Flurries....

I'm getting lots of new people in the door, not only from out of town, but locals.

And they express surprise at what Pegasus Books offers.

I would submit, any of you who read this blog and haven't been in yet. You might be surprised by what Pegasus Books offers.

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Sexual intercourse began/ In nineteen sixty-three/ (Which was rather late for me)/ Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ And the Beatles' first LP."

--Philip Larkin, "Annus Mirabilis" (Snagged from the Shelf Awareness blog) from High Windows.

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Watched Southland Tales the other day, and for the first half -- my reaction was pretty much -- WTF? WTF?

Then there was a nifty musical number, sexy girls in spandex and explosions, and I started digging it, man. Reminded me of New Wave S.F. from the 70's -- if anyone remembers that; Spinrad, Moorcock, Ballard.

A weird, ambitious mess which was kind of fun, in the end.

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Caught the last three hours of Cleopatra last night. Hard to imagine a Hollywood movie spending money so ridiculously nowadays, I could have done with less parades and more action. Glacial pacing. Over the top acting.

A chubby superstar. I kind of liked it. Also hard to imagine nowadays.

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Since you are all so patient listening to my bitching, I probably should mention that we have pulled even with last year in sales for Christmas. Which would be a most excellent result, indeed.

I don't expect that to hold to the end of the month, but it's a great 2/3rds point.

So much depends on the last five days before Christmas....however....

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Back when I first started writing this blog, I wondered if there would be a repeat of that time in the 80's when the rest of the country seems to be recovering from a recession, while Bend is still mired in the pits. It's a sucky feeling, let me tell you. Hard to explain to out of town friends that the local economy hasn't picked up, when places as close as Portland and Eugene seem to be booming.

I think we're about to re-enter that phase.

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So City of Bend, how's the "Hoping for No Snow" plan workin' out for ya?

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Took a leap of faith, and made three more reorders this morning, which should arrive around Wednesday. Mostly evergreen stuff that we can always sell, but beyond my original budget.

Been feeling good about this Christmas, probably because I went into it expected so very little.