Here's Matt's more detailed version of the event from his blog: "Timing is everything. Last week I happened to leave the apartment right before some kids set a bus afire one block away from our building. This week I had better luck - both with timing and the situation. After running a few errands at lunch time, I ran into our friend Julie and her baby Alex. As we walked up the street, we decided to have lunch together at Bracarense, a very informal outdoor lunch spot that is popular with the local crowd. 15 minutes into our meal of beef (what else!), fries and cerveja, a van parked right in front of the café and out popped Salman Rushdie. Immediately, I thought of tackling him and holding him down until Kari could make it. You see, Mr. Rushdie happens to be - by far - Kari’s favorite writer in the world. But then it occurred to me that Salman may be a bit skittish about people rushing him, fatwa cleared or not. He sat down at a table next to ours and wolfed down his own plate of beef and fries (good form, Salman). After he finished, I summoned up all my Midwestern politeness and asked if he minded to take a photo for my wife. Quite graciously he agreed and relieved me from embarassing myself by "accidentally" tripping in front of him while Julie snapped a photo. Once we cleared up the fact that Julie and Alex were not my wife and child, we all took some pictures and like a good British gentleman he said ‘My regards to your wife’. Sorry to Kari who missed it! But thanks Salman! Never can tell what will happen in Leblon."
Click http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0721/p11s02-woam.html for a great story about what Salman was doing in Brazil.
