Sunday, January 23, 2005

The Blogger Dinner Post-Game Show

by Tom Bozzo

It's past my bedtime, so I'll pose some questions now and perhaps suggest answers later.

[Sunday afternoon addendum: some "answers" and questions 9-10 added. Addendum to the addendum: new #10 added, old #10 renumbered.]

1. How do bloggers' blog and "real world" personae relate?

One might further ask what light a dinner party sheds on the question.

2. If Nina offers to cook for you, should you accept? (The easiest answer of the bunch: YES!)

Ann provides additional, well-deserved, high praise for the evening's meal, as well as a menu summary.

2a. Were special food accommodations made for any of the guests?

No, but as incriminating photos have yet to be posted elsewhere, that's all I'm saying.

3. Are lawprofs competitive? (Another one that is so easy that I'll leave it as an exercise.)

4. [redacted]

This is a topic that particularly interests me as the only non-academic of the bunch, but even the question would give plenty away, and I'd consider the related discussions to be embargoed until someone else spills the beans.

5. Is Madison a good place to be single?

Maybe if you're 20. At 30, no way. Given a sufficiently activist social network, though, that might be softened to a "not really." Note, 5-1/2 years ago, I was plotting how fast a car I'd need to reify an early mid-life crisis when activist friends put me out of my misery.

6. Considering #5, how "undatable" is undatable?

These three pages from John's current favorite book suggest to me that there should be no fixed standards.

7. Is Madison a good place to raise kids?

Conventional wisdom would say yes. Some objection was raised. Ann, IIRC, said something about the conventional wisdom being right in this case.

8. What are the ethics of feeding the local wildlife?

See The Tonya Show, 8:45 entry, for the unappetizing discussion.

[Addendum] 9. What postmodern literature makes for a good blog model?

Not, I averred in a portion of the conversation reported elsewhere, William Gaddis' Agapé Agape. I'd give a nod to Vineland for its density of pop culture references. I think it was Frank Kermode who was befuddled, on behalf of mainstream literary criticism, by references such as "Midol America." But I'm less sure about that (i.e., that Kermode specifically cited the Midol America pun) than the publication date of The Recognitions.

10. What movie, which you coincidentally picked up on DVD right before Christmas, did the Hoopla debacle make you most want to watch.

Doug Liman's Go (1999). Cf. Nina's comment. This is less a reference to wanting to die (that moment, earlier in the evening, involved a disintegrating cracker underneath a piece of smoked salmon, but I think everyone else was too busy either cooking or simulblogging to notice) than to portions of the action in the film's first and third acts.

10.11. This wasn't very illuminating.

You get what you pay for.
Comments:
Question no. 9: is it easy ot be thrown into this group of four bloggers who think nothing of hitting their computers between courses and then rolling around on the floor laughing at *someone's* enactment of the word "rave?"
 
This crossed paths with my update, but good question! See the New No. 10.
 
Wait, what was #4? Now I feel like I've missed something.
 
I am wondering about #4 too. Please share.
 
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