Conferences
Apr. 26th, 2003 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibetSomehow I woke up in Salem this morning and by 7 AM was sitting in a coffee house in downtown Providence, where I spent the next four hours reading while J. went to hear some lectures at an anthropology conference. Then we had lunch with some friends of ours from her department.
The rain made for rather unfortunate driving conditions on the way home, but remember: April shower bring Kompressor power.
I myself spent about six hours at a classics conference thingy last night which included three one-hour papers -- one by my advisor -- and a dinner, the entire event preceded by almost an hour's worth of eulogies of a notable classicist associated with our department for many years who died last year and to whose memory this year's mini-conference was devoted. I did not interject that I worked in the office next to his for a couple of months and that now I have his old office, which is the extent to which I could have added anything much at all.
I perhaps had the opportunity when I introduced one of the speakers (not my advisor), but I didn't take it.
Some people, to my surprise, came up during a coffee break to tell me they thought my introduction of the speaker went really well. It was about 200 words long and didn't say much, but maybe after that first hour of commemorative biography my brevity was what was appreciated.
Fortunately, all three hour-long papers managed to hold my interest, possibly a first for this annual event.
My Ohio lore came in handy, since before the lectures I was able to help the speaker on Pres. Garfield (who was a professor of Greek and Latin before he went into politics) with pronouncing Ohio place names like "Geauga" and "Cuyahoga."
Go me.
It was sheer chance that they asked me, as my native Ohiotude was not known to them beforehand; I just happened to be passing by at the right moment. Or perhaps I just look very Ohio-y. I don't know.
The rain made for rather unfortunate driving conditions on the way home, but remember: April shower bring Kompressor power.
I myself spent about six hours at a classics conference thingy last night which included three one-hour papers -- one by my advisor -- and a dinner, the entire event preceded by almost an hour's worth of eulogies of a notable classicist associated with our department for many years who died last year and to whose memory this year's mini-conference was devoted. I did not interject that I worked in the office next to his for a couple of months and that now I have his old office, which is the extent to which I could have added anything much at all.
I perhaps had the opportunity when I introduced one of the speakers (not my advisor), but I didn't take it.
Some people, to my surprise, came up during a coffee break to tell me they thought my introduction of the speaker went really well. It was about 200 words long and didn't say much, but maybe after that first hour of commemorative biography my brevity was what was appreciated.
Fortunately, all three hour-long papers managed to hold my interest, possibly a first for this annual event.
My Ohio lore came in handy, since before the lectures I was able to help the speaker on Pres. Garfield (who was a professor of Greek and Latin before he went into politics) with pronouncing Ohio place names like "Geauga" and "Cuyahoga."
Go me.
It was sheer chance that they asked me, as my native Ohiotude was not known to them beforehand; I just happened to be passing by at the right moment. Or perhaps I just look very Ohio-y. I don't know.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-04-26 04:31 pm (UTC)where in Ohio are you from?
My family settled in Wooster not Worcester and has slowly permeated into Akron and Wadsworth.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-26 07:43 pm (UTC)good Iroquois place names. maybe they thought you were Seneca or something. The other Seneca.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-27 09:00 am (UTC)My family settled in Wooster
I grew up in Lancaster, just south of Columbus, but three of my four college years were spent here (http://www.wooster.edu/admissions/campustour/babcock.html).
no subject
Date: 2003-04-27 09:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-27 09:37 am (UTC)(I have no idea how they came to be called the Seneca; it doesn't bear much resemblance to their own name for themselves)
no subject
Date: 2003-04-27 09:47 am (UTC)What *is* their name for themselves? I'm not sure I've ever heard it.
Re:
Date: 2003-04-27 10:42 am (UTC)Woah. you went there? Are you familiar with the Gerstenslager Company? That's my family.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-28 10:02 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-04-28 10:09 am (UTC)