I covered Pulitzer-winning NYT columnist and globalization guru Tom Friedman's speech in God's Country East last night. You can read all the fun here.

I've read part of The World Is Flat - interesting stuff and it's no wonder he's totally cashing in. Friedman loves this stuff and his enthusiasm is contagious. I don't think he and Kerry see eye-to-eye on all those "Benedict Arnold CEO's," though.

I asked him a few questions during a lightning-fast press conference earlier. "Press conference." Heh. It was just me and a bunch of local high school journalism students.

So the first thing I ask is, "What's next in the flattening of the world?" He punts with, "A lot of the same, just on a larger scale." Okay.

So then fast forward about two hours. Friedman's given his talk, I've filed my story while all the wealthy white retirees who paid ridiculous sums of cash for Friedman to basically summarize his book in person ate dinner, then we all gathered for the Q&A session, moderated by my boss.

And I smile when my boss asks him, "So what's next in the flattening of the world?"

Tom says, "I'm glad you asked - one of the kids in the session before my talk asked the same thing."

...

You know, if he had just remembered me, that could have been huge! Picture it, in front of a few thousand people, "Actually, Dickie's boss, your reporter asked me the same thing earlier!"

I had even introduced myself: "Hi, I'm Dickie Cronkite from the God's Country East Fishwrap." But no - apparently I'm not discernable from your average teenager? Friedman: The World is flat, but Dickie is round - let's get it right next time, thanks.


Great talk, though. He even mentioned his family vacation in Peru last summer, where he heard about "ceramists in villages near Cuzco selling their plates on the Internet." Cue another smile - I'd put down money he was talking about my old company. It really put my post-college years into perspective. I paid tribute by including that anecdote in the lede.

Hey! Guess who could be coming to dinner next month? Holy shit! Wish me luck that I get to cover that one.

Hoya Saxa, Mr. President.