He was kind enough to let me and my dad take our picture with him (just FYI—I’m not that short! I just look it—both these men are over 6-foot-4, as was Washington, Malissa informed me). Then he went off to a place he called “the necessary.”

This kind of thing seems to happen a lot in Philly. On a trip there earlier this year, I ran into the official Ben Franklin.