Salon XXV

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Salon XXV Agenda

Sunday, October 16, 2011, 6:30 -10:30
Anna’s Home

  1. Dissecting our individual relationships with time. Inspired by a series on an NPR blog that kicked off with the provocative title, The Tyranny of Modern Time. [Anna]

    My relationship with time can be deduced by the fact that I use phrases like, “It’s about 8:28,” and that if Robert doesn’t call me to alert me to a full moon, I’m most likely not going to see it because an event, “Look up at the moon,” has not been put on my Google calendar. In fact, my Google calendar itself is certainly a telling artifact with regards to my relationship with time.

    I’ve done a lot of work on this over the years, believe it or not, as I have almost exclusively been “relationshiply-paired” with people to whom time is not as important as it is to me.

    I have concluded that the essence of the issue has to do with it being a form of keeping my word. 

  2. On establishing an award for best quote of the year. Nomination process, judging criteria, voting system, and prize ideas. [Anna]
  3. Would we have been friends as children (assuming that the laws of time (see item #1) can be suspended). [Sarah] Related reference from Saloon: Keep your friends close: BFF calms kids’ stress. [John]

    I don’t know, but I can probably say this: There’s a better chance I would have been friends with the girls than with Brad, just because I didn’t have a lot of guy friends growing up.

    With that said, of the “cliques” I hung out with (in high school, at least), which included the honor society, the band, and the key club, I felt most simpatico with the honor society kids. And since you’re all so brilliant, we probably would have gotten along.

  4. How did you decide where to go to college? [Sarah]

    By cost and proximity. I got a $500 scholarship to attend Mt. Olive College (a “Free Will Baptist” church in Mount Olive, NC in Wayne County), which I thankfully turned down. 

    If I remember correctly, my tuition was about $500 per quarter. I worked 40 hours a week (at Burger King) for most of my four years in college.

    I took five years to get through, as I did two co-op stints at IBM during my Junior and Senior years. I got married during my junior year at the age of 20.

  5. What traits or characteristics, if any, do you see in your parents that you already recognize in yourself—or things you fear you’re going to do or become as you age? As an adjunct, for those of you with kids, do you see any of your traits in them that you like or don't like? [John]

    Mom: Arthritis. Knee problems.
    Dad: Grimacing. Impatient.
    Both: Fiscal responsibility.

  6.  'Quixote,' Colbert and the Reality of Fiction (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/quixote-colbert-and-the-reality-of-fiction/?src=me&ref=general) [Brad]

    Tough read; I felt like I was back in grad school.

    I learned at least two new vocabulary words while reading: “opprobrium” (shame, disgrace, or dishonor) and “Mise en abyme” (that visual experience of being in a mirrored wall in an elevator).

    It made me want to read The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha again.

  7. Trip report from Brad's adventures in Italy.
  8. When famous people pass away, how do you react? Feel? What do you do? How has this changed since social media? [Sarah]
    1. Dispute over Apple image shows Internet’s reach [Sarah]

      I was surprised by my reaction to Steve Jobs’ death, which was to be grateful to him for my Mac, and just a little bit sad. It also may have had something to do with his being two years older than me.

      For me, the difference that social media makes is that I get to see way more of a diverse reaction to famous peoples’ deaths than I ever have in the past.

      Another part of my reaction is to see how soon: 1) jokes start being made about the person, and 2) not-so-flattering things start being said about the person.

      My reaction to the Apple image thing is that I was totally sympathetic to the guy who got blasted for copying it.

  9. Operation Beautiful: transforming the way you see yourself one post-it note at a time. [Sarah]

    If I were allowed to use the phrase, “That’s so gay,” in the derogatory way that it’s used, I would say about this website: “It’s beyond gay. Even to me.”

  10. Have you ever experienced an alcohol-induced blackout? [John]

    Yes, just did for my 54th birthday. What’s at once intriguing and frightening to me are two things: 1) What gets filtered and what doesn’t, and 2) How you can function “normally,” even though you’re going to have no recollection of it at all. 

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