MICHAEL POLLAN, ALOUD at the LA Central Public Library
By Tom Teicholz at 11 February, 2008, 12:37 am
As I was checking in to the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley with my family this weekend, I saw a familiar face sitting in the lobby — Michael Pollan, the now well known author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
I haven’t seen Michael in several years (I still think of him as “Mike Pollan” from high school) — I had heard from a mutual friend that he was living in Berkeley and teaching at the University there — and of course, I’d seen the great reviews he had been getting for his new book “In Defense of Food“ usually accompanied by a picture — so I knew what he looked like.
Still, I wasn’t sure it was him. So I looked once and looked twice and finally had to walk over — As I did he had that look that combines two questions: Do I know this person or is this person going to harass me? — but as soon as I held out my hand and started to say my name — well, suddenly we were back on familiar footing.
My Hungarican Soul Brother Lawrence Karman (”Doc” to everyone in the film biz; Latzi to me) coined the expression “The Teicholz effect” for his conviction that no matter where I land, I will run into someone I know within two hours of arrival. So having run into Pollan I could rest easy on that front.
Pollan mentioned that he was going to be down in LA this Monday night (tonight) to speak as part of the Aloud series at the LA Public Central Library. We both immediately said nice things about Louise Steinman who runs the program (I profiled Steinman in my column “The Salonistas of LA” — by the way, the interview I did for ALOUD with Nathan Englander is available on www.LA36.org here).
When I went to the Aloud series website I learned that Pollan was in conversation with Barry Glassner, a good choice, given his own book on food (My column on Glassner can be read here). I also learned that the evening was already practically sold out, with only standby room available.
STOP THE BLOG– I was about to launch into a whole discussion of the Pollan oeuvre and why he is respected, admired and yes, envied by his fellow writers — but I am sensing a potential Tommywood column in all this. So I will hold off, and in the event that a column is not forthcoming, I will return to blogging about him later on…..
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