My device for everything nice

[austin_dern]

So here's how I spent an evening schmoozing. My mother has all sorts of committees at her alma mater that she's on, and she signs up for many evening presentations and talks and such. One of them, about the school's environmental sustainability program, was supposed to be attended by several people including the provost who's ultimately deciding on their next mathematics professor hire. So my parents --- simultaneously and independently, apparently --- thought it might be a good idea if I took my father's ticket to the reception.

After getting a new nametag written up and a vague promise that they'd update their database with my title, which I think means my father's now going to be considered a PhD by their computers, I had the chance to learn how their fancy new magnet-based nametags stay on. They stay on well, you just have to figure how to get the magnet backings apart. The key is twisting. The reception was a nice cheeses, melon slices, and desserts sort of thing.

This is where the cheese got complicated. They had tongs to take slices, but the tongs were scaled for, like, picking up grapes or cheese cubes or such. They were far too wide for the thin slices, unless you put a lot of pressure on them and held tight. Nobody held tight, and as a result, there were inch-and-a-half-squares of feta soaring into the air and, mostly, landing elsewhere on the table. It's only embarrassing until other people talk about how they did it too; then we join together in the society of inadvertent cheese hurlers.

We settled for the presentation underneath the soaring majesty of the white cheddar. I ended up at a table with a good number of trustees. And as I gave out and received business cards it must be counted as a ``networking'' event, although I note the Provost I was there with a kind of specific goal to meet was not there. On the other hand, I got three lemon squares plus suborbital brie.

Trivia: The official seal for the Panama Canal Zone was designed by Tiffany & Company. Source: The Path Between The Seas: The Creation Of The Panama Canal: 1870 - 1914, David McCullough.

Currently Reading: Strong Medicine, Arthur Hailey.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the first I've heard of magnetic nametags. Quite neat.

Glad you had a pleasant time despite cheese launching.

[moxie_man]

The local Boy Scouts have a version of them, but theirs don't work too well.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I was fully prepared for these not to work; it seemed like the sort of thing that would be great in theory but lousy in practice. I was surprised how solidly they stayed in place.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Lucky made his own at the bookstore so he wouldn't have to poke holes in his shirts with the nametag pin. It was just a matter of a couple of rare earth magnets and glue and it worked extremely well. I wished I had one, but if I was wearing a favorite shirt I would get a piece of packing tape and tape on my tag.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Tape seems like a reasonably good way to attach the nametag without risking the shirt's integrity. It's been a long while since I've had to wear a nametag often enough to threaten a shirt.

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

LEGO fan (AFOL) conventions have been using them at least since 2002. The kind I'm familiar with, there's one rectangular steel strip with an adhesive backing, which you peel off and affix to the tag; and a second strip with two circular magnets, which you tuck inside your breast pocket or blouse or whatnot. And then MAGNETISM! penetrates the fabric and secures Strip 1 to Strip 2.

They're more expensive than pins, so they tend to be used with fancier nametags. The standard practice at AFOL cons (as established by BrickFest DC) is to use stacks of custom-engraved 1x8 bricks with your name, hometown, the event name and date, etc. Subsequently, wearers often customize/decorate.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the sort of name badge employed here. Probably it's because it was a Trustee-bearing gathering that they got the fancier nametags.

Since I was wearing a sweater I had my doubts that the magnets would work across that distance, but they did just fine. The problem was finding a dignified way to get the backing underneath my sweater; I went off to the corner and just stuck my hand up under my sweater. A pin would have been more dignified, I think.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Actually, the cheese launches kind of made the event.

[gafennec.livejournal.com]

Who knew that SHC stood for Society for Hurling Cheese instead of the Super Hadron Collider. :D

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how competitive it can be!