Rock Star, Now with Groupies!

December 4, 2007 at 10:13 am (The Albatross)

DC was marvelous.  The drive down was easy-peasy, except for a not-quite-correct, but by no means wrong, turn onto New York Avenue (we were aiming for Pennsylvania).  We spent an hour in a confusing tunnel as our penance, and eventually ended up at the hotel.  It helps to have a Navigatrix.

For those of you who wondered, yes I finished my paper in time.  I was even able to sleep 2 hours the morning of the presentation.  The presentation took place in a small hospitality room way in the back of the convention hotel.  It was a strange hodge-podge of a panel, culled together from various individual papers that had nothing more in common than “Europe.”  The moderator served only as a human stop-watch, and offered no overarching commentary to link the papers together.

Most of the other presentations were forgettable.  In fact, two of the presenters are interchangeable in my memory of the event.  A lone man presented, and I cannot recall anything about his paper beyond the word “Galicia,” which is the only thing I could make out, even though I was sitting in the front row.

Other presentations (there were seven presentations to be given in and hour and 45 minutes.  Insane!) were very good.  I never, ever thought I could give a crap about land use in Latvia, but I learned a lot about the struggles organic farmers have with the local government now.  The presentation on the recognition of Irish as a legitimate minority language in the UK was illuminating as well.

But, let it be known that I rocked the house.  My paper was, in fact, too long, and I had to cut out what for me was the most interesting part: the methods the police use to profile suspected offenders on the subway.  Nevertheless, my paper was well-received.  At the close of the session, a French anthropologist came up to me and praised me for “taking the argument further than most discussions of this topic.”  That was especially gratifying.  (I would have lingered in conversation with him longer but j’ai du pisser comme un cheval de course.)

The next day, Superfudge and I were roaming through the Sackler Wing at the Smithsonian.  We entered the Whistler Room and three bright-eyed young people bounded up to me.  “We were at your presentation yesterday!  Yes, we heard your paper.  Yours was the best!”

I’ll be sure to wear my sunglasses at next year’s annual meeting.