If you happen to live near a college or university, or a first-run bookstore, you may occasionally get the chance to hear prominent visiting speakers and authors. For example, a few months ago at Webster University, Jonathan Kozol gave a talk. More recently, Alan Blinder visited town.
Next week, at Washington University, two figures highly ranked in the DK hero/ine class are scheduled to show up, namely Nate Silver and Sandra Fluke. So what's loser about talking about those appearances here in Loser's Club? Well, nothing, except that you always have to keep in mind that the loser here is the diarist, not the subject. More 'neath the flip.....
Both NS and SF are part of Wash. U.'s regular series of guest speakers, the Assembly Series. The on-line Wash. U. press release about Nate Silver's appearance is here, where, in anticipation of huge interest in his talk, the release reads towards the end:
"Seating for the Silver event is on a first-come, first-served basis, with limited access to the public. A remote telecast will be available in Umrath Hall Lounge, and it will be live-streamed and broadcast on the campus TV channel."
Of course, hopefully the blue coast east super-snowstorm isn't hopefully going to cause problems for him to travel to STL next week.
The page from Wash. U.'s Danforth Center on Religion and Politics on Sandra Fluke's appearance is here. Interestingly, there isn't quite the concern about campus overflow for her talk. There's also supposed to be "a response from Washington University Vice Provost and William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law, Adrienne D. Davis", where I honestly don't know what this will entail. For those who want to indulge in mindless speculation, Davis' web page is here.
Nor will I have the chance to find out, which is where the loser aspect comes in for the evening, as applied to self, of course. I won't be able to hear either of these talks by Silver or Fluke, because I'll be on the road. So a bunch of other people here will have the chance to absorb possible words of wisdom, or otherwise just bask in political celebrity status, in the company of either or both of these well-known personages.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week....