Picture from our first (of many, I hope) Boston-area meetup this Wednesday, at the Watch City Brewing Co, before most of us moved on to Lizzy’s Ice Cream. Photo courtesy of commentor The Conster (in the green & white shirt). I’m towards the back on the left-hand side, in the hat, and the Spousal Unit is right behind me. Not shown: EFGoldman & his lovely wife (who were sitting too close to the picture-taker). Click to embiggen; anybody else wants to identify themselves, please do so in the comments…
Community gatherings or otherwise, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?
aimai
My apologies that I didn’t make it. I’ve been wanting to meet you all, and especially Annie Laurie, for years–since I started noticing her nym at Sadly, No!. I’ve wrenched my back and I just couldn’t make it. I hope to be at the next one.
aimai
Of course that should be Anne Laurie, I guess I was thinking of the song.
Gin & Tonic
@aimai: I, too, will make more of an effort next time, I hope.
gene108
Any interest in Philly area BJ meeting?
rammalamadingdong
Tunch!
Betty Cracker
The green balloons were a nice touch! You all look like lovely people, aside from the glowing DEVIL EYES! Aaiiieee!
Southern Beale
There probably aren’t enough of us in Nashville to have a meet-up but we should ….
In other news, for the Twitterati among us, there’s a hilarious #FoxBuzzFeed hashtag going on, mocking the Fox News freak-out over Obama’s comments regarding Trayvon Martin.
ruemara
goodness, there are a lot of balloon juicers out there. was there any more movement on a Sacto meetup?
Citizen_X
Is that PsiFighter way in the back left at THIS one, too? WTF, dude? Are you working in the fly-all-over-the-country-and-drink sector?
Chat Noir
Very nice. And Tunch. I could deal with a Chicago meet-up.
Hungry Joe
Re Mitch Daniels’ trying to save Indiana schoolchildren from Howard Zinn (earlier thread): The story noted that “David Shane, top fundraiser and state school board member, replied [to Daniels] seven minutes later with a strategy directing Bennett and Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers to review university courses across the state.”
I lived in southern Indiana till I was 10, and on our block was a most unpleasant kid named David Shane. Two minutes on Google confirmed it: Same guy. The child is father to the jerk.
TaMara (BHF)
@Anne Laurie, you look just like I imagined, except I thought you’d have dark hair. Good to see everyone. Glad you had fun.
NotMax
Looks as if the bald gentleman seated at the little table under the TV is chatting up Justin Bieber. :)
Suffern ACE
This weekend, I’ve got tickets to Monkey at Loncoln Center tonight, tickets to Kaiju Wrestling tomorrow night, and we’re off to a demolition derby on Sunday. I think sometime last week I turned 13.
Suffern ACE
Test
NotMax
Awful lot of non-alcoholic drinks shown in that pic, too.
No slam; just sayin’.
ranchandsyrup
Nice pic! Glad you all had fun.
With Comic-con, Over the Line and 1st weekend of Del Mar racetrack going on as well as having half of Arizona here, I’m going to stay as close to home as possible.
eemom
Such a bunch of cuties! And all with such nice smiles.
More ids’s plz.
Amir Khalid
Special Timmeh said he’d show up, did he?
Anne Laurie
@aimai: @Gin & Tonic: You were missed! Hope you can make it next time.
Amir, Tim didn’t show up, but then I always assumed he was just tweaking us.
Mandalay
Worth noting that the greatest nation the world has ever seen just exempted one of its own criminals from from being extradited….
Normal rules don’t apply to us. We are so darn special.
gogol's wife
Everybody always looks just like the people I hang out with in real life. I thought Conster was a guy!
lamh36
The usual suspects are shouting “what took so long” for President Obama to speak on verdict (btw, it’s only been 5 days people!!!). I’m betting POTUS like all of us felt the same: the first day, we were numb, by day 2 we had a simmering anger, day 3-4, juror pissed us off….Day 4-5 Trayvon’s parents spoke about their feelings. Day 5 we could talk w/o getting angry.
As for the President’s remarks, I just watched the complete statement by POTUS. It was heartfelt, personal, and without accusation and NOT divisive AT ALL. The usual racist will do what they gonna do, but that ain’t on us or POTUS.
Amir Khalid
In other news, Manchester City FC goalkeeping legend and former WWII POW Bernhard “Bert” Trautmann has passed away at 89. Trautmann played the last 17 minutes of the 1956 FA Cup final with, it was later discovered, a broken neck; City won 3-1.
IowaOldLady
So what’s it like to talk to BJers in real life? Do you talk politics and cats? Do you awkwardly ask about people’s off-line life? It must be odd not to have someone setting a thread topic.
