They must like me in Ohio

I seem to be flying there a lot in coming weeks. I’m going to be at The 2011 Humanism Award Banquet, honoring Page Stephens for his work in skepticism, on 30 September (Friday! Soon!).

Then I’m flying down again on 15-16 October for the Free Inquiry Group 20th Anniversary Celebration in Cincinnati — although it looks like the actual event will be in Kentucky.

I don’t know what I’m going to say at either of these events yet. I better think of something quick.

It’s a Greta Christina invasion

Look: Greta is going to be in Minneapolis and St. Cloud this weekend, and she’ll also be on Atheist Talk radio on Sunday morning.

I’m hoping to make it to her Sunday talk, but I have a conflict: on Sunday, 18 September, before her talk, I have to appear on a panel over the internet to speak at the Tech Museum in San Jose, California. Thanks to the wonders of science, I don’t have to be in San Jose…I just have to have a quiet place with a stable internet connection. If I can arrange that, I’ll drive in to the Twin Cities.

The topic of the panel is “Religion and Science: Beliefs and the Brain,” and it’s associated with the opening of an exhibit on Islamic science. I get to be the poopyhead arguing that science and religion are incompatible, in case you couldn’t guess.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Today is my wife’s birthday, and unfortunately, we’ve had so many of them together (like, maybe 4 or 5 or a dozen or so) that we sort of take them for granted and just let them slide past any more. So there’s a few things you could do to help out. You could just give her your best wishes, or you could also make a suggestion about what we could do to celebrate. I offered to take her out to dinner tonight; she said we should do that some evening when we’re overworked and short of time instead. I thought about taking her out to a movie…but Cowboys & Aliens is playing, and seriously, that’s not her kind of movie. We’re rather limited by small town opportunities, you know.

She does read the comments around here, so maybe one of you will say something that makes her eyes light up.

Don’t ask how old she is. It’s enough for you to know that she’s much, much younger than I am, and she looks it.

What would you call me?

I’ve got this book off at my publisher, and we’re still arguing over the title. Everything else looks good, but we can’t agree on this one rather big thing: my editor definitely wants it to be something personal and about me, of all people. So I have an exercise for everyone. Imagine an infidel like me with a book that skewers religion and triumphantly praises the godless way of life. Imagine the cover. There, in big bold print it says…

The __________ Atheist

Fill in the blank. Remember, it’s got to be provocative but positive, catchy and descriptive. I know you’re all thinking “Poopyhead”, but I’m gonna squelch that one right now. No scatology or obscenity, ’cause while it would be fine to be banned for the content, it’s so petty and superficial to be banned for the cover. It should be something that makes you want to reach out and buy it, too.

Oh, and no, you don’t get a cut for suggesting one adjective.

CSICon!

I’ve been told to remind you to sign up for CSICon: The conference dedicated to science and reason — it’s coming up on 27-30 October, so it’s time to commit. It has an amazing list of speakers — so amazing, that even though I’m one of them, they left me off as the least interesting person speaking there. That just tells you how good it is, or perhaps what good taste the organizers have.

Also, who cares who the speakers are? It’s in New Orleans. I’m going for the food and the music and the chance to sashay through the French Quarter late at night with a beautiful woman on my arm, as God intended me to do. As my humanity and my manhood demand that I do.

Our baby is all growed up now!

Skatje, who is living far, far away in Wisconsin, has just turned 21. You know what that means? There’s no way we have to take her back … she’s all on her own now. We’ve managed to shoo three kids into independent adulthood, and I think we’re all done with that now.

I usually try to post a few pictures with these kinds of announcements, but of course she has no use for us any more either, so you’ll have to settle for some oldies from her 16th birthday.

Oh, OK, one slightly more recent photo.