Photo stolen unashamedly from the IASSIST FB page.

I am currently traveling this week for work to one of my favorite conferences ever – the annual gathering of the International Association of Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST).  I look forward to this week every year not just because some of these folks have become dear friends over the years or because there is always a banquet where I have my one opportunity to dance with abandon.  Tonight I realized that one of the things I like best about this conference is that is a gathering of very perceptive, educated, erudite people from a variety of disciplines, mostly within the social sciences, who are able and very willing to carry on intelligent and congenial conversations on a variety of topics from the value of the plural phrase “all y’all” to the relative merits of first past the post versus proportional representation voting. All while enjoying a few alcoholic beverages as well as each other’s company.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that this is my only opportunity to have conversations with astute, learned, well-informed people; I have friends and colleagues at home who also can generally fit that description.  But tonight’s conversation over pizza and fries between a Dutch citizen living in Britain, two Canadians, and an American historian on the relative similarities between secession opportunities for Catalan, Quebec, and Scotland and the effect of the various political systems on their future was not something in which I generally have the opportunity to participate.  It was nearly as entertaining as the Australian expounding on the merits of “y’all” as a contraction.

Bottom line:  I confess that I am not pretentiously particular about my palaver but I do cherish clever confabulation – and welcome the occasion to augment my lexicon.  🙂