the continued oratorical misadventures of jeremy freese

I gave a talk today here in Orlando. When I finished the slides for the presentation, I figured that I really had about a 18 minute talk and would have to move at a good clip in order to get it done in the 15 minutes I was allotted. But, then, when I got there, I learned that a scheduling problem reduced my slot to 12 minutes, and then give some issues with the set-up after the preceding speaker had finished and some other matters, it was really maybe on the short side of 11.

In such contexts, I often turn out to give impressive presentations, but they are impressive not for their substance or insight but because of how fast I can speak and still manage to sound as though I'm saying things that, were they said slower, would be reasonable and perhaps even sporadically eloquent. And, lo, while I did also get some positive remarks on the substance, once again more than one spectator offered a reaction that was mainly a marvel at my vroom-vroom-volubility-velocity.

"I wish I could talk that fast and still make sense," was one person's comment. On other occasions, such a remark might be the highest praise I receive for a talk. Today, however, that honor went to another person's statement that the opening example I gave for my paper "grabbed the audience by the [spanish word for a part of the body where, had I actually grabbed even one audience member by it/them, I would be languishing in a squalid Disney jail right now.]