Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You can’t love your country only when you win.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

People are weird.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This blog will pay for itself.

When we show up, we win.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Everybody saw this coming.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Let there be snark.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Talk of Meetups – Open Thread (Followup)

Talk of Meetups – Open Thread (Followup)

by | 159 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Update: Dec 8:  Re-re-upping this post so BJ peeps can add comments.  Last posted on Oct 8

Re-upping this post because so many conversations had started in this post from August.

In the comments, I made note if a particular person had offered to coordinate (or help coordinate) the meetup.  See comments #94, #98, and #122.

Coordinators welcome for other meetups as well, just speak up in the comments.

Originally published on| 124 Comment – new comments start at #125, but be sure and read the older comments if you are up for a meetup.

Update at 7:45 pm on 8/7.  I have added this post to the sidebar under Balloon Juice Meetups!

We have volunteers to coordinate two of the meetups, check out comments #94 and #98.

If you would be interested in any of the meetups that were proposed, or you are up for coordinating any of the others, jump into the comments and let us know.

I am hearing talk of meetups and thought maybe we’d start with a single post where people can throw out an initial feeler about a meetup – in a place where more people might see it than in a comment in one thread.

Talk of Meetups

Mr. Bemused Senior wonders if anyone is interested in a meetup in the SF Bay Area.

I think I saw that NotMax is going to be in New York soon visiting his mom.

Paul in Jacksonville suggests a meetup in the Jacksonville/St. Augustine area in northeast Floriduh.

HinTN suggests a meetup in Mountain View in CA.

cain wonders about a meetup in Portland.  (PNW)

MisterForkbeard suggests a possible Ranch Dinner meetup in North Bay.

Dastronomer in Santa Cruz thinks North Bay is far, anyone else in South Bay?

Cephalus Max asks – how about a Research Triangle meet up? (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Pittsboro)

Joy in FL lives in west Pasco County, about 30 miles northwest of Tampa, up for something in Tampa?

JCNZ how about a meetup on Waiheke Island, New Zealand?

Diceros bicornis will be in Paris weekend of 17-17 September, if there are other bj peeps in the vicinity (visiting or residenting) then a meetup would be trop cool!

TXSwede says “No appetite for a North Texas meetup?”

Nancy is up for a meetup in Rochester NY or the surrounding area.

If you’d like to put out a feeler about a possible meetup, please let us know in the comments.  I will add it to the list in the block quote above, and folks can jump in with comments below.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    MisterForkbeard

    I’d be interested in a SF Bay Area meetup. That’d be fun. We’ve got 2-3 BJers up in the NorthBay, and I’m sure we’ve got some near the Peninsula or South Bay too. Should be a lot of places to meet up.

  2. 2.

    HinTN

    I’ll be in Mountain View this week, arriving tomorrow and departing Friday. I’m there fairly regularly so maybe a plan that’s a little furthur out could work. I’m kinda sorta committed to driving down to Phil’s Fish Market in Castroville on Thursday.

  3. 3.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    I’ll put a pitch in for the Jacksonville/St. Augustine area in northeast Floriduh.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    Repeating for this thread.

    Time, I guess, to start contemplating a possible NYC meet-up.

    Will be traveling there from the 22nd through September 6th. First weekend is completely taken up for me with a fershslugginer wedding, however the next (Labor Day holiday) weekend is wide open. Looking for preferences of dates/times among September 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th and also suggestions regarding a venue.

  8. 8.

    Dastronomer

    I’m a lurker based in Santa Cruz. North Bay is far, but South Bay might be doable…

  11. 11.

    MisterForkbeard

    @HinTN: I haven’t, though I’ve been all over the place in the peninsula. But never did much on coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz – though my BIL used to live up on Skyline, I lived in Menlo Park (and Redwood City), and we used to spend a lot of time in Aptos. So we were all over the place.

