When I told Con that Psi is selling my virtual shirts she said, "Where was he when we needed him?" The reference was to a SAD incident: I cut a rather cool block for the UWMC Eye Clinic, which was an eye with things floating around in it. (It was an invitational art exhibit and all the artwork was made within the confines of a particular eye shape.) I just had a look around and couldn't find a print -- the block is in a cupboard, I believe, but I can't print one now. I had to scan an old shirt (how appropriate).

Con and I decided that the design would be groovy on a shirt, so we went in together and had Dice make some. I put them in the artists' Christmas store in Seattle at COCA (Center On Contemporary Art) then went off to Kauai secure in the knowledge that SJ and Michael were picking up for me. Which they did... except COCA unaccountably didn't keep records or check-offs, or make people sign things or anything, so there were no shirts. The shirts walked. Someone else took all the shirts. Con says, with admirable good humor, "We lost our shirts!" I had an extended wrangling with COCA for months after, since I at first didn't understand that the shirts hadn't been somehow mislaid. They were very shirty with me, and exclaimed, "You should've been here on time to pick up!" -- which annoyed the hell out of me. After letters and phone calls, the final person I spoke with said, "I've looked at your record and you've been a good friend of COCA. The shirts aren't here. Too bad for you." It comes down to public relations -- because if COCA had said, "We don't have the shirts, but because you lost out we're going to make you a Lifetime Member," they would have retained my goodwill at no cost to themselves. Instead they kept saying it was my fault, adding insult to injury. I had believed when I consigned things to them that since things were inventoried and checked-in with precision, that they'd be returned to my "agent," who was there at the correct time, with the same degree of care. No. And the short answer is: He was a toddler at the time!