Anecdotal observations of workshop attendance patterns at a convention

I' ve been sampling many workshops at the Convention Center, and | notice that whenever | sit down on a chair next to a chair with someone else’ s stuff on it, and the owner of that stuff is sitting on the other side of that chair, they always tap the top of their stuff in a subconscious gesture of territoriality. | also observe that a man with one leg (he walks with crutches) and his wife seem to arrive at every single workshop that | attend. Hmmmmm. I' m beginning to get suspicious. Obviously, |’ ve seen too many spy movies. A cartoon in the 1991 convention program showed two rooms where lectures were being given. The attendees in the room featuring “Do It Yourself Porn: Make Your Own XXX Movies” were overflowing into the corridor, while the room featuring “Socio-Political Ramifications of Current Trends in the Erosion of Civil Liberties” was empty, except for the baffled lecturer. It was a nice touch of self-deprecating humor, an exaggeration not too far from reality. At this ' 97 convention, porn actress Nina Hartley’ s “So You Want to Throw a Party: Recipes for a Successful Orgy” attracts ten times more audience than attorney Bob Burke’ s “Sexual Politics: A Behind the Scenes Look.” Unfortunately, one workshop, “The Undertone of Sexuality in the Star Trek Series,” has been canceled— “due,” someone added to the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015204