What more can be said about this monumental meeting of minds that
hasn't already been written about in newpapers? Spread from mouth to mouth
in hushed whispers in dark alleys by lovers of freedom? Discussed
in fearful tones in the corridors of power worldwide?
A great deal.
Sure, there was great skiing. Sure there was great food,
particularly Sues chef
(get it? sous chef?) Sue Arnold's
meticulously prepared feast. Chicken! And Beef!
In one! (You will not find any photos of the meal here,
however, because, well, you feel
kind of silly photographing food.)
By the way, did I mention that if you
click on any of the little images, it should pop up an
enlarged version of the picture,
possibly with some commentary, possibly funny?
Of course, the download will take a few moments.
There was also some fun and games. Saturday evening
the group decided to play a joke cribbed from Dennett's book
Consciousness Explained, where one person is told to leave the room
while the rest of the party (allegedly) secretly picks one person who will then
relate an interesting dream that he/she
recently had. Then, the guesser comes back, and through a series
of yes/no questions, attempts to guess the content of the dream
that was related in his/her abscence, and whose dream it was.
However, unbeknownst to the guesser, nobody in the group actually
related a dream--instead, they merely agree jointly on some arbitrary
rule that will unambiguously give an answer
to the yes/no questions. The rule we picked was, "if the first
letter of the last word of the question is alphabetically a-m, the
answer will be yes, else no". That way, the guesser hermself
essentially creates the dream by virtue of the questions he/she
chooses to ask and the arbitrary answers fed back to herm.
Incidentally, some scientists speculate that the real process of
dream creation may be an analagous process.
Maxham was selected as the guesser. Shortly he related a dream
that, due to recent Communication Decency Act rulings, I am not at
liberty to describe. Suffice it to say that Madonna was involved.
A discussion of free will followed shortly, and this did not at all
seem incongruous. For the latest on this topic, read the Tempest list!
Here are some lovely views of the snow from the porch.
Here are some pictures of trees with snow behind them.
Here are some pictures of snow with trees behind.
Rich had the urge to ingest a large frozen object. Here are the
results.
Here is a picture of a hit man, a dashing Kara, and some people and dogs
sleeping.
Here are some pictures of Max's car covered in snow.
The eskimo, it is said, have twenty words for snow. This is
autanfroloquatsi, or "snow-that-sits-on-cars".
See you next time.
You are visitor