Love, Min

While musing on relationships, Daniel quoted a Marianne Faithful lyric from Strange Weather:

And a love like ours, my dear,

Is best measured when it's down.

And I never buy umbrellas,

For there's always one around.

Last night, I happily attended the Barnes and Noble signing for Why We Broke Up. Turns out, Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman first met a while back at a celebratory dinner that took place at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy. They shared a love of food and humor and despite living in separate cities (San Francisco, Manhattan) decided to collaborate on a project. Their first project was the picture book, 13 Words, followed by the young adult novel that portrays the doomed romance of high schoolers Min and Ed. A slideshow was followed by a brief quiz. The highest scorer of the quiz received an onion ring from Maira's personal collection.  Everyone received a red comb.