How Monday Finished: With The Topologist

1. The topologist was intrigued by the table of contents and the fantastic pictures from the paper that took forever to print (and that received mixed reviews in the comments to my earlier post). He lamented, "I wish you had shown me this earlier. We could have organized a seminar to read it this semester." Probably this nascent collaboration will go the way of some earlier work we were going to do relating to some ill-defined goals inspired by a paper of Connes and Kreimer. Probably I should have just printed the pages with the pictures, cut them out, and taped them to my wall.


2. The response to my email about the birthday party (grossly plagiarized from wolfa's comment) directed me to bring food and/or drink and a guest. I was flustered with indecision; the topologist marshalled a bottle of wine and some cookies.


3. I socialized awkwardly at the party. There were so many people there that I had this nagging doubt that I was talking to the wrong people. The topologist hid in the parlor, grabbed a book from a nearby bookshelf, and sat on the couch and read. Ninety minutes into the party I found him there and rescued him by suggesting that it was time to leave.