PDA

View Full Version : NYT on Nation cruise


ktinkel
February 16th, 2008, 08:46 PM
Lindsey:

Sunday 2/17/08 Travel section:

Lead story above the fold on page 1: “The Love Boat for Policy Wonks (http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/travel/17loveboat.html?ref=travel)”

About The Nation cruises

I thought you might recognize some of this crowd.

Lindsey
February 18th, 2008, 10:00 PM
I thought you might recognize some of this crowd.
Oh, thank you for that! No, I don't recognize any of the Nation readers that were mentioned (well, I might remember the woman with the sheet music if I saw her, but she wasn't on the last Nation cruise I took, and I can't recall right now what her name was or what she looked like), though of course, I well remember the various writers. (Except Patricia Williams -- she was supposed to have been on both Nation cruises I have taken, but for one reason or another had to miss them both.)

I can vouch for Calvin Trillin being in the middle of the singing group that gathered around the piano every night after dinner on the first Nation cruise I took. But the fellow playing the piano wasn't David Corn (whom I never saw except when he was speaking on a panel), but one of the passengers who I think must have been a professional entertainer, at least at one time. He looked vaguely familiar, but if I knew his name, I have forgotten it. He was particularly fond of "Lydia, the Tatooed Lady." :p

I haven't been on one of those cruises for the last two years. Two years ago, the timing was bad, and though I desperately wanted to go on the Alaska cruise that year, it was just too expensive. (The low price quoted in that article would have been the single person cost for a double-occupancy inside room on a lower deck. I couldn't find anyone to go with me, and the single person cost would have been about double that quoted price.)

But this year's should be fairly inexpensive; the Caribbean cruises are at the bottom of the price scale. But the timing, right before Christmas, is still not very good for me. But it should be a VERY interesting set of panel discussions!

--Lindsey

ktinkel
February 20th, 2008, 04:26 PM
It all sounded kind of intense, though probably entertaining enough.

I thought of you at once when I saw the article. It was certainly not your usual travel/cruise piece!

[I have been trying to reply for a couple of days; this place is slooooow, and attempts to search get me a 404 error. Good thing it is so entertaining!)

Judy G. Russell
February 20th, 2008, 07:28 PM
[I have been trying to reply for a couple of days; this place is slooooow, and attempts to search get me a 404 error. Good thing it is so entertaining!)Yeah, things are slow indeed... I've got a request in to tech support...

Lindsey
February 21st, 2008, 01:04 AM
It all sounded kind of intense, though probably entertaining enough.
Yes, it is often quite intense, and I have sat at dinner with one or two people who were very close to being certifiable. But I've met some very lovely people on them, too. And the speakers are all very interesting. The first night of the 2005 cruise, I was at Robert Scheer's table, and this was immediately after his column had been cut from the LA Times. Boy, was that ever a lively discussion! And I was so impressed with him. The organizers invited brief bios from all of the cruise participants, which they put together in a large handout that was included in the registration packet. Scheer had obviously taken the trouble to read the bios those of us at his table had submitted, because he related each name to what had been in the bio.

I can't remember if it was that cruise or the one in 2004, but I also remember showing up a salon a little early for an ad hoc session and joining a group of people (mostly women) clustered around Jon Nichols, who was perched on a table holding forth on a variety of political topics to a completely enthralled audience. That completely spontaneous few minutes was one of the most interesting sessions of the whole cruise.

--Lindsey

ktinkel
February 21st, 2008, 01:24 PM
When I was covering conferences and meetings, it was almost always true that the most important things emerged in the hallways or after a session (or instead of some sessions). The structured stuff is important, but not sufficient.

I’m not surprised to hear that it works the same way on boats! <g>

Lindsey
February 22nd, 2008, 12:05 AM
When I was covering conferences and meetings, it was almost always true that the most important things emerged in the hallways or after a session (or instead of some sessions). The structured stuff is important, but not sufficient.
That's probably true of life in general!

--Lindsey

ktinkel
February 24th, 2008, 11:18 AM
That's probably true of life in general!Maybe. At any rate, it is a good rationale for playing hooky or just hanging out once in a while when you’re supposed to be doing something serious!

Lindsey
February 24th, 2008, 11:40 PM
Maybe. At any rate, it is a good rationale for playing hooky or just hanging out once in a while when you’re supposed to be doing something serious!
I remember reading a book a long time ago whose title was (if I remember correctly) The Psychology of Computer Programming. I don't remember the author's name -- Gerald somebody, I think.

In some respects it might more correctly have been called "The Sociology of Computer Programming." One anecdote I remember involved a university that decided to take the Coke machines out of the student computer center. Suddenly the support calls to computer services skyrocketed. It turned out that the Coke machines had provided an unofficial gathering place where students talked over their projects with one another and helped each other solve their technical difficulties. When the Coke machines were removed, there was no longer any good place for computer students to hang out together, and the support they weren't getting from their peers was suddenly shifted off to the university's tech services.

The point of the story, of course, was that time spent at the company water cooler might not necessarily be entirely wasted. What might look to a boss like goofing off can often actually be productive activity.

--Lindsey

sidney
February 25th, 2008, 06:13 AM
I remember reading a book a long time ago whose title was (if I remember correctly) The Psychology of Computer Programming. I don't remember the author's name -- Gerald somebody, I think

Gerald Weinberg. That book is a famous classic, one of my old favorites.

I was just at a conference, The New Zealand Phylogenetics Meeting (http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/bio/whitianga08/) where part of the program was one day off in the middle with nothing scheduled. The conference rotates each year between three beautiful tourist spots. This year it was at Whitianga in the Coromandel Peninsula. A significant number of the attendees (limited to only 50, so everyone can present a talk and everyone gets to know each other) went sea kayaking on that day. Lunch break on conference days was two hours. This was not an excuse for a vacation on expense account, it was a hard working conference in which there were no simple attendees, everyone was a presenter. But with the size limit there was time for that and plenty of informal interaction and even lots of hiking and swimming and kayaking.

ktinkel
February 25th, 2008, 02:29 PM
Makes sense to me. I should probably look for that book.

Lindsey
February 26th, 2008, 11:13 PM
Gerald Weinberg. That book is a famous classic, one of my old favorites.
Yes, the very one! Very interesting book.

Wow, your conference sounds wonderful. Plenty of time for informal exchanges -- the people organizing it knew what they were doing!

--Lindsey