Chris Hart

January 2, 2003

Mr. Pinkwater,

I have been a fan of yours ever since I had to write a book report in High School, didn’t want to, and chose the stupidest book title I could find. This was “The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death.” As it turned out, the book was wonderful, and I never did a report on it as I was too busy actually reading the book.

Time passes…

My wife and I are now both fans and listen for your escapades on NPR and, even though the three tenors sing flat whenever they hear it, we listen for you on Car Talk too. Being big audio book fans, reading while working is always good most of the time, we have sought out lots of your stuff. One of the best has been “Chicago Days – Hoboken Nights.” Infinitely clever, and the idea that the stuff actually happened adds enough to make one steer off the road.

It is because of this book, and because I have a tendency to collect entire digital artwork collections when I can, that I was scanning through the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collection and came upon the attached photo. I figure you might want it for something. Not sure what, but I never gave an avocado a second look either.

I thank you for your contribution to our lives and hope you will continue to do so for years to come.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Hart

Signs By Chris

Tampa, Florida

P.S. I know this isn’t actually your e-mail address, I simply hope this gets forwarded to you.

That's the Erie-Lackawanna terminal in Hoboken, at the end of my block. The tower is gone, and by now they may have asphalted over the Belgian block cobblestones, but they were visible when I lived there in the 60's and 70's.