Alton Brown's manifesto to fans

[LibChick]

Ok, how about this scenario: Young Alton Brown's take him to see his favorite celebrity. The meet and greet is in the evening and they have been in line a long time. Young Alton Brown's parents see that it is getting late and by the time their child gets to see favorite celebrity, it will be way past his bedtime and he will most likely be a cranky mess. They Take young Alton home and he never forgets the disappointment he felt.

Years later, Alton Brown because a celebrity and decides never to disappoint a young fan the way he was disappointed. His rule is included in his Fanifesto. The end.

This could be the way it went down. Children can be fans of Alton Brown and maybe that's why their parents are bringing them to a book signing. My kid loves Martha Stewart. She's five and I would totally bring her to a Martha Stewart book signing.

Or maybe one AB's kids was disappointed at not getting to meet his favorite celebrity because the child was getting cranky because of being up late and AB decided that maybe he would do his meet and greets differently. There could be many reasons for this rule. I think it's rather rude to judge the parents (or kids) here- they aren't asking for this rule to be made. And AB has the right to run things the way he would like. It's his prerogative.

[baglady]

There's nothing in what AB wrote about misbehavior. Unless (general) you consider it bad parental behavior to bring small children to a book signing, then his policy is not "rewarding bad behavior."

Apparently, though, a lot of people *do* consider it bad parental behavior. In some cases, it might be, especially if the kids are disruptive and the parents are doing nothing to control them. But I'm not willing to make the leap and say that a parent should never, ever, under any circumstances bring a child to a book signing. As a couple of PPs have suggested, the kid might even be a fan, too.

And he does say that this is something he does *sometimes*, and it's in the interest of allowing parents of wee ones to get the kids home to bed. So I'm guessing he doesn't do it at a 2 p.m. signing.

I've never been to an AB book signing, so I really have no idea how many people show up with little kids. But as a childless person, I would have no problem waiting a few more minutes while they went first. Especially if I knew that he was not going to bail before seeing everyone. I don't consider that discrimination against the childless -- which certainly does exist in the world, but Alton Brown isn't guilty of it IMO.

[Bijou]

I thought it was fine and probably informative, for example, about the phone pictures. 
Only one thing bothered me and I'm not even sure why:  When he said that celebs or cable-ebrities refer to the public as  'citizens'.