Thursday, March 30, 2006

dispatch from new brunswick

For the first six months that I had a blog, it was in virtually complete obscurity. Now, when I go somewhere to give a talk, at least some of the people there will know I have a blog. I wish this change in circumstance were matched by my blog being way better now than it was back then, but, if anything, I suspect the reverse is true. (Although I never posted that much about sociology, and when I have it has mostly been surly.)

I spent some time walking around Princeton during daylight today. It reminded me a little bit of what I imagine Hogsmeade from the Harry Potter books to be like. I had European hot chocolate with handmade marshmallows at this place called The Bent Spoon. New Brunswick seems nice, as well, but more real and less theme-park-utopitown.

My talk is farther from being done than I wish to admit here. However, this was a day of several very interesting conversations, so I don't regret not having worked on my talk--or at least do not regret it yet. Check back in a few hours.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

More accurately, Princeton was designed so that it would remind its population of what they imagined life at Oxbridge was like. Hogsmeade isn't the half of it.

john said...

Utopitown is definitely a phrase you might want to look into copyrighting.

At least I was impressed by it.

Anonymous said...

Why not just tell them that it's easier to stumble across new insights when you ramble?

Tom Volscho said...

New Jersey is one state I avoid like the plague. When I went to the ASA in Philadelphia last summer, a special route through rural PA was mapped out that avoided NJ was mapped out. Unfortunately, a wrong-turn on the return trip caused a 15 minute U-turn through Jersey. Princeton is nice though...you might run into this guy on campus, legend has it

http://www.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/

Tom Volscho said...

Oh yeah, and John Nash is looking for an R.A.

http://www.math.princeton.edu/jfnj/texts_and_graphics/AGENCIES_and_COOPERATIVE_GAMES/Advertisement.329.2006.txt