    If you’re heading down to Castroville and need a break, stop at Gayle’s Bakery & Rosticceria. Best cakes/pastries (got our wedding cake from there too), and some fantastic deli sandwiches.

  16. 16.

    MisterForkbeard

    I have an (expensive but amazing) idea for a north bay meetup. Costs ~$125 per person, but I have a friend who throws “ranch dinners” on her hill ranch overlooking our town. It’s a full dinner out on the hills, with some infrastructure she and her husband have built. He’s a 4th generation rancher and she’s a chef (pastry chef too) by training, and she sells tickets for ~25 people to come up there every two Saturdays.

    You show up an hour or so before dinner and just hang out and eat appetizers. Dinners are 5 course, very casual with people getting up and walking around and talking. There’s a bartender that attends too, though you’ve gotta pay for drinks there or bring your own wine. All the food comes from their ranch or from local farms within 15 miles or so.

    It’s a great evening. If anyone ever wants to do that outside of a big BJ meetup, let me know. I go to a lot of them, they’re fantastic.

    ETA: I also have a recommendation for a fantastic bar/distillery, though the food options are very limited there unless you want to bring your own/order from local places.

    @WaterGirl: Yep! Mountain View is central silicon valley.

  17. 17.

    Jerzy Russian

    @WaterGirl:   Mountain View is on the southern part of San Francisco Bay, probably about 40 or 50 miles south east of San Francisco proper.

  19. 19.

    MisterForkbeard

    My schedule is North Bay most of the week, and typically San Mateo on Thursdays. So I’ve got some flexibility. Seems like we haven’t heard from most of the North Bay folks here yet :/

  21. 21.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: It’s North Bay, East Bay, South Bay, and the Peninsula. They’re each maybe 1 hour from each other (ish), unless you go North<->South which takes a 1.5-2 hours.

    A meetup in the Peninsula is sorta central. Parts of the East Bay are also somewhat central. You’d likely be looking at ~1 hour travel time for people in the north or south bays.

  23. 23.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: The Bay Area as a whole is a large section of the state. If you take Cloverdale in the north, which is near the northern border of Sonoma County, to Gilroy near the southern border of Santa Clara county, that’s over 160 miles distance. Depending on the day, time of day, and the route you take, it could be anywhere from a 2.5 to 3.5 hour drive.

    Also, there is no West Bay. That would be the ocean :) I mean, I suppose you could call San Francisco the “West Bay” but every single person here would poke you in the eye for that.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    Recalling the father-son pair who perished touristing the Titanic, a mother-daughter pair are set to dare the space-travel gods.

    An 18-year-old Aberdeen University student and her mother will travel to space later this week after winning a place on Virgin Galactic’s second commercial flight in a prize draw.

    Anastatia Mayers and her mum Keisha Schahaff will be the first mother and daughter to go to space.

    They will also be the first people from the Caribbean to make the journey. The pair will take off from New Mexico on Thursday.Keisha was travelling to the UK to sort out her daughter’s visa when she entered the competition.

    She was on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Antigua to London when suddenly an advert popped up.

    “I filled out this sweepstake and then suddenly months later I’m getting correspondences saying that you’re a top 20 finalist, then a top five finalist, to becoming a winner,” she says.

    “Suddenly, who’s walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The whole team just swarmed into my house saying ‘you’re the winner, you’re going to space’.”

    The mission, named Galactic 02 is the second commercial spaceflight conducted by the American space company, and the first with paying customers onboard.

    The advertised price for a ride on the rocket plane has been as high as $450,000 (£350,000).

    The Galactic 01 mission took place in June. It reached an altitude of 279,000ft (85km). It is thought the second mission will attempt the same path.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-66405219

    What could possibly go wrong?

  28. 28.

    JGreen

    @Alison Rose:  Well, there is a local opera company called “West Bay Opera” in Palo Alto.  I guess either they figure they’re west of something and near the bay or they just managed to keep out of the water.

  29. 29.

