This night we were Dean, Don, Ferne, John T., Jeff, Bob, John L., and myself — Tomek. As usual, I found myself sitting at the end of the table, but the conversation on our end was raucous. The cynics were out in force tonight, as we waded into aliens and Utopia,  Evolution and the survival imperative (coupled with — no pun intended — the procreation imperative) versus individualism, death and the immortality imperative. Which obviously landed us with Shakers. Nice furniture, too. (I think at this stage, somebody slandered religion.) Then we touched on Mike Wilhelm, a certain member’s Grateful Dead virginity, and despite our best efforts we ended up in politics again, redeemed only slightly with some economics. Recent scholarly triumphs were celebrated, namely the deciphering of both the Antikythera (Dean – link please!) and the Voynich Manuscript. I heard some stories of the ER being shared at the other end of the table at one point. Ultimately, after one person confessed to having a head full of Motown, the question was posed: why is the bouzouki popular in Dublin? Thus stumped, we wandered into the Great American night, a good time having been had by all.