Thursday, 2 March 2006
Lunch

We are standing in the Center lounge. HPS faculty, graduate students, Center Visiting Fellows. There's something wrong. There's no food.  Usually, by the advertised time of 12:30 for this bi-weekly event,  the table is laden. Last time it was sandwiches of many different types. This time it is Indian food. Usually you notice the fragrant smell well before you turn the corner and find that somehow everyone else got there ahead of you. You have to go to the end of the line.

We're getting nervous. Someone goes to the fridge to get a drink. That seems like a good a idea and someone else follows. But still no food. Then Zvi enters, hurrying. And we see why. He is carrying a very hot, very large container of Indian food. His only concern it whether he can get to the table before his burning hands give out. More follow. Soon the trays of food are laid out and we line up to fill our plates.

Things are now back to normal. We take our plates and look for somewhere to sit; and then somewhere to stand. It is a small room and we jostle each other gently as we stand, talking and shoveling the creamy, sauce soaked rice into our mouths. The crescendo of conversation rises. I thought I'd take some photos and I'm proud of my little camera. I soon learn that a graduate student (Balazs Gyenis) has a camera just the same size as mine that is also a blackberry and who knows what else. It does everything. We take a photo of each other to mark the event. It is the sort of bonding that only a true techno-nerd would understand.

John D. Norton

CPS—Department of History and Philosophy of Science lunch
Thursday, 2 March 2006