    Anoniminous

    The Cultural Warrior’s attack on and boycott of Barbie has worked so well the film has raked in a billion bucks & change.

    Go Woke.  Go to the bank.

  30. 30.

    pacem appellant

    @WaterGirl: If I could embed a map, I would. In good traffic, it’s at least an hour to get between San Francisco and Mountain View. Somebody above posted that they’re in Santa Cruz. That’s even further south, along the coast over a mountain range.

    I wear a different hat and organize a meet-up twice a year for a region that spans San Francisco all the way to Salinas. I’ve found that San José’s San Pedro Square Marketplace is the best central location.

  35. 35.

    PaulWartenberg

    @Alison Rose:

    Also, there is no West Bay. That would be the ocean :) I mean, I suppose you could call San Francisco the “West Bay” but every single person here would poke you in the eye for that.

    The sea lions got a fancy spot out there.

  37. 37.

    MisterForkbeard

    @JGreen: Redwood City has some really nice places too. I used to hang out at Gourmet Haus Staudt’s beer garden – loved that place. Nothing like a huge german pretzel to go with your beer.

    Ever been to St. James Gate up in San Mateo? Looks divey from the outside, but the inside and the back are quite nice and they’ve got a ludicrous whiskey selection.

  38. 38.

    wmd

    Bloomington is also a popular town/city name.

    Where are people thinking for a Mountain View meetup? Lots of good eateries there – on Castro Street in particular. It also has the advantage of being a short walk from CalTrain so people from North/East Bay could use public transit and contribute less to the traffic/parking woes.

  42. 42.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Alison Rose: Oof. 17 is really rough, especially if you hit traffic/vacationer time. It’s slow, twisty, and there are a ton of accidents on that road that completely block all traffic for hours.

    They should just build a huge damn tunnel through the whole mountain range, though I’m sure that’d cost billions of dollars. :/

  44. 44.

    MisterForkbeard

    @trollhattan: I had/have days where I need to drive from the NB to the Peninsula for a 7:30am workday.

    If I leave at 5:30 I get there at 6:30. If I leave at 6:00, I get there at 7:45. Though this has changed a bit (covid!) now that there’s less traffic.

  48. 48.

    wmd

    I’m not sure about Frankie, Johnny and Luigi. I’m partial to the successor to Fiesta del Mar – Agave. Good Mexican food and adult beverages. I lived in Mountain View in 1999, have been in the SC mountains for most of the years since then.

    17 can be problematic for sure, especially in the rainy season. Thankfully when traffic is going slow I can split lanes. Or take highway 9.

    Went down the city name rabbit hole:
    Riverside – 46 states!
    Springfield – 34 states
    Mountain View – 26 states
    Bloomington – 20 states

  53. 53.

    pacem appellant

    @WaterGirl: If you want to split the Bay Area, I recommend North Bay, South Bay, and East Bay.

    Weirdly, depending on traffic, it’s always possible to combine two of them, but NEVER all three.

    And there’s culture politics over what East Bay is. Properly, it’s Oakland and Berkeley and environs, but there are A LOT of cities south of those that aren’t South Bay, but aren’t included in East Bay because of snobbery.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @MisterForkbeard: The lower and upper bounds of the drive to see the kid from here the Valley are 1:20 and seven hours. That second was the day wildfire jumped I-80, so hopefully a one-off.

    That said, catch the wrong day with zero fires and it’s 4+ hours for less than 100 miles.

  58. 58.

    Cephalus Max

    How about a Research Triangle meet up? (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Pittsboro)

    We’ve got one FPer in the area who may or may not have time to sneak away from his PhD studies, plus a bunch of people like me who are lurkers and occasional commenters.

  59. 59.

    wmd

    East of the Diablo range (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore) has a different vibe than Richmond/Berkeley/Oakland/Hayward… Fremont is South Bay.

  60. 60.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sister Golden Bear: Is that Alhambra? Never been in, but it looked real nice.

