Ten Days That Shook the World: The Mensa Stuff (#SFWApro)

Continuing with my Boston vacation tales … Needless to say, when TYG and I go to a Mensa gathering, we hang out with Mensans. It’s the primary reason I go (the Boston tourism was just a glorious plus; I’ve gone to gatherings in Reno and Birmingham, AL and enjoyed them), more so now that I’m further away from all my friends further south (no offense to my Durham chums intended).
I have lots of friends in Mensa and they’re scattered all over. Some in Florida, some in Birmingham, some in Ft. Worth (where we went last year), some on the West Coast, etc., etc. So it’s really nice to hang out with them.
Hanging out takes place in the hospitality suite where all the food is (I was quite shocked to attend another group’s convention a decade ago and discover that they didn’t keep a constant supply of snacks on hand at all time). Plus the games room, though TYG and I mostly played by ourself. And the Gen X Mensa SIG’s (special interest group) suite; I’m not quite Gen X, but I have enough friends they put up with me.
There are also various special events, the first one of which was hitting the bowling lane up the street from the hotel.

Unfortunately despite the lanes being empty (as far as I could see) they told us we’d have a 90 minute wait. Some of the group decided to wait and play pool, TYG and I packed it in.
Other events included a pub crawl, group dinner out (rather awkward as the Irish pub—Lir, presumably named for the Celtic god/king—didn’t have anywhere near enough chairs, so we stood a lot), brunch at the Pour Man (very good) and of course, dinners out with just a few of us.

(The Pour Man. The fork and plate are trump l’oeil)

(The Pour Man, the inside walls).
Hospitality meals were, not great, but perfectly adequate (that’s the norm for national gatherings). The high point was that Cabot Cheese of Vermont donated lots of little cheese slices as snacks. The low point was the meal where the vegetarian alternatives were salad and potato salad. No. Offering salad is not not a vegetarian alternative. The other low point was that the hot water for tea came out of machines that had clearly held coffee and not been cleaned well, so I was drinking coffee-flavored tea. That was frustrating: I’d brought my own teabags (in case they served something crappy) but instead I had to rely on Starbucks, which added costs.
The games room had Chronology, which TYG and I love to play. We also tried out It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (identify the work from the first line) and Split Decision (three theme questions with a/b answers such as “New Orleans Saint or Catholic Saint” or “SNL host or front-runner in the Iowa caucus.”). We also played a big game of Cards Against Humanity with friends in the Gen X suite.
Mensans being the geeks we are, there were lots of presentations, on every manner of subject: politics, science, life experience, film. I contributed two, one on Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, the second on L. Frank Baum and Oz (I have, after all written the book on Oz). I attended one by a friend discussing his battle with cancer (successful!), one about the current state of religious rights in the US and one by a friend who works at the CERN particle accelerator (apparently being able to invite someone to tour the Large Hadron Collider makes for a great first date).
The Mensa side of things wrapped up Friday, but we had several days of sight-seeing yet to come.