MILK EGGS VODKA [By Bill Keaggy]

The Ultimatest Grocery List, a downloadable PDF shopping list that I made for the book and have available at grocerylists.org, made it into the sidebar on this Wall Street Journal story about the economy and making lists:

You know times are hard when the shopping list makes a comeback.

As the recession takes hold, consumers who used to shop impulsively are seeking ways to rein in their spending, and many are finding that sticking to a list can help them navigate through stores and limit their purchases.

Yes, I meant to post this a while ago.

Yep. It’s been a while. But didn’t think I would stop blathering on about my book, did you? Check out the latest press/etc mentions…

From an interview with me at Orato:

I saw a story on the BBC the other day about a 300-year-old shopping list that had been found in the UK. For some weird reason, I started Googling “shopping lists” and stumbled upon grocerylists.org, owned and operated by a man named Bill Keaggy. Not only was he running this insanely entertaining website, but he had published a book, Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost And Found, which featured the very best of his grocery list collection! I found myself more interested in shopping lists than I ever thought I could be, and strangely satisfied, in a voyeuristic kind of way, by this little peep into other people’s lives. Who was this man? I just had to know, so I phoned him – here’s what he told me.

A 2007 books roundup from the Akron Beacon-Journal (now behind the stupid newspaper paywall — boo!):

Authors with area connections came through with fine work this year. Here’s a look at some of the best.

At Lifehacker: Never Forget an Item at the Supermarket:

Never forget to buy anything the next time you stop at the supermarket with the “Ultimatest Grocery list.” …For a comprehensive list that should cover anything you need on your trip to the food mart, this one’s it.

From the Real Life Survival Guide radio show on WNPR:

…it’s just a eight and a half by eleven sheet that has a lot of different products on it, pretty well sorted into the department that you’re gonna find in most grocery stores…

The Ultimatest Grocery List was featured in “Milk Eggs Vodka” and is available on the grocerylists.org site. btw, it’s good to know that the fine students at MIT have access to some quality study materials.

A couple weeks ago “Milk Eggs Vodka” was a recommended book over at the Barnes & Noble Review’s ‘The Long List,’ which is a rundown of “50 books, CDS, and DVDs to know about now.”

Nice! Especially the part where they called it “surprisingly but absolutely addictive.”

Dang! I totally forgot to mention that I was going to be interviewed live on Sirius Radio Monday afternoon. So, um… “Hey everyone! I was interviewed on the ‘Everyday Food‘ radio show on the Martha Stewart channel Monday!”

Yeah, we talked about grocery lists.

Oops. I forgot to link up my interview on New York City’s NPR station, WFUV. On October 20 I was on Cityscape with George Bodarky, which airs Saturday mornings at 7:30 a.m.

I haven’t listened to it yet. I remember thinking to myself during the interview, “Usually I am much funnier.” I think the reason was that I did the interview in St. Louis’ NPR studio, and I could hear every movement and gesture in my headphones so I just sat still the whole time (usually I walk around and flail during interviews). Anyway… click the Oct 20, 2007 link to hear streaming audio.

This week’s Cityscape is chock full of tales from the supermarket. We’ll talk to a guy who collects abandoned grocery lists, hear why a Queens woman longs for the grocery stores in her native California, and check out a competition for New York City’s fastest grocery bagger.

Been slow here lately, but I did get my first actual, cashable royalty check from the book! It was a real thrill but I won’t be retiring any time soon.

Anyway, yesterday I recorded an interview about the book and grocery lists with New York City’s NPR station, WFUV. I’ll post an update when I find out when it’s going to air.

Apparently we were featured in the September 2007 issue of Funny Times Magazine! Yay for us!

See? The book is F-U-N-N-Y. Funny!

Here’s a fun article by Mackenzie Dawson in today’s New York Post:

Book inscriptions, grocery lists, Post-it notes – one man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure.

Particularly if that man’s trash is really weird.

For example, a dated photo that features an older woman standing proudly next to a Christmas tree – which is topped with an enormous, jeweled armadillo.

Or a shopping list that includes “Kid hair de-tangler, ibuprofen, Fibre-all, Sensodyne, Prozac.”

Or a note that says “BIND ME, please! And bring COOKIES!”

It begs the question: What happens if the person brings the wrong kind of cookies – will binding not occur? (Or will they, perhaps, be bound as punishment?) When will the cookies be eaten: before, after or during?

It’s a lot for a complete stranger to ponder.

Bill Keaggy, the founder of Grocerylists.org, was leaving a grocery store one day when a sort of “silly serendipity” struck: he found a grocery list on a yellow Post-it note. The list itself was nothing special, but much like Raviv, Keaggy found himself fixating on the person it belonged to.

Several hundred of the best lists appear in my book, “Milk Eggs Vodka.”

I did a Five Questions With in the Scranton, Pennsylvania paper (but oof — they got the URL wrong! Hope that gets fixed soon). Anyway, thanks Ron!

In his weekly feature, copy editor Ron Davis poses five questions to Bill Keaggy, author of “Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found,” based on the Web site www.grocery-lists.org www.grocerylists.org — which is, basically, a collection of grocery lists.

Yay! A quick mention in the October design annual issue of HOW Magazine: “Laugh until you cry with this hilarious collection of lost-and-found grocery lists.”

Hey St. Louis and the rest of the Midwest — I’ll be interviewed on KMOX Radio (AM 1120) tomorrow morning, July 27, around 8:45 a.m. I’ll be on with Debbie Monterrey and Dan Grey on the Total Information AM Show, talking about Milk Eggs Vodka, of course.

Update: Here’s the podcast: Debbie Monterrey and Dan Gray speak with St. Louis’ Bill Keaggy, who compiled a book of abandoned grocery lists!

I was on vacation when this got posted, but the awesome mental_floss magazine is giving away a copy of my book Milk Eggs Vodka as part of the Harry Potter madness. It’s probably too late to enter now, but hey, they called the book “hilarious,” so I’m happy.

The Akron Beacon-Journal says this about Milk Eggs Vodka:

Some of the humor comes from the juxtaposition of commonplace items with the random, like the list by someone who needed Pepsi and “smelly stuff.” Others are funny because they’re vague… the lists alone, and Keaggy’s commentary, are reason enough to read this book.

I’m only linking to this Lenore Skenazy column because I wanted to be able to refer to myself as an “oddball/genius” again. The column originally appeared in Advertising Age but now is out on the wire courtesy of the New York Sun.

St. Louis’ premier restaurant and food tab, Sauce Magazine, published a great review of Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found in the July 2007 issue. The book and I even got a big blurb of the cover! Excellent.

Absolutely addictive… I challenge you to pick up the book and not read it straight through, from intro to index. You’ll never look at grocery lists the same way again.