There's a little slice of heaven in Hudson, NY, and it's called The Spotty Dog Books & Ale. We went down to Hudson today to meet up with friends, pick some baby stuff in preparation for girl #2, and generally soak in the coolness that is Hudson's Warren Street main drag. We do a lot of things when we're in town, but all our trips include a stop at The Spotty Dog.

Situated in the old C.H. Evans firehouse and co-run by a "bona fide descendant of the Evans clan," as it says in its history page, The Spotty Dog is a killer indie bookstore with a killer assortment of beer and wine, a lot of it Evans Beer and Ale, now brewed up north at the C.H. Evans Brewing Company Albany Pump Station.



There's lots and lots of books there, too, including an ample Local Authors section. Fence editor Rebecca Wolff and Wayne Koestenbaum will read from work tomorrow. I suspect Hudson literay patriarch John Ashbery checked out his titles here as well. I always leave there a little tipsy and with a bag of books. Among them today--The Best American Comics, going by Geof Huth's tip, among them.



Another order of business: dropping off How to Be Inappropriate promotional mooning stickers and whoopee cushions in anticipation of my reading November 14 at Spotty Dog with Stephen Elliott and another local author, one Nick Flynn. Maybe I'll see you then, or some other time as I tour behind the new book around this great land of ours.  Until next time!