If you have found this page, it means that you read all the way to the end of the Acknowledgements in Congratulations, the Best Is Over! or that you flipped to the very end looking for just this kind of Easter egg. Either way, it makes you 100% my favorite kind of person. Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it!
Download the Book Club discussion kit here
Oh, and if you want to give the book five stars on GoodReads or Amazon, I would absolutely love that.
page xv
I took unglamorous production photos of me eating a cupcake, which I absolutely would not allow to be published today
page 32
“Well, someone’s got to break the ice,” she declares.
page 43
They painted “Believe” on the benches, but also, incredibly, the city introduced a program to give out large black trash cans with the word “BELIEVE” painted in white on them.
page 49
The slogan that greeted us as we arrived was “Baltimore: the greatest city in America.”
page 80
If you’ve ever seen The Wendy Williams Show, you know that people came dressed like they were hitting the club right after; I looked like I was about to break Watergate.
Okay, I have to tell you this one thing. This screen grab actually comes from the documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette on Hulu. David was one of the guests on the episode that I saw filmed, but he was promoting something else and didn’t mention a documentary at all, that I recall. So I was doubly surprised, about a year after the show, when people started randomly texting me that I was in a David Arquette documentary. I have never written about David Arquette and I–no offense–had forgotten that he was on Wendy’s show that day. In my defense, it was a traumatic experience. So, even though I can’t find the full episode online at the moment, I knew that there was video evidence of me trying my best to make Marco G and Suzanne proud of me right in the middle of a documentary about David Arquette processing his mid-life crisis by returning to professional wrestling. I actually show up in 5 different shots! I am the star!
page 146
One time I spotted a butterfly in the yard…
There are SO many pictures of butterflies from the garden. It’s really deranged.
The Path, before and almost after
page 157
I spent half an hour photographing intricate graffiti murals around the corner from the place where the climax of the book happens.
page 157
The book opens with two boys hanging out in a cemetery so I went there and took photos of intricately carved gravestones against a brilliant blue sky.
page 174
The shack sat alone on an empty pier, the only illuminated spot in an industrial expanse that looked like a nightmare out of a Stephen King novel.
CAN YOU BELIEVE I VOLUNTARILY WENT INSIDE THIS PLACE??!
page 198
The pond was a breathtaking wonder.
page 210
It felt like we’d stumbled upon the set of a play, the tables all facing the audience of the horizon, waiting.
page 215
But this piece of art–mysterious and foreboding, overwhelming, dazzling; beguiling and inscrutable, and beyond our means; waiting there for us–its name is Hope.
Lastly, it appears that my favorite photo of my grandmother on her way to Atlantic City (referenced in “You Rock”) may be lost (hopefully temporarily), but I do have a fun one from another bus trip. This one hung on the wall next to the Atlantic City photo. Note the thumbtack hole in the corner.
Thank you!
R. Eric Thomas 