John Gruber of Daring Fireball links to a piece in the New York Times, by Katie Hafner, on Apple’s chain of retail outlets. In his post he focuses on the use of the pat descriptor “The Apple Faithful” as being a tired, overused and inaccurate way of describing both the past and present Apple consumer. I couldn’t agree more.

In a portion of the NYT piece that focuses on Apple’s liberal policy on using it’s in-store computers, though, lies what has to be the best part of the article by far:

Unable to afford a computer, Ms. Jade, 25, began cadging time on a laptop at the Apple store in the SoHo section of Manhattan. Ms. Jade spent hours at a stretch standing in a discreet corner of the store, typing. Within a few months, she had written nearly 300 pages.

Not only did store employees not mind, but at closing time they often made certain to shut Ms. Jade’s computer down last, to give her a little extra time. A few months later, the store invited her to give an in-store reading from her manuscript.

Those 300 pages became Almost 5′ 4″: Confessions of an Unconventional Model a self-published memoir. How cool is that?

There is of course, a blog and a podcast by Ms. Jade as well.