Today, while on the Belmont bus (westbound, headed home), someone made me smile. I was reading Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, crammed next to a woman with the puffiest coat EVER, in the back past the rear door. And at the Blue Line stop, a middle-aged man stuffed himself across from me, and would not stop staring. To be honest, at first I thought “well, he looks fairly affluent… maybe he’s looking at me and all the holes in my face and my one inch layer of eyeliner and thinking ‘silly knows-nothing liberal nut.'” Then, about ten stops down the line, as he moved toward the back door to ready himself for pushing through the crowd around it to get off, he tapped the top of my book to get my attention. Once our eyes met, he said with an honest, warm smile “Great book!”

This made me smile because not one person on campus has ever, not even once, said anything to me when they see me read this book (and I’ve been reading it for some time now; it’s the go-to “free time, fun reading” book). And this is a school that organizes protests against the man in office, and busses out to D.C. to march around with signs. I would think that they should know about Franken’s work, and from what I can tell, they don’t.

Maybe everyone’s just “too cool” to comment on a book someone’s reading on a cigarette break, or simply doesn’t care. I wish there were more people like the bus guy.

Also, something I didn’t know until now: while looking for a picture of the book (this one came from an online book review) I discovered that this past October Franken came out with another book. I’m excited to pick it up, and in fact, am planning a trip to Borders for it.

(also also: Talking about Liars reminds me, we should all give a big “thank you” to Al Gore, because without him, chances are we wouldn’t be spending our time on our beloved internet)