I met a number of truly fascinating people last Saturday at the London nodermeet, and none only one of them has yet written anything about that delightful afternoon! Something needs to be done, but someone else should write a proper aftermath node soon because I didn't stay for dinner, and also because I'm feeling haphazard and incompetent and can't seem to manage a proper narrative so I've decided to make a ragged list of tidbits and impressions instead. I learned that:
• The Custodian has the power of acronyms.
• Sam512 understands burgers even more deeply than do most Americans. Perhaps he brings to the burger the kind of slight exoticism that causes American tea or wine enthusiasts to devote much energy of thought to something intensely quotidian. Or, perhaps, his taste and knowledge lie in the fact that unlike most Americans, he is able to digest and appreciate a truly catholic array of burgers while retaining a cachectic silhouette.
• Sam512 and The Custodian can exchange wild hypotheses for an indefinite amount of time, with unflagging enthusiasm and perfect raptness. It is charming and arcane. It is rapid and scintillating. Shards of impossible worlds fly about and end up abandoned on the carpet. There is an intense and obvious connection between these two people. It's rather beautiful. I found it next to impossible to believe that they had never before met face-to-face.
• Clockmaker should be the Universal Arbitrator of Male Apparel. In fact, he is, whether or not others pay him heed and homage. Clockmaker proves to me that people with whom I disagree on numerous issues can still be kind and friendly and generous and considerate. I forget that sometimes. Clockmaker has read more things than he hasn't. His encyclopedic knowledge should not be a deterrent to or an intimidator of any interlocutor, as it is sufficient to enable him to expound upon the pertinent details of most topics.
• Once, Andrew Aguecheek was robbed by street thugs, but rather than injuring him or taking anything of value, the muggers could only bring themselves to take his jacket, worth fifty pence. Andrew Aguecheek agrees that Richard Dawkins's sour pronouncements have of late lost all of their scientific and most of their social value. Andrew Aguecheek is deeply, deeply ethical. That he is a lawyer is the proper order of things. I want Andrew Aguecheek to move to the United States and become the President.* I want Andrew Aguecheek to stay in London and become the Prime Minister. Alas, he is far too principled and far too engaging a conversationalist.
* Yes, yes, I know that's impossible. Believe me, after all that "birther" nonsense I know the President has to be a natural-born American citizen.
• The antimeme may at least have a theoretical existence.
• The theoretical bounds of Tetris-difficulty have not yet been firmly established.
• The Debutante has published four? five? books on photography. The Debutante is searchable in the catalog of the British Library and is pleased and happy about this fact! The Debutante has been commissioned to write recipes for more varieties of meatloaf than I've ever tasted in my life. What's more, she can make them turn out tasty even without being able to taste them herself. The Debutante has an adventurous life and a slow cooker but no kitchen.
I learned that I've lost years' worth of hard-earned social skill in the space of six weeks. I'm sorry everyone, you're all lovely, interesting people.