“What are y’all selling?” someone asked Mary Suhm early this morning. The Dallas city manager was handing out brand-new copies of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 at Union Station downtown. “Nothing,” Suhm answered. “We’re giving it away.” The skeptic couldn’t really be blamed for asking. Usually when you see someone passing stuff out on or near a DART train at 7 a.m., people assume that you’re going to want something from them. That, or else you’re from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
This morning, though, they saw people like Suhm and philanthropist Lynn McBee and businesswoman Nancy Keene handing out the Bradbury title for The Big Read Dallas, which Krista explained here. Most of those who got the books accepted them graciously, even if they weren’t quite sure why they were getting them. One guy, though, gave us a hard time about distributing a product made from dead trees. Another, 70ish and in a suit, declined the offer, saying he didn’t “have any place to put it.” Still another DART rider made up for the Debbie Downers, thanking us profusely and even asking for an extra copy of the book for her child.
