Small World Stories
For those who were wondering, yes, the conference went well, and yes, it took over my life for the past several days. In those same last few days, I've encountered a number of things which yet again make me think just how small this world is sometimes.
* I spent two summers going to language classes at Simon's Rock College, while in high school. I stayed in touch with a number of my fellow students for quite a while afterwards, as penpals. Eventually I became a worse letter writer, and the correspondances trailed off. Yesterday morning, the chair of the conference's morning session turned out to be one of the people I had written letters to back in high school!
* Today, a friend I haven't heard from in years ran across this weblog. Hello, Stella! It's good to be back in touch!
* Someone I met at last year's Harvard-hosted Vagantes was giving a paper on the monastery at Vezelay. On Thursday, a friend in my discipline emailed to ask if I knew anything about a magic mill at Vezelay. Handily, I could ask the paper-given and, even more handily, he knew exactly what I meant. While not an example of just-in-time knowledge acquisition, surely there must be a good phrase to describe such a circumstance of knowledge-acquisition convenience.
* Three other people with whom I'm in contact via LJ were at the conference this weekend (
pittenweem, 
safranjan, and cliosfolly).
* Minor patterns: my parents were on a plane from Italy to North American yesterday. So was my Latin instructor. This coming weekend, my father is attending the RSA meeting. So is my Latin instructor.
* I spent two summers going to language classes at Simon's Rock College, while in high school. I stayed in touch with a number of my fellow students for quite a while afterwards, as penpals. Eventually I became a worse letter writer, and the correspondances trailed off. Yesterday morning, the chair of the conference's morning session turned out to be one of the people I had written letters to back in high school!
* Today, a friend I haven't heard from in years ran across this weblog. Hello, Stella! It's good to be back in touch!
* Someone I met at last year's Harvard-hosted Vagantes was giving a paper on the monastery at Vezelay. On Thursday, a friend in my discipline emailed to ask if I knew anything about a magic mill at Vezelay. Handily, I could ask the paper-given and, even more handily, he knew exactly what I meant. While not an example of just-in-time knowledge acquisition, surely there must be a good phrase to describe such a circumstance of knowledge-acquisition convenience.
* Three other people with whom I'm in contact via LJ were at the conference this weekend (
pittenweem, safranjan, and cliosfolly).* Minor patterns: my parents were on a plane from Italy to North American yesterday. So was my Latin instructor. This coming weekend, my father is attending the RSA meeting. So is my Latin instructor.