Odds and ends from Bal'mer
Somehow, I forgot to mention that I saw/briefly talked with four heroes of mine at SLA2006:
* Both Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nesbit of ALA's Washington Office were at SLA -- Patrice presented on the topic of government information and secrecy, which is also the subject of her upcoming book from Bernan (which sponsored her talk). After all the unflattering things I've had to say about Bernan as a jobber, I was conflicted about enjoying their generosity ... but I went anyway and it was a great program. And as a publisher, they seem to be pretty cool. Miriam stopped in at the panel with K. Matthew Danes, Bill Burger from the CCC, etc.
* I finally met Laura Gasaway! *sqee!* Great, lively speaker ... yes, I gushed in her specific direction.
* I had dinner with Kee Malesky. Mind you, I felt compelled to apologize the next day because I was psuedo-tipsy (not from alcohol, but a combo of sleep deprivation and over-stimulation), but she was really gracious and down-to-earth and generally cooler-than-all-get-out.
Did I say I had a good conference? I had a good conference. In fact, I may have a hard decision coming up in a couple of years: study to take the July bar in '09 or celebrate SLA's centennial in DC and put off the bar until February ...