Books 'n Booze

November Saloon was a bit unique, as we almost put the night on a kind of “diet.”

To start, we read Matilda, which isn’t exactly an Ayn-Ryan-level, Sparknotes-the-metaphors kind of book.

Second, we all went a little “low-to-no” carb with our dishes, for the sake of our friend, who will remain nameless, and her decision to meet up with her old friend Atkins (in case you were wondering, it wasn’t me. Or Des. But I’m not telling you who). We gave our poor friend a hard time about it, just because we love her and think that she’s already fabulous, but–in the end–food accommodations weren’t hard at all.

Finally, we really limited discussion. Sure, we talked about some topics, went over some current events, and–as always–ended up back to talking about growing up and what it was like in high school. (There’s Murphy’s Law about accidents waiting to happen, Godwin’s Law of Nazis in Internet forums, and I think there should be the Saloon Law of Books and Booze discussions–eventually, we will end up talking about life in high school.)

So, overall, it was Saloon on a Diet. But, as always, there were highlights worth mentioning. Here we go…

Book Discussion.
We all love Matilda. How can you not love Matilda? We talked about how quick a read the book was, and how fun the illustrations were. We talked about “children vs. adults” in children literature, about how the movie toned down some of the Trunchbull’s ridiculousness. We revealed some of our favorite parts, named favorite quotes, and all agreed that it was one of those rare, movie-almost-as-good-as-the-book phenomenons.

Current Events and Discussion.
Our Current Event discussion board wasn’t brimming with things to discuss, but we did manage to make a long conversation out of the Penn State situation. While it is far from a pleasant topic, it did spark some interesting debate; Jen and Des believe strongly that Paterno should have done more, while I tried to defend him and call the blame on him unfair. After that agree-to-disagree conclusion, we talked about Adobe’s decision to stop mobile Flash development and about the “Should You Always Wear Your Wedding Band” article that Des found. Since Des was the expert in that department, we agreed to revisit the situation when Mister Matty is forced to start wearing some bling (jury is out on whether it’ll bother him or not…).

Playlists
To go along with the Matilda theme, our playlists focused on “Songs that make you dance like a kid.” It was an interesting night for Playlists, since we kind of decided mid-meeting to start using Dropbox to share our playlists (rather than burning CDs for one another). We were all slackers in one way or another; Des didn’t post to the playlist forum, Jen and Sarah didn’t burn their CDs, and no one actually set up the Dropbox before the meeting. But, we figured it out, and in the end Des won the Preparedness Award since she’s the only one who actually brought the CDs. Still, should be the last time for those little things; yay, progress!

Despite the confusion, we all managed to share some really great songs. Horray for dancing like a kid! In the car! While people stare at you at red lights!

Overall, it was a great Saloon. The “Diet” theme actually proved helpful, as our slimmed-down discussion left us plenty of time to plan out holiday events. With a SIGDOC party, joint-birthday party, Saloon Holiday meeting, and a all-day movie date on the calendar, we’re going to be some busy (chubby) December Bookers ‘N Boozers. Good thing we dieted in November!