I can finally talk about it.

Ok, the profile I did on Alton Brown was made available to newspapers this week, so it has finally become ethically acceptable for me to write about it here. Here's how it happened:

It's January 18, two days before the Inauguration, and I was in Virginia. I arrived at the bookstore, a Barnes & Noble at a nice little outdoor mall near the Clarendon stop on the Orange line. This place is spacious, there's even, GASP, free parking!

Well, whenever there isn't a big book signing there's free parking, today, there was no parking.

I entered just after noon, and Alton was already doing his Q & A. He's nice, I thought, as he engaged the crowd rather well.

I introduced myself to the store's manager and the book tour's publicist as the dude who'd be interviewing Brown later on, and that I'd be going around asking questions of his fans. They were cool with it, so I got to it and interviewed people at random.

Cue to a nice amount of time later, like 3-4 o'clock. I can't remember how long later, but our interview was scheduled for several hours later. He was in a hurry and wanted to get it over with, I couldn't blame the guy as he'd been standing longer than I had.

We were going to do the interview at his hotel, so I had come prepared to have to hunt down a cab. But he was hungry, and there was food right there at the bookstore. And a table nearby where I could do an interview.

So instead of having a few hours to prepare questions, I was going to shoot from the hip and do an impromptu interview.

I'd like to think it went perfectly, I really would, but it was clumsy and there were times I couldn't think of what to ask him. But it was a grand experience, nevertheless.

I learned a lot, most importantly, never leave your tape recorder on the table in front of someone who is eating. Every rustle of food wrapping, every thing that gets picked up or put down makes a crapload of noise on tape. When I went back and listened to it I thought in interview had occured in a clothes dryer full of butcher's paper, forks, and glasses.

But that didn't stop me.

The interview got done, he hopped in a car provided by the book tour, driver included, and was off to another signing in Maryland. I took pictures, fear not.

And then I walked back to the Metro station and was on my way back to the bureau. I dropped the tape, the notes, and everything else into a manilla envelope that remained sealed until the next week, when I would be allowed to start working on the story as I was not to do so until after the Inauguration was long over.