    I used to have a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of San Mateo/Redwood City restaurants, but I’m 6-8 years out of date.

  62. 62.

    Llelldorin

    @pacem appellant: Really? I’ve never heard anyone try to claim that my neck of the woods (Hayward/Union City/Castro Valley/San Leandro/San Lorenzo/etc) isn’t East Bay.

    I mean, I live within a stone’s throw of California State University, East Bay. It’s notably not in Oakland or Berkeley.

  63. 63.

    Joy in FL

    about Florida– I live in west Pasco County, about 30 miles northwest of Tampa. I would like to attend a meet-up, but it’s a three hour drive one way to Jacksonville/St Augustine, so I doubt I would do it. I’m posting mostly just to be in the loop, because who knows? maybe it is something I could do.

  64. 64.

    MisterForkbeard

    @JGreen: Gourmet Haus Staudt is really interesting. The front of the store is a German import store – lots of candy, canned goods, beers, and other neat things.

    In the afternoons, the back turns into a beer garden and its lovely. Mostly bench seating, not fancy but just nice: https://www.gourmethausstaudt.com/

    St. James Gate is a better restaurant and bar overall, though. But if you want REALLY awesome beer and food, “The Refuge” in San Carlos and San Mateo is blinkingly fantastic.

  66. 66.

    cain

    @Llelldorin: ok – I’ve been waiting to see when you’d get active – so I can ask you if “Llelldorin” is from a David Eddings series?

  67. 67.

    Llelldorin

    @cain: It was! His dippy enthusiasm appealed to me when I was 18. I’m… really, really not 18 anymore, but I can’t be bothered to work out a new pseudonym at this point.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @wmd: Agree. Fremont and Hayward are very different from the rest of the East Bay, including geography and climate. Fun fact, they have significant Asian populations, Fremont being majority Asian.

  70. 70.

    HinTN

    @wmd: There’s Ludwig’s Biergarten (under new ownership so no current review) that has nice outside seating and HAD a great selection.

  73. 73.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Llelldorin: I settled on “Forkbeard” when I was 13. Eventually upgraded to “MisterForkbeard”

    Maybe you can move to BaronetLelldorin or something. I don’t think he’s the Baron yet by the end of the series.

    Also: Forgot you were in Hayward. Should meet up someday. If only there was a thread about that somewhere.

  74. 74.

    MisterForkbeard

    @trollhattan: It’s time to consider radical travel ideas. Like a zipline that runs from Sonoma to downtown SF. Or a “commute cannon”. Personal helicopters?

    Or maybe we just all Zoom to shit from now on.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    Okay, I think I have everything in the list above, but I suck at geography, so my eyes glazed over at a lot of the details.

    So please reply to this comment if anything is missing in the post up top, or if two of them are the same and I just don’t realize it. :-)

  78. 78.

    MisterForkbeard

    @trollhattan: I went to a bar in Europe once that was real-time linked to 4 other bars in europe, with cameras, big screen TVs and so on.

    They mostly used it to egg you on to buy more beer (“Table 6 in Brno has had 30 liters, you guys need to step up”), but you could absolutely order food and beer for other people in other EU countries. Kinda awesome.

  79. 79.

    cain

    @Llelldorin: haha! Excellent – because that’s a pretty unique name! I’ve read that series so many times – my paperbacks are all worn out. :D It was a great young adult series. :D

  80. 80.

    JCNZ

    How about a meet-up on Waiheke Island, New Zealand? There’s a bj cell of at least one here – maybe there are others?

  83. 83.

    Alison Rose

    @JCNZ: Oh wow. Just Googled and it looks freaking GORGEOUS. I wish I’d been able to visit NZ in my traveling days, it was always one of the top places I wanted to see.

    Was part of that because of wanting to pretend it was The Shire? And was part of wanting to visit The Shire because being around Hobbits would mean, for the first and only time in my life, I’d be the tall one in the room and everyone would come to ME asking if I could get something down for them? Yes. Yes indeed.

