I was interviewed this afternoon by Contessa Brewer on MSNBC.
Patti insisted I wear dress shoes instead of my Keens. "They're only to go show me from the waist up," was my argument. Nonetheless, I wore the damn dress shoes anyway.
MSNBC sent a car service to pick me up in Arlington. The driver proceeded to nearly get in two accidents en route to the studio, one where another driver in a large SUV didn't yield (or even slow down) onto the GW Parkway, and another where my driver blew through a red light near American University.
Once at the NBC studios, I was escorted to make-up, where I was plastered with, well, make-up. Then I was ushered to a closet-like room with a chair, a small desk, an unmanned TV camera, and a back-drop showing a Washington scene. I was outfitted with an ear plug for the audio.
A producer's voice soon boomed through my right ear, "Can you hear us okay?" And a couple of minutes later, the interviewer, Contessa Brewer, began firing questions.
It's a little disconcerting when all you see is a TV camera in front of you and a voice coming from somewhere (New York?) asking you questions about your book, which obviously she hadn't looked at very long, if at all. And certainly she hadn't read the text. And though they were projecting images on the screen, I didn't know which ones.
She also called me "Peter" the entire interview, which only my mother calls me.
After a couple of minutes (I think between 2-3), the interview was over. Back in the car, I turned my Iphone back on, and saw two e-mails already from friends who happened to be watching MSNBC. And I checked on Amazon, and the book ranking had risen dramatically.
