at what point does pretense become real?

[aryanhwy]

Back in March I received an email telling me I'd been nominated by my head of department to attend a fancy "Excellence in Research" dinner up at the Castle early the next term, and that I should prepare a poster or an exhibit or something related to my research as there would be a little symposium for an hour before the dinner. I had a vague idea

Comments

[tedeisenstein]

And it was so easy.
Strange how that happens with enough experience. It'd take me a couple of months to come up with a concise history of French governments for a 20-minutes speech. My brother-in-law once asked Mom why they were on the Fifth Republic, and in 20 minutes (without an apparent pause to think) she came out with a concise, logical, well-phrased answer that started just before their Revolution....Empire ? Yeah sure. Communards? Yup. The cycle of revolt, counter-revolt, insurgency, chaos, new republic? No sweat.

I wish I had that ability.

[anonymous]

I wonder about this, too. I have a PERFORMANCE MODE that used to be so incredibly effortful (though in my case, it was always like that--it must be so much stranger to have a before and after (and a back to before with a drink in ya!) but is now almost not a pretense. I love the idea of poster as conversation starter. (I, meanwhile, speak Italian with a Latin accent...) --Bunny