My required labors in Seattle are now done — I spoke to a packed house at Town Hall last night, had a grand time, got lots of questions and had many hours of stimulating conversations (wait, why am I calling that “labor”?). Now tonight is just relaxation — I’ll be going in to our Secret Meeting Place (I’ve told an awful lot of you where it is, but it’s not too late to email me and ask for details) late this afternoon, strolling through the wonders of the city, and then parking myself in the aforementioned Place sometime around 6 or later. If no one shows up, that’s fine, I’ll take it easy with my iPad and savor the ambience of Puget Sound. If you drift in later, that’s fine, too. If you’re wandering around looking for me, I’ll be easy to spot in my bright yellow t-shirt:
The watchword for the evening is “casual”. Pleasant conversation. Friendly discussion. No pressure, no worries. Don’t show up to pick a fight or we’ll pitch you off a pier.
I thought it was a great, relaxed conversation, if a little off the cuff :—). My girlfriend bought tickets for us for my birthday, and afterwards said, “He’s lovely. What a thoughtful, tolerant, open, wonderful speaker.” And since she doesn’t read the blog, I reminded her of what I told her beforehand, that PZ is the focus of hate, hate, hate from anti-feminist “freethinkers” and theists alike. The content and tone of the talk just didn’t jive with the “intellectual bully” description …. good times!
The T-shirt is confusing; it sounds like you’re “fighting online misogyny” by fighting “one dangerous feminist at a time”.
@David Marjanović, #2:
I had exactly the same reaction. Hmm.
Eh, this is where knowledge of context kicks in. PZ doesn’t mean anything to which we would object. Perhaps the shirt refers to the BS stance that MRAs take that they are the real feminists and we’re just the communistic, gynocractic, fascist misandrists who relentlessly engage in lazy mooching, who insist upon gender neutral language in public policy and law in order to carve out a pit of second class citizenship into which men can be dumped, and who enjoy nothing more than feeling shitty.
No, no, no. “Swordfish”. Passwords are always “swordfish”.
“casual swordfish”.
Cue histrionics about “violent rhetoric.”
“If no one shows up” – now that’s just silly. I’ll be there, for one, and I know of other people who will, so unless we ALL get eaten by the Fremont troll broken loose from its moorings, people will show up.
Thanks for a wonderful evening, PZ! I was just introducing you to my partner last night, he enjoyed the presentation as well. Hah! God’s dildos!! Too funny.
I really liked the talk and q&a, PZ, as I knew I would.
Well done.
Man…I miss out on all the fun. Thanks so much to the jerk that rear-ended me and totaled my car, so no drive to Seattle for me.
I hope you had/are having loads of fun. I’d only ask that you not feed any trouble-makers to our Pacific Giant Octopuses. They have standards. And their stomachs are delicate. And Tums don’t come in “Dogfish” flavor.
Re/ the t shirt — yeah, it’s kind of ambiguous, isn’t it, especially if you don’t know the context that inspired me to create it. Well, as I told PZ, he can always wear it while cleaning out the garage or something… Nice of him to wear it for my sake last evening though!
@Cinzia
Could you explain it to me? Sorry if I’m being dumb.
I was doxed and smeared by a notoriously misogynistic blogger who (like many MRAs) thought he could “bring down dangerous feminists” by “ruining” their online identities “one at a time.” I appealed to PZ to post something that would mitigate the damage to my “Google-able” name, and he kindly agreed to do so. It was kind of a joke which I imagine he was acknowledging in this post. What isn’t a joke was that Prof. Myers took time out of his very busy life to help an obscure female teacher/blogger who found herself the target of a bunch of creeps, and inspired some of his followers to do the same. I made the trek to the Town Hall in Seattle to express my gratitude for his simple act of kindness and decency.
“Packed house”? Aw, but the slimepit jackasses tried SO HARD to deter people from showing up, by comment-bombing the write-up in a local paper.
Anonymously spreading shit is the easiest thing in the world to do, and they can’t even do that right.
That was a perfect evening at the park! Nice to meet everyone and hang out in such a beautiful setting.