"all the world's a stage"

Radio Bree Davies of the Denver Westword fails to meet Ira Glass really and writes about the encounter in the style that has all the elements of a This American Life story, including an answer machine message from Ira:

"I talk to strangers on a daily basis; it's part of my job as a reporter to engage with people I don't know in a way that makes them feel comfortable enough to tell me things about themselves. But this guy was a fucking champ, smiling and posing with a ten-year-old cool nerd in a collared shirt, entertaining pitch after pitch from random folks who probably saw this event as their one chance to get their "incredible" story set to atmospheric music and shared with the world on public radio. The place was swarming with dorks (like me) who thought that Ira Glass and the writers and producers and broadcast journalists of National Public Radio were the shit!"

Obviously if this TAL, Ira would have warned us beforehand that they had beeped a number of profanities for the broadcast version but that they would appear unbeeped in the podcast, in case there are children in the room.