wasn't there some controversy or brouhaha after the novel came out because it led to some kind of crime? And if so, what? Because I can't imagine a person reading the books and deciding to just become Vishnu.

I don't remember if it led to it, but the [whitefont] storing of the body in the trunk of the car out in the middle of the lake was taken from something that actually happened somewhere in Wisconsin. Or MN. Or MI. One of our northern midwestern states. But probably WI. I also could be memfaulting all over the place. This is not uncommon.

Steph, I rememberd something being mentioned on Gaiman's blog awhile back, so I did a search. Turns out that all the links that mention the story are dead (this was from back in September 2002).

I did find this one tiny little blurb:

Crime Imitates Art

One of the most successful passages in Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel American Gods describes the MO of a conman who stages a fake payroll drop. According to Canada.com, a literate crook in Canada took note, cleaning out 48 businesses in a Winnipeg shopping center.

The link to Canada.com is dead.

I remember thinking that was a really clever scam. But that's as far as it went. Honest.

Okay, not so much a brouhaha as a ha. At least I remembered correctly.

Thank you, David! It was a very pleasant birthday, involving lots of food and ending with obscene puppets.

Micole, you are going to do a writeup about the puppets, right?

(One of the several reasons I have in mind for going to NYC for a weekend at some point this year is to see this play.)

(Yes, I'm shallow. Deal with it.)

Avenue Q is totally worth the trip. So. Fucking. Funny.

I started the play writeup this morning, but had to leave for work. Tonight, maybe.

Thank you, David! It was a very pleasant birthday, involving lots of food and ending with obscene puppets.

Excellent! I have a co-write on the song "Punk Rock Puppet" incidentally, which involves the lewd lyric (based on the old Pinnochio joke), "Sit on my face and I'll tell you lies."

I'm currently about halfway through Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint, and I'm kind of "eh" about finishing it. I mean, I will finish reading it, but it just isn't holding my attention. I can't shake the feeling that he's telling the same story he's told before, but with a different selection of the Newford characters; it also feels like the entire book was "phoned in".

I'm starting to suspect I prefer his short fiction. The last novel of his I really really liked was Someplace to be Flying, and that's because I adore the Crow Girls.