MissMimi
What a lovely group of people! I’m also in the Boston area so maybe next time there’s a meet-up I’ll be able to make it. Also, maybe by then you all will know who the hell I am. ;-)
NotMax
Detroit ping-pong.
the Conster
@gogol’s wife:
Thanks! At least I’m taking it as a compliment. Both sides!
the Conster
@IowaOldLady:
It was great fun – There aren’t a lot of social situations where someone can mention two wetsuits and a dildo, and everyone knows exactly what you mean, and laughs. Also, stories about crazy wingnut relatives and friends were shared, with unanimous rolling of eyes. These are my people!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mandalay: I believe the word is exceptional, not special. And yeah, he should be going to Italy.
kc
Nice-looking group! For members of a cult of crazy cat-worshippers. :)
KS in MA
You all look great! Sorry I couldn’t make it this time (from way out in western MA), but I’m hoping for next time!
And I hope aimai feels better soon.
Xenos
Feeling sad to miss good times in the Bay State. A hearty cheers and a salute to you all. I would try to put together an expat meetup, but with one guy in France, one in Germany, two in Japan and one in Indonesia, it will be hard to get a quorum.
Enjoy some nice hoppy bevs for the rest of us!
burnspbesq
@Mandalay:
Dude, before you go blaming the United States (which is your default position with respect to anything that ever goes wrong anywhere in the world), you might to send a polite “wassup, y’all” to the Panamanian Ministry of Justice. The guy was in their custody, not ours. It’s entirely possible that there were good reasons, under Panamanian law or the Italy-Panama extradition treaty, why he couldn’t be extradited, but I’m willing to bet that you’ve done no research at all, because that’s how you roll.
ruemara
stupid wordpress ated my comment. I’ll try again. If you create a position that fits one set of criteria you already have on your employee roster, but despite the skillset, you claim it fits another level of position that allows you to pay less and offer less benefits, is that legal, skating the edge of legal or waltzing off into illegal with a full band? Like say you create web designer 1 position, already have a web designer 2, but claim that web designer 1 is synonymous with clerical aide 1, so you can pay clerical aide salary, while having the same skill requirements as web 2 but sans management skills.
FlyingToaster
I’ll join in on the apologies that I couldn’t make it (I’ll plead a screamy 5-year-old); it looks like an excellent time.
Lyrebird
@lamh36: Speak.
Wishing you cool A/C and cool-tempered neighbors!
BillinGlendaleCA
@burnspbesq: Per Rachel Maddow on her show last night re this topic, there is not an extradition treaty between Panama and Italy.
Lahke
I’m the half-headed person in pink on the right. It was a great time and we should do it often.
Quick topic change:
Just shook John Sayles’ hand! (Hero worship). He’s here with Chris Cooper talking about their latest movie Amigo.
ruemara
@efgoldman: like you already have technical class 1, but you don’t want to pay for that level of salary, so you make a job with all the education and skill needs for that class, then you say it’s actually this lesser skilled, less education required category with attendant lesser pay. I think it’s legal, because, I dunno, it seems like pay schedules are pretty arbitrary anyway, but others are telling me it’s not, because you can’t say level 2 of that position is not just management class but a highly skilled management class, then say level one has the same requirements but no management duties, but counts in a lesser skilled class of worker.
maurinsky
Small world – one of the ladies from my May Moms group (we were all due in May of 97) is in that picture!
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m always a little ashamed of my raunchy self when I see the upstanding folks at a meetup.
Another Halocene Human
Watch City! Shit, I haven’t been there in nigh on 15 years. Wow!
FlipYrWhig
@Lahke: SQUEEE JOHN SAYLES
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale: Now that I’m retired, I could get to Nashville with a few days’ notice. I enjoy the drive from Atlanta, and I have friends at Vandy I could stay with overnight. If you put something together, please let me know!
S. Holland
Great pic!! Sooo nice to put faces with names here!! So happy for all these meetups…anyone up for a CT meetup?
qkslvrwolf
How do these things always happen when I’m out of town???
GregB
I wish I could have made it but work ran me really late.
Here’s to next time.
DaveinME
Anyone in and around the southern Maine area care to do a similar meetup? I live just outside Portland and there are tons of cool places for such a gathering.
I don’t post much for comments, but have been a BJ reader for a long time.
Here is one example of my public contribution to political discourse….
Let me know if any are interested, otherwise I will simply have to haul ass down to Beantown for the next meet up! Looks like you all had an awesome time!!!
Steeplejack
@DaveinME:
Good letter. And how long was it before they tracked you down and egged your house?
lojasmo
@Citizen_X:
Evidently, there is alcohol on the east coast.
Lojasmo +5
lojasmo
MSP meetup in August? I suggest Sawatdee on Washington, Sawatdee on Robert, or Bulldog in Lowertown.
Or Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis. Yum.