Davwest’s YouReport echoes a few inquiries we’ve been sent this week — but the contributor went the extra mile and asked staff at Grim’s about an improbable promotion supposedly happening Wednesday night on Capitol Hill:
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/02/sam_verhove. -was sent this link by a friend in new York. He asked me to verify if it was a hoax. I went to Grims tonight, and the bar staff told me that, Peter O’Toole will, indeed be giving a reading there tonight during happy hour. I hope this is legit as much as Im sure you all do. Cheers!
Grim’s Laura Olson provided this cryptic response: “The event details and articles are on our Facebook page. Feel free to take a look. For more detailed info, feel free to contact Seattle weekly.”
In a sentence CHS gets the sense we were very much intended to write, regardless of O’Toole, Wednesday night’s event is for a good cause:
Join us at Seattle Weekly’s Happy Hour for Hope on Wednesday, February 9 at Grim’s, where we celebrate Richard Hugo House. Our special guest for the evening is Sam Howe Verhovek, author of Jet Age, which is the inspiration for the Comet Cocktail — the featured drink for the evening. 21+
But if the whole O’Toole thing is part of some Groupon-y joke, it’s a long drive from Vancouver to find out Peter O’Toole isn’t on Capitol Hill.
Well, I didn’t stay long after the director of Hugo House announced that Peter O’Toole wouldn’t be showing up because he “died at 4 pm.” It’s a pity. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind supporting Hugo House, and the drink of the night was tasty. But Hugo House is supposed to be about writing and the director of the organization didn’t seem to have the slightest clue that O’Toole wrote one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read. Making him the butt of a tasteless comment like that was just rude. I won’t be going back to Grims, and certainly won’t be going to any more Hugo House happy hours.
Simon, the guy who said O’Toole had died was not the director of the Hugo House – he was with the Weekly. The House was benefiting from the donations, and that is about it. I was there on behalf of the House and felt pretty mortified by that statement, too!
Hi Simon,
Yes, Jennifer is correct–Hugo House was simply the beneficiary of the event. We didn’t make the joke about O’Toole and apologize to everyone who was disappointed that he didn’t attend the happy hour. We hope you’ll come by Hugo House for one of our events. We usually have a pretty good time.
Sincerely,
Brian McGuigan
Marketing & Events Director
Richard Hugo House
Thanks for letting me know who was saying stupid shit. I was somewhat skeptical about the whole possibility of O’Toole being there in the first place, so was only mildly disappointed that he wasn’t. But rest assured that I will no longer blame Hugo House for the idiocy of the people at the Seattle Weekly.
Simon
P.S. If Hugo House can get O’Toole to come to town someday I’ll totally be there and will be good for a decent donation.