    But it’s also beautiful!!

  86. 86.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    @Joy in FL: I have had a Gainesville and a central Florida response, too. If there’s enough interest we could do something central/north Floriduh-ish.

  90. 90.

    Dastronomer

    @Alison Rose: it’s the drivers that make the 17 so much fun/rage-inducing. I live in SC because I work at UCSC – otherwise I’d never consider it for so many reasons.

    Also, folks please don’t feel like you have to plan around me, my location, or schedule. I’m a long time lurker and just happen to be close enough to the Bay area to maybe join a meetup 🙃

  92. 92.

    Dastronomer

    @pacem appellant: I used to live in Mountain View!

    I am casually interested in attending a meetup, but I might not be able to join due to work, work travel, etc.

    Driving an hour or 1.5 hours isn’t unreasonable for me. I grew up in rural Colorado half an hour’s drive to a traffic light…

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    Okay, it sounds like there is some interest already in some of these.

    Speak up in the comments if you would be willing to coordinate one of the meetups in your area.  And if you expressed interest, can you let me know in the comments if I can share your email address with whoever ends up coordinating?

  94. 94.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    @WaterGirl: I’m the north Floriduh instigator, so I’ll coordinate whatever we decide to do. Please do share my email address with Ken from Gainesville, Paul W from the Orlando area, Joy from Pasco County, and anyone else who expresses interest.

    COORDINATOR for North Florida

  95. 95.

    Diceros bicornis

    Ima be in Paris weekend of 17-17 September, if there are other bj peeps in the vicinity (visiting or residenting) then a meetup would be trop cool!

    edit: dates corrected to 16-17, and maybe even Friday night, the 1th.

  96. 96.

    JGreen

    @MisterForkbeard: Man, I never knew about this place.  I’ve lived in Redwood City for more years than I want to admit to and it’s only a mile and half from where I live.

    That said, I’m not really a beer drinker, so I haven’t looked for good places for that sort of thing.

    I think I’ve just disqualified myself from joining a meet-up.

  99. 99.

    JGreen

    @Alison Rose

    Ooh, ooh. I was a Banana Slug for a couple of years, but I developed an aversion for going to classes and even UC Santa Cruz wasn’t laid back enough to go for that. I remember my days there fondly, though. Even learned a bit of Russian there.

  102. 102.

    sempronia

    Agree that the Refuge is spectacular. Too bad the one in Menlo Park closed recently.

    Any of the downtowns along the Caltrain route would work. San Carlos, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Castro (Mountain View), and Sunnyvale, all have nice little downtowns. VTA also stops at Castro and near San Pedro Square in San Jose (does anyone ride VTA?). If we’re talking Castro, Eureka and Stein’s are similar beer-burger-sports bar places. Olympus Caffe and Crepevine are good too. There’s Amarin Thai, Fu Lam Mum for Chinese (Cantonese) food, including dim sum, and at least half a dozen boba tea shops within three blocks. All have ample outdoor seating, since Castro was pedestrianized during the pandemic and the city plans to make it permanent.

  103. 103.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    @Sallycat: I’ve had responses from Pasco County, the Orlando area, and Gainesville. Are you ok with a central Florida meet up?

  104. 104.

    TXSwede

    No appetite for a North Texas meetup?  I am outside Ft Worth, but would be happy to meet, and even organize, anywhere in the metroplex.

  105. 105.

    JGreen

    @Alison Rose: ​fragment=”1″>@Alison Rose: ​ Well, I usually feel older than everybody, but I’ve noticed that isn’t the case at Balloon Juice.I was at UCSC from 1973 to 1975. At that point, UCSC noticed that I wasn’t really doing my part and I had to leave. I still like to think of myself as an ex-Slug. I was very glad to see that the students insisted on keeping the Banana Slug as the nickname for the sports teams (which we didn’t have back in my day) despite the administration’s desire for something more respectable. The Banana Slug certainly fit the attitude of everyone when I was there and it was good to see that the later students still felt that way.
    Go Slugs!​

  107. 107.

