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You're Just Like Me... "If it ain't about you, you don't care... And if you didn't say it, it ain't funny"

by Michael B. Muri

156 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1362; ISBN 1-4120-3534-1; US$19.99, C$25.00, EUR16.25, £11.26

You know how people always say, ''I should have written that down'' when they hear something witty, funny, or profound. Well, Mike Muri did it, resulting in this hilarious book.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

You know how people always say, "I should have written that down" when they hear something funny or smart while they are at work, at a party, at home, or any old place. Well, Montana bartender Mike Muri did it. He actually did it, yeah he wrote down what people said. He would grab a pen or pencil and any piece of paper available and write down what they said, followed by their first name and the date. He collected bags of these quotations, and now he finally has put them into a book. Some of them are witty, some profound, some puzzling, but almost all of them make you laugh. It's just ordinary folks talking in ordinary language and saying extraordinary things. Some of them were overheard in bars where Muri has worked the last 30 years, but others were said over the dinner table, at the supermarket, or in recovery. They cover every topic of interest to mankind, be it philosophy, religion, sex, death, government, love, politics, bad habits, good deeds, you name it. The title of the book comes from an afternoon when Mike and "the Gov" were sitting in the bar trading stories. Both men would tell a story, chortling at their own wit, and then impatiently waiting for the other person to finish his story, so they could get back to hearing themselves talk. At some point, the Gov, who is now deceased, grinned as he said, "You know, you're just like me. If it ain't about you, you don't care. And if you didn't say it, it ain't funny." Ironically, this Montana bartender actually listened, laughed and recorded what people had said throughout his life. A friend, upon hearing some of these quotes told him, "You really must share these with the world."

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About the Author

Michael Bernard Muri is a man of many worlds. He is comfortable in a bar and in a church (well, maybe not too comfortable in a church, come to think of it). He is a man of peace (hippy) and a man of war (Vietnam vet). He is a mentor and a humble student (well, sort of humble). As he likes to say, quoting one of his heroes, "I'm partly fact and partly fiction, a walking contradiction." For purposes of this book, it is important to establish his credentials as a listener, and that is easy to do. Muri has been a bartender for the past four decades, mostly in Whitefish and Kalispell, Montana. For much of the past ten years, he has been a tourist attraction at the Bigfork Inn in the big little art town of Bigfork on Flathead Lake. Born in Great Falls, Montana, Muri is one of those laconic loudmouths who make the West such a colorful place. He graduated with some kind of degree from the University of Montana and then proceeded to demonstrate for the next 30 years why a college degree is not so important after all. When he is not writing down what other people say, he is busy writing journals of his eccentric life, painting oils and watercolors (he's had a half-dozen shows over the last 10 or 12 years), or sculpting lifelong friendships out of the chance encounters that happen between a bemused bartender and a world that always makes him laugh.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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