Comments on: Random interviews and links

By: Sherry Austin

Sherry Austin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:06:39 +0000

Thanks for the reply, Bad. I love you (and Mrs. Bad!) and what you’re doing, so I just wanted you to know how it came across, that’s all. Your values are not for me to judge, but I didn’t think you meant it the way it appears, otherwise I wouldn’t bother pointing it out.

Believe me, I want to see you (younger than me, I think!) people prosper in the skeptical movement. I am in a peculiar position to know how bad it is. We need you and Rebecca, et al. desperately. You’ve all taken up a very heavy cross and I am behind you in every way.

About Mo Man’s agreement with me about TAM sounding like a frat party. I’ve seen too many posts on JREF forum and elsewhere where the attendees have bragged incessantly and unnecessarily about how much booze that they put down. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does give the impression that that’s a lot of what it’s about. Plus, it makes the ones posting sound like they’re trying so hard to look cool. Frankly, I want you scientists to have a good time however you see fit, but I also want you sober (at least most of the time!) because we NEED you! In those instances, I’d rather read what TAM attendees learned rather than the details of how they quenched their thirst.

By: The Bad Astronomer

The Bad Astronomer — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:23:15 +0000

Sherry, I’m not sure how anyone interprets anything I write. It’s always a crapshoot. I have a lot of respect for the work Rebecca does, and we get along really well. I’ve also written that I love Dr. Who, and George Hrab, and Evelyn from SkepChicks, and a lot of other folks, too. But Mrs. BA is the One for me.

MO Man, well, you’re right– I don’t remember you, but then you haven’t given me much to go on. In fact, I’m not very good at remembering people well, though I’m good at recognizing faces and such. It usually takes a memory poke or two for me to remember specifics.

But bear in mind, at TAM I meet several hundred people all at once, and it’s hard to develop any sort of real connection with all of them. When I go to TAM, I don’t hang out too much with the “stars”. I sit up front with the other guests (that’s a perq I’m not willing to turn down!) but in my off time I’m generally hanging with the JREF forum folks. They’re my old friends.

I’m sorry you haven’t been getting a good impression with TAM, but I’m also very sure that the people who run it would be more than willing to hear you out and try to figure out how to improve it. They know it’s expensive, and they want to make the experience as good as it can be.

I’ll let you know, too, that the majority of people with whom I’ve spoken have been really impressed with how accessible the “stars” are. If you’ve had a different experience, then go to the JREF board (www.randi.org) and talk about it. People are willing to listen, and there have been some excellent discussions about it.

By: MO Man

MO Man — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:11:12 +0000

I do hereby second the insight shown by Sherry Austin…”TAM already sounds so much like a frat party…” After two trips, I don’t have much desire to return. The only person who was the least bit warm was, of all people, a chiropractor from Idaho. It’s the same with magicians’ conventions. I have been to as many as thirty of those and I have yet to run into anyone who remembers me from a previous convention. In other words, they can be so focused/obsessed/self-centered, while trying to sell themselves or their wares, that they actually lessen their chances of success. I must say that Michael Shermer is one of those who comes down from the clouds to be a real mensch, but when Phil talks about how neat the others are, he forgets that he is “one of them.” and so they treat him as an equal. The rest of us are often treated as the audience whose job is to shut up and write checks. So, Phil, you do many good things, but your perspective is not the whole story. I think TAM is often way too elitist, and way, way too damned expensive! Some of us are retired and only one social security check away from eating cat food, my friend. And I’ll bet you don’t remember me either, even if we have met on several occasions, ’cause I ain’t Julia, Rebecca, or Randi.

By: gopher65

gopher65 — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:25:36 +0000

Ibrahim: It isn’t a parody site. Let the hair pulling begin.

By: Sherry Austin

Sherry Austin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:00:38 +0000

All this talk about you and Rebecca (it’s been going on for some time) might come off a little differently than you think, Bad. I love Rebecca, too, that is I love what she’s doing for science literacy and the skeptical movement, but…

I love you, too. LOVE you! Tell the world about you! But…

TAM already sounds so much like a frat party that a good many of us have decided we’ll never go.

By: Ibrahim

Ibrahim — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:54:38 +0000

Rick, please tell me it’s a parody site. I honestly can’t tell. I need to know whether to tear my hair out or laugh.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:14:09 +0000

Jack: Yes,,,I’d completely forgot about 2001 and now I can’t recall if 2010 had space wooshy sounds> Ah, the advantageous of a good forgettery. Now I can go back and re-watch those classics and they’ll be like new.

Gary 7