Polibloggapalooza!

Had a great time at last night’s Poliblogger (politics blogger, not

polyamory nor polysaccharides blogger) get-together, which took place

at

the little side-bar on the west side of the Drake Hotel, a place where

somehow a number of friends of mine have acquired jobs over the past

few weeks.

I spent most of the evening chatting with the folks at the end of the

table that still had some free seats, which inlcuded David “Ranting and Roaring” Janes, Rick “Boomer Deathwatch” McGinnis, Kathy “Relapsed Catholic” Shaidle and special out-of-town guest blogger Damian “Daimnation!”

Penny to name just a few. The conversation and beer flowed freely, and

topics ranged from poncy local journos to

love-the-people-hate-the-Cuban-government to little indie pet software

development projects to “you had me, then you lost me” politics to WiFi

to hot tubs and rock and roll to wondering what it is about Accordion

City that gets people from wildly divergent

socio-economico-complexo-migraino backgrounds to get along reasonably

well.

At one point, someone at the table saw Kathy and I in conversation and

said “Glad to see you two have made up.” We both got a laugh out of it,

and took turns explaining that there’s a difference between spirited

difference of opinion and blood feuds. Besides, fashion-coordination

rules alone dictate that we had

to get along: she wore an American flag scarf, and my over-shirt was a

big Hilfiger affair whose back was one huge stars-and-stripes.

One thing David and I talked about were sideburns. His wife made him

trim down his. Wendy likes mine, so it’s up to me to hold up the fort

for the Toronto Python-programming sideburns contingent.

Rick and talked about Thor and his work at the Metro newspaper, which definitely has more of a local feel than the Metro in Boston (the Metro chain of free newspapers is owned by Metro S. A. in Sweden).

Damian told us a funny story about the independent TV station in

Newfoundland, NTV, which is owned by a rich-but-completely-bonkers old

man. One day, he wanted to watch the cartoon show Inspector Gadget

right then, and phoned the station, demanding they put it on

immediately. Unfortunately, it was during a broadcast of the news. He

had enough pull for the station to come up with a compromise: they

showed Inspector Gadget in a tiny window in a corner of the screen as

the nightly news continued.

I had a great time at the gathering, and hope we can do it again

sometime soon! Thanks to all who showed up, and thanks to David for

pulling the whole thing together!