We were a boisterous group tonight. After a good session, the following marched across the street: (no longer new) Sue, Cathy, Jeff, John L., Dean, Alex, Lindsay, Bob, Don, Ferne, and myself — Tomek. And I’ll mention that I showed up and put my phone down, then made a beeline for the Little Writer’s Room. When I returned, I found my hot tea waiting for me. We are blessed with our waitress. So, to business: We began with some questions about anti-Semitism in medieval Europe (inspired by Barbara Tuchman, of course), and dwelt for some moments on the sobering history of that subject, and basic human tribalism. John L. almost broke into Koombaya with some comforting togetherness nonsense, but Dean quickly shot that down. We also touched on Dilbert creator Scott Adams, and how he’s dived neck-deep into politics nowadays. We kind of verged on politics (Sorry, Sue) but managed to move on to other forms of charlatanry, particularly mediums and latter-day Salem witches. Sorry, Adrian — we had to talk about WNY’s crazies again. They keep coming up. That got us to Lilydale, and what a cottage industry it has become. We talked about Celts, and how they got around, and influenced (or were influenced) by things like bagpipes. Somehow we also landed on the Beatles via Lonnie Donegan and skiffle, and how Ringo Starr caught the world’s biggest break. As always, a good time was had by all!