Last night I went to my local Stammtisch, which is every Monday at Hoppers near Lansbrook in Palm Harbor. Don’t get there as much as I used to since I know live a bit farther away, about halfway to Tampa. But for some reason I just knew I had to go last night, the first time I’ve been in about five weeks.
So I go in, say my hellos (it’s a smallish group, about 6 people at this point), and one guy, fortyish, with glass and a slight military bearing says, “I know you”. I reply that he does look familiar, perhaps from a previous Stammtisch. No, it turns out, this is his first one. At that point I assume he’s probably mistaken me for someone else, which occurs often enough. He thinks that he’s seen me in the hallway at the “SOC”, whatever that means.
Then his beautiful wife comes and joins him. I look at her and now I know I’ve seen them before. But they both insist it’s their first time here. Then the little lightbulb goes off over my head (we need a Eureka! smilie). It’s Lucretia and Bluesman!
I’d met them once before, albeit not in 1960 at Challenger’s Deep, for more than 20 minutes. They’d been to the last FloriDope with their children and had moved into the Tampa Bay area some time in the past year. I knew vaguely where they were living. The good news is now we have a regular excuse to get together and drink good beer. And what could be a happier ending than that?
I have told this one before but it is a good one so here goes:
I was a new and proud owner of a SDMB mug. I drank coffee from said mug everyday, I had the mug next to my computer, on the lecturn when teaching and generally with me at all times whilst at school.
I have always been one to keep my anonymity to myself to avoid any real confrontations at school, I have always thought that if my students knew I was a doper it would not be of my best interest.
So why carry a mug with the SDMB advert on it? I was a new doper, I didn’t really know at the time how the boards would suck me into their clutches. And I certainly did not think there would be any sort of conflict of interest at the time.
One day one of my psych 202 students came up to me and said: “…Hey…Mr.Phlosphr, I didn’t know you were a doper!” :eek:
Slightly addled I looked down to see my SDMB mug…and I immediately looked at the young man and played dumb…he pointed to the mug and said, “You know the Straight Dope…”
I promptly told him the mug was a gift, and blindly asked him if he’d tell me more about the boards… He mentioned the intelligent people who post here and how nice a board it was…and I commented and told him I’d check it out.
Little did he know…I was a voracious poster at the time.
I’m not sure the best way to translate it, but it’s a German tradition of reserving a table for the “regulars”. In many German places this is done full time. At Hoppers it’s a Monday night thing. There is a bit of a connecting thread, with some Germans, Austrians and German speakers, then also some other folks with connections via the Military (we have MacDill AFB nearby, plus some reserve units) and some who are friends via the Masons. I’m not military or Masonic, but I speak enough German to fool the common observer. Generally a very nice bunch of folks, so I try to make it by as often as I can. Oh, and the “sponsor” is the brewmaster for Hoppers (it’s a small brewpub chain with very good food), so most of the beer is free (on Mondays only). Last night we had a pumpkin lambic and a beer he called Blitzen which was 15% alcohol content* but really tasty. Phlosphr, is your student still a regular here?
