Treasure Island...

I think someone found the "treasure" on Treasure Island and went to umm, went to wherever people who find treasures go to. I was seriously surprised by the lack of attendees. If I offered samples to twenty people I could have been easily challenged by my vendor-neighbors for not being truthful. They would have accused me of doubling my numbers. When I emptied the wastebasket at the end of market, I actually tried to scan the number of one-ounce sample cups and could have very easily caught all of them up in one hand.

There is, however, and upside to today. I had the pleasure of being visited by a market customer to whom I offered a sample. When he passed and said he really didn't want to taste because he makes his own sauces, I challenged him by asking if he "cooks". He said "Yeah, I'm a chef and I used to cook for George and Laura Bush when he was the vice-president." I don't think I have to say very much about how over-the-top I went on THAT little aside.

So now I have this stellar chef in my sphere of influence and I want to know how I can capitalize on it. Hmmm! He's already told me he trained with the likes of Paul Prudhomme (sp?) and I, of course would never be intimidated by anyone attached to someone I used to consider a conservative idol, George Bush that is, not Chef Prudhomme, so in my usual unaffected nonchalance, I engaged him in converstation about how it was to have had such a prestigious job. He fessed up after a while that it was at times very stressful. I think I know why he lives at the beach now.

There I go digressing again. So anyway, I said that since he wasn't interested in tasting, would he mind giving me a critique? He gracefully obliged my request and accepted my sample. He sniffed it for at least four hours before he tasted it. When he finally did, he pronounced it "Ecellent!" I didn't sell enough today to pay for the twenty dollars rent for the space, but I feel like I hit the jackpot. What a nice man he was to tolerate my request. I even had a witness to hear his comments so I can't lie about his reaction. Well now I keep waiting to get the extortion note...from my "witness".

In the general market way of things, we only had one tent go airborn. It was gently placed upside-down on the tent next to it and seemed to be undamaged. The wind was unpredictable and sometimes seemed angry.

I am anxious to learn the "eco-system" of markets. We are tied to tourists, weather and economic trends. We might become a barometer to our economic future for the country. People travel when things are good. They spend money by the same standard. I'm now taken back to the young woman who wrote me from the university who's doing a paper on markets and I'm thinking she may have a much larger system to study. I hope she reads this and contacts me again. If she doesn't, I'm not sure I'll remember to look up her last e-mail.

Thanks Sarah for being a good entertaining neighbor today. And you too, Joe.

On a happy note: We had no live performers today.