In a lather: I was hunting for a bargain. Instead, I found a shampoo magnate with animal magnetism.

Publication: Texas Monthly

Publication Date: 01-APR-08

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My relentless search for The Bargain has led me to some interesting places: Black Market Alley, in Naha, Okinawa; a $99 seat on a flight from Los Angeles to Reykjavik; a shop in Singapore that made paper BMWs and other luxury items to be burned at funerals. The venue I sought out recently, to cash in a $10-off coupon, wasn't nearly as interesting-just an ordinary Petco at an ordinary strip mall in Austin. Which made it all the more surprising that, immediately upon pushing my cart into the store, I should spy a glamorous man swankily attired in an art-opening-ready black suit and T-shirt. I was almost certain I knew him. [paragraph] It was the "almost" that gave me pause. I'd once been on a very slow elevator in a very tall building when a woman I was almost certain I knew came aboard. As the car creaked downward, I tried to place her froggy face. I associated her wide mouth and chubby cheeks with a good-hearted, tear-stained encounter involving too much...

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