You wouldn’t know it to see it, but we aim to make Morris, Minnesota the Mecca of science blogging. How else to explain how we could draw Grrlscientist away from that boring dump of a town, New York, to visit our lovely prairie village for a week? It’s true: a whole two of us ScienceBlogs people are chattering away from this lonely outpost in the rural wilderness.
Any other science bloggers who want to stop on by, feel free. We’ve got a roomy house with a zippy wireless connection, and who needs anything more? Jay Manifold has been here, Radagast once drove by within a few hundred miles, and now we’re hosting Living the Scientific Life…I think that’s enough to qualify as a Mecca, right?
Anyway, we’re planning to cruise into Minneapolis tomorrow, see the Big City, and check out Drinking Liberally at the 331 Club around about 6—somebody alert the Power Liberal, Tild, and the Wege…we got some tough-talkin’, crazed scientists planning to crash their party.
We’re also hosting an event of our own here at Chez Myers on Friday, with the first
SOFA (Something On Friday Afternoon, a Morris tradition) of the semester at our place. If anyone wants to crash our party, just come on by.
I wouldn’t have thought, in Janunary, that a New Yorker and a Minnesotan could make a Californian jealous, but you’ve gone and done it!
I am renting two horses and a mule. I’ll get there in about a month or so, depending on the weather.
Coturnix, you can pick me up when you drive those beasts through Davidson. It’s not much of a detour from the Triangle, you know!
Man, if I’d only known, I could have scheduled a field trip. Minneapolis is ~5 hours from Iowa City, so Morris would only be, what, 7-8 hours?
How you gonna keep ’em down in Paree / After they’ve seen the farm? ;)
I nearly froze at 30-35 F in Canada on New Year’s, so I think I’ll skip Minnesota until the temperature is at a level people living in the tropics can endure.
Coturnix, if you and your beasts make it through St. Louis can I hitch a ride with you?
Sure, the caravan will get bigger and bigger as we pick up people on the way to Morris. I better rent a few more horses, and a couple of more pack mules!
Cool. The Wege says that the Impaler, our very own Vampire candidate for Governor, might stop by too. I’m bringing a camera.
Yeah, I think Morris is about 8 hours from Iowa City. If you left at about 10 AM on Friday, you could be here in time for the party. Shall I send you directions?
Hey, I’ve been as close as Minneapolis when I interviewed at the University of Minnesota for residency. Of course, that was 18 years ago, but who’s counting?
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Did I mention already that the Museum of the Earth has an exhibit of works by Charles R. Knight until 2006-04-30?
BTW, I’ve tried angle-bracket quote and blockquote. Do you have any quote tags that work?
I’ll have to take a raincheck. I have a friend in grad school at U of M and another teaching at Carleton, so I anticipate some more MN trips after the thaw…
I wondered why my stat meter on my new site suddenly started going crazy, and now I know .. the secret is out: GrrlScientist has left the big, scarey city for a few days and is now ensconced in Morris, Minnesota!
<blockquote> </blockquote> works — they just don’t show up in the preview.
Morris must be the Mecca of Science Blogging.
The Morris Chamber of Commerce notes a population of 5068 which calculates to one science blogger to each 2534 residents, a ratio hard to challenge.
That said, I have lived in much smaller towns around the midwest and would love to have science bloggers in each of them
Volvox
We also have Unhindered by Talent here, run by a CSci prof, so that’s 3.
I’m open for a road trip: do I have to supply the 300-pound Narn attorney, or will you have an adequate supply?
Woah, if The Impaler is going to be there, I might have to stop by. That guy pretty much defines awesome.
You know, I’d come, but I have to arrange my socks that day…
Pilgrimage! Morris, Mecca – what’s the difference?
the difference is the snow. as in, morris has snow. lots of snow.
Super – we can all build snow penises!
There isn’t that much snow here. It’s also unseasonably warm — it’s about 15°F warmer than the average temps this year.
See? Just like Arabia.
Arabia? You seen my friend Lawrence out there?
For some reason, I’m reminded of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, the place where “P.D.Q Bach on the Air” was supposedly broadcast.
(I may live in New York, but it’s Poughkeepsie, New York, so you can make fun of me with total impunity.)
I’ve been lurking for a little while, but this brought me out.
How far is Morris from Burnsville? My folks and sister’s family have moved out there. Once driving across the plains becomes a possibility again – like in May – we might be out there.
We’re about 3 hours from Minneapolis — out near the Dakota border.
There isn’t that much snow here. It’s also unseasonably warm — it’s about 15°F warmer than the average temps this year.
Cool (pardon the pun) – so instead of freezing in 3 minutes, I’d freeze in 10.
I don’t know if you were serious, but I might come, since I live in the neighborhood. I’m not really a science blogger though.
I’m late to the party, as usual, so I’ll freely distribute advice to prospective future attendees:
PZ will certainly feed and house you, and possibly clothe you as well, if you hang around long enough or show up naked; I wasn’t, and only stayed one night. He got me drunk*, too. I think we should all show up at once. ;^)
* 1½ beers; I’m cheap and easily victimized, the result of decades of clean living.