Ready or not, outdoor retailers, the 2008 OR summer trade show in Salt Lake City begins today. And we at GPP feel ready, even as we cross our fingers that GES Services has finally got our furniture order straight.  For example, we requested five chrome and maple chairs, and received two. We asked for two bar stools, and got none. We wanted two cafe tables, and were given three... Minor details. Bring on the show!... If you're at the OR, stop by our booth, number 33035, and say hello. I'm the guy with the shaved head--not to be confused with Larry Seidl, who's bald, and much, much, older.

Good news: I opened the USA Today outside my hotel door to find a great interview with Chris Fair, author of Cuisines of the Axis of Evil, on page 4D in the Life section. The writer, Jayne Clark, attended our dinner party for Cuisines in DC a couple weeks ago (see previous post.) My favorite line from the Q&A: "I regret not eating rat in Burma. In point of fact, rat is probably no different than chicken." Hmmm. This renews my old suspicions about Chicken McNuggets.

Meanwhile, back home: Inger Forland, my boss at GPP, reports that the dinner the other night at Zarela's in New York celebrating the publication of Congresswoman Diana DeGette's Sex, Science, and Stem Cells was a big success. To the right is a picture of DeGette with, from left, her husband, Lino, daughter, Frannie, and GPP's own Dapper Dan, Gene Brissie. (Incidentally, I hear 14-year-old Frannie and GPP president Scott Watrous have exactly the same taste in music, which I find alarming. How Frannie can stand Hannah Montana is beyond me.)

The premise of Chris Fair's book Cuisines of the Axis of Evil is simple: If you want to understand why some of the world's most troublesome nations are the way they are, sample their food. A country's cuisine offers a window into what its people think and how its leaders rule. Thus, Fair's "dinner party approach to international relations."

How to launch such a book? Why, a dinner party, of course! But it couldn't be just anywhere. It would have to be in Washington D.C., and it couldn't be at a restaurant. Too predictable. It would have to be at a private home--and not just any home... Long story short, I approached lobbyist and D.C. hostess extraordinaire, Juleanna Glover, whom Washingtonian magazine lists as of the "most influential women in Washington," and she agreed to host the party at her spectacular Kalorama townhouse.

Held on July 23, the event's more than 120 guest included: CBS senior correspondent Rita Braver, super agent Robert Barnett, Atlantic Monthly publisher Elizabeth Baker Keffer, Congressman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), and bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith. Other media big wigs included Newsweek's Jeff Bartholet, The Hill's Hugo Gurdon, CNN's Sam Feist and Amy Holmes. The Washington Post was amply represented by Amy Argetsinger, Roxanne Roberts, Juliet Eilperin, Richard Leiby, and Warren Bass.

But the media weren't all there simply to nosh on kabob and sip red wine--NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered" interviewed Chris and guests for an upcoming segment; Jayne Clarke covered the event for USA Today; and Michael Hirsh took notes for Newsweek. Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC snapped photos, which they published here. Publishers Weekly also ran a party photo as their "Picture of the Day."

Here are some photos taken by Liz Gorman. Click this pic for a slideshow: