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 Scroll
down for information on Elliott's Plane Insanity book tour.
Elliott Hester graduated from the University of New Mexico with
a degree in speech communications. After one year as a media buyer with
Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago, he escaped his cubicle to pursue
a "low"-fashion modeling career. Elliott appeared in ads for
Hart Shaftner & Marx, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and a long list of clothiers
that prefer polyester to natural fibers. To help make ends meet, he
worked nights as a baggage handler at O'Hare International Airport.
On a night when the windchill factor knocked the temperature down to
64 degrees below zero, he tossed yet another bag onto the belt loader,
looked up through the bleak arctic darkness, felt an ice-cold gust of
wind shoot up his pant leg (instantly reducing his testicles to the
size of cocktail peanuts), and then gazed upon a flight attendant through
an airplane window. She was sipping something warm and steamy from a
Styrofoam cup. She looked down at him and waved. It was a short, sad
wave. The kind of wave offered by an inmate's wife when visiting hours
have ended at Rikers Island.
That's when the cold hard hand of common sense reached out and slapped
Elliott in the face. Why the hell was he slaving on the frozen airport
tarmac with a bunch of guys named Vic and T-Bone, when he could be working
inside the airplane with long-legged coworkers named Audrey and Monica
and Pricilla Jean? Why was he living in Chicago, the Siberia of the
Midwest, when he could be sipping fu-fu-la-la drinks beneath swaying
palm trees in L.A. or Miami. There was nothing to keep him in the Cold
and Windy City. No wife. No illegitimate kids. No mortgage payments.
This was his chance to get out of town before finding himself stuck
in an O'Hare-area suburb, buried beneath a familial snow drift from
which he could never dig out.
The next day he decided to become a flight attendant.
A few years later, during a two-year leave of absence in sunny Sydney,
Australia, Elliott pursued his secret ambition of becoming a writer.
While working illegally as a bartender on Oxford street, he began taking
notes. The resulting article, "Great Mates, Lousy Lovers,"
an exposé on primitive dating rituals, was published in the Australian
edition of Elle magazine. Since then his work has appeared in Playboy
(Australia), National Geographic Traveler, Caribbean Travel & Life,
Maxim, Men's Fitness, Glamour, Details and more than 35 newspapers in
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. A former Salon.com
columnist, he currently writes "Out of the Blue," a syndicated
travel column appearing monthly in the San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland
Plain Dealer, New York Newsday and other daily newspapers.
Elliott Hester is a native of Chicago, a resident of Miami Beach, a
flight attendant for a major U.S. airline, and a hard-core Miami Heat
basketball fan.
TV & RADIO
Elliott
has been a guest on more than 150 radio talk shows, including Fresh
Air with Terry Gross, The Savvy Traveler, The Joan Rivers Show and BBC
London Live. His television appearances include The Today Show, Inside
Edition, The Kelly Show (Belfast, Northern Ireland), The Richard & Judy
Show (London) and local TV news programs such as KNBC Los Angeles, WGN
Chicago and KTVU San Francisco.
BOOK
TOUR - 2002
readings/signings
Sunday, January 6th
CHICAGO
Changes Coffeehouse & Bookstore
260 Cunningham Drive, Park Forest, Illinois
708-747-9190
2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 9th
CHICAGO
Borders Books
150 North State Street, Chicago, Illinois
312-606-0750
12:30 p.m.
Friday, January 11th
MIAMI
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida
305-442-4408
8:00 p.m.
Monday, January 14th
DALLAS
Borders Books
5500 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas
214-739-1166
7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 16th
SAN FRANCISCO
Easy Going Travel
1385 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California
510-843-3533
7:15 p.m.
Thursday, January 17th
SAN
FRANCISCO
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, California
415-927-0960
7:30 p.m.
Saturday,
January 19th
LOS ANGELES
Barnes & Noble
10850 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
310-475-4144
1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 23rd
NEW YORK
Barnes & Noble [Astor Place]
4 Astor Place, New York, New York
212-420-1322
7:00 p.m.
Thursday,
February 21st
SAN
ANTONIO
Barnes & Noble
321 NW Loop 410 N, San Antonio, Texas
210-342-2386
7:30 p.m.
Thursday,
March 28th
PORTLAND
Powell's City of Books
1005 West Burnside, Portland, Oregon
503-228-4651
7:30 p.m.
Saturday,
March 30th
SEATTLE
The Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street, Seattle, Washington
206-664-6600
7:30 p.m.
Thursday,
April 4th
ORLANDO
Barnes & Noble
2418 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida
407-894-6024
7:30 p.m.
Tuesday,
April 23rd
DETROIT
Borders Books
3924 Baldwin Road, Auburn Hills, Michigan
248-335-5013
7:00 p.m.
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