Should’ve mentioned this earlier, but The Foie Gras Wars won the 2009 Great Lakes Book Award for general non-fiction. The ceremony was held in Cleveland on Oct. 2, just minutes after I received a text that Chicago was the first city eliminated among those vying for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Well, heck, at least Chicago represented in Cleveland. Aside from TFGW’s glorious triumph, Columbia College prof Joe Meno won the fiction prize for his novel The Great Perhaps, and Becky Anderson accepted the Voice of the Heartland award for her Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville.

Oh, and I grabbed a late dinner the night before at the bar at Michael Symon’s Lola and wound up sitting next to Jeff Carlisi. Name ring a bell?

He was the original guitarist for 38 Special, and, yes, he co-wrote “Hold On Loosely.”