    Andrya

    I live in the SF South Bay but would be interested in a meetup anywhere in the SF Bay Area.  I’m a little dubious about MisterForkbeard’s suggestion (comment #16) as “ranch menu” sounds meaty, and I’m a strict vegetarian (no meat, no fish, no exceptions).  It’s fine to share my email with event organizers.

  108. 108.

    Nancy

    Rochester NY or surrounding area?

    A few years ago we had a respectable number around a table in a local establishment. Stories were told and I still wonder about the goldfish rescue pet.

  109. 109.

    JGreen

    @Alison Rose: Oh, boy.  That is a long time.  I probably wouldn’t have recognized the place at that time.  I’m sure I wouldn’t recognize it now.  Haven’t been back there in ages.

  113. 113.

    Andrya

    @BQuimby:   Absolutely true.  I was referring only to the mention of a restaurant with a “ranch menu”.  I doubt the ranch raises hummus.

  114. 114.

    TMinSJ

    Hello Bay Area peeps, I’m in Sunnyvale, so Mtn View & San Pedro Square are both great for me. I’d like to join any SB/Bay Area meetups. Please do share my email with our designated coordinator. :)

    @gwangung Frankie, Johnie and Luigi’s has not reopened, and per an article from maybe 2-3 years ago in the MV paper, the family who owned the restaurant also owned the land, and are turning it into an assisted living facility with attached restaurant, although I’m not clear on if it will stay FJL’s or be something new. I drove by a few weeks ago, and it is still under construction. Supposedly there is a FJL’s in Dublin (East Bay), but I’ve never been.

  119. 119.

    JAFD

    I should be up for a Labor Day weekend meetup in NYC, preferably somewhere near a PATH station, or a subway station if not.

    Going to be scrambling around the rest of August, so can’t volunteer to arrange things.

    Looking forward to seeing Not Max again

    Any other North Jersey folk around ?

  127. 127.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    Florida Jackals, if you give WG permission to share your email address with me, I’ll put something together time wise and travel wise that would work for the group. WG, you have my permission to share my email with these folks.

  130. 130.

    kindness

    Central Valley here.  My family back east has no idea/refuses to learn that California is a really long & big state.  Especially by east coast standards.  Of course in their minds California is LA.  They don’t even think about N. Cal.  Relatives would vacation in LA and tell me I have to come see them.  It’s easily 4 hours from me and that doesn’t include wrecks on the Grapevine.  I’m 85 miles east south east of Oakland.  Anywhere in the Bay Area is 90 minutes minimum.  You get used to it.

  131. 131.

    Spirit of Molly Ivins

    Long time lurker on the Dallas side of DFW but happy to meet other sane people in Texas. Count me in.

  135. 135.

    surfk9

    I’m in Lodi, I would be interested in doing a meetup for Central Valley and foothill peeps​

  138. 138.

    Gravie

    I will be in Tampa on a couple of days in mid-October and might be able to swing something.

  139. 139.

    Uncle Cosmo

    This is a bit far out, but not too soon to start planning:

    On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will track across the US from western Texas northeast through AR, IN, OH, upstate NY & northern New England (with small incursions into OK, MO, IL, KY and northwestern PA. Maximum totality is 4 minutes and change, a pretty fair duration. In OH the band of totality runs through Dayton, Columbus, Akron and Cleveland. More details at this site.

    Dunno if JoColElle will have relocated to Aridzona by then, but it would be a good excuse to come back to WV for the extended weekend and catch up with the family. Could do a meetup on Saturday or Sunday in Bethany & then everyone drive/carpool up into the path for the show, or have a meetup in any of those OH towns before, during, and/or after the Main Event. And anyone who cares to help the local Democratic candidates could volunteer a few hours writing postcards or answering the phones in a HQ.

    For those of you who have never seen a total eclipse of the sun, be aware that adjusting for the duration of totality** it’s about the most spectacular event you will ever see – weather permitting.***

    (NB I am not offering to organize anything – it’s off my map and above my pay grade. Just suggesting it might be a good thing to shoot for.)

    ** The longest period of totality (and FTR partial or annular eclipses just do not compare at all) in modern times was 7:08 on 20 June 1955 west of the Philippines; the longest possible duration is 7:30.
    *** I observed the 7 March 1970 eclipse that went up the East Coast from a concrete slab in Newport News VA. It was short (not much longer than 2 minutes of totality) but impressive enough that when I had the chance I flew to Frankfurt on 10 August 1999 and proceeded to Stuttgart to see the Deutsch Bahn Sonnenfinsternis the following day, which pretty much tracked ;^D the rail line from Karlsruhe through Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, Munich and Salzburg. Unfortunately we were rained out – during totality it frackin’ poured, Shoulda gone to Munich, where it also poured on the high muckamucks stationed at the Olympic stadium but cleared up just in time for the regular folks gathered at the Deutsches Museum on an island in the Isar River to get a great view. ​​

  141. 141.

    frosty

    @Uncle Cosmo: I saw the last total eclipse in Nashville and it was every bit as awesome as you suggest. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the difference between total and partial eclipse is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

    It’s been on my list for awhile but I haven’t tried to make any reservations yet. Hope it’s not too late!

  142. 142.

    tokyokie

    I’d be interested in a North Texas meetup. But my work schedule will be odd for the next several weeks.

  145. 145.

    Diceros bicornis

    Paris France 🇫🇷 – I’ll be back and can organize a meetup there 24, 25, or 26 October. Or…9,10, or 11 December. More dates possible in March of next year.

  147. 147.

    Geminid

    @frosty: I caught that eclipse with a friend. We drove from Atlanta through Franklin, Tennessee. We had to dodge from under some clouds and stopped in a podunk town just in time. When the eclipse kicked in, the streetlights came on and the night insects started buzzing. Twenty minutes later things were getting back to normal.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    From Saturday, Oct 14

    AM in NC
    OCTOBER 14, 2023 AT 3:30 PM

    Love putting the faces to the jackals!

    Is anyone up for a meet up in November/December in the Triangle area of NC?  I just had ACL surgery so I won’t be up and about for a bit.

    I know WaterGirl did a meet-up planning thread, but it got so big I didn’t think we’d be able to cull for possibles.

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    From Thursday, Oct 26

    rekoob

    This might be a good time and place to suggest a DC meetup. I was thinking shortly after the Virginia/Ohio elections at one of Jose Andres’s places:

    Zaytinya — Gallery Place Metro

    I was there last week and it has a lively atmosphere and specializes in small plates/mezze.

    It’s quite popular, so we may need to have a critical mass to get a reservation.  It’s also right across the street from the Gallery Place Metro, in the heart of DC.

    Something to consider — maybe around 17-18 November 2023? Sooner? Later? Weekday? Weekend?

  156. 156.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl: @rekoob: I’m interested in a DC meetup, but the 18th is one day I definitely can’t do. (You know how nothing much happens for weeks and then everything gets scheduled on the same day? It’s one of those.)

  157. 157.

    Nancy

    @catpal:

    Wow! How did I miss your way-back-in-August comment? So glad someone is interested.

    I am flexible about days and places. What kind of activity do you like? Diner breakfast, dinner, tea in the afternoon, the Little Theater on East Avenue?

  158. 158.

    Ken

    @Paul in Jacksonville:

    Thanks very much Paul!  Do you have a date in mind?  I will drive from Gville, so a weekend would be easiest for me.  I have some travel planned, so that will be a factor also!

    Cheers, Ken

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