Over the past couple of years, I have had the thrill of meeting about a dozen bloggers in person. Everyone was as smart, normal, and fun as they were on their blogs, which is surprising considering how easy it is to create alternative personalities on the Internet. I hadn’t always guessed their appearances correctly, but their voices were the same.
If you could have Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of bloggers, who would you invite?
Apt. 11d 
Fun question, Laura! There are a lot of bloggers I’d love to just spend an evening chewing the fat (and turkey) with; for Thanksgiving in particular though, I’d probably be interested in making it a families thing, since the kids are home from school and, after all, it is a family holiday. So we’d love to host you and Steve and Noah and Ian; then get John Holbo and Belle Waring to join in, with Zoe and Violet in tow. It’d also be fun to get to meet Harry Brighouse’s wife and kids as well; ditto for Tim Burke and his wife and Emma. Such a party it’d be.
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I’m just wondering if you’ve kept in touch with Invisible Adjunct and how she is.
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Russell — That sounds really fun! It really does. Oh, the gossip we could share. We could send the kids off into the other room at the end of dinner to watch a video (Tim would not be allowed to decontruct it) and then settle into a good long chat. You and Harry, the tee-totalers, could have the decaf, while the rest of us finished off the pinot from dinner.
Timna — I am in touch with her. She’s fine. She gives a thumb down to any more blogging about academia. Been there. Done that. But maybe I can convince her to take over this blog for a week or two, and she can just ramble on about any nonsense that enters her head, like I do.
IA- What do you say?
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Natalie Portman, if she had a blog. 🙂
Well, it would pretty much just be my blogroll. You, of course (I have a thing for redheads, so Erika would probably not give me much of a chance to talk to you). Tyler Cowen, Dan Drezner, Matt Yglesias, Megan McArdle, Eugene Volokh, Jacob Levy, Orin Kerr, David Bernstein, Greg Djerejian, Gary Becker, Richard Posner (hmm, those guys actually aren’t on the blogroll), Brad DeL… well maybe not since he might start a ruckus with all the conservatives there…, Matthew Shugart (not on the blogroll yet), Julian Sanchez, Brayden King, Tina Fetner, danah boyd, praktike, Nadezhda, Eric Martin, Dan Darling, Pejman Yousefzadeh, and last but not least, Joseph Britt. Wonkette looks like a bit of a hottie, so maybe her as well. Plus the bloggers I already know and a few others you probably haven’t heard of but who are on my blogroll. And I won’t even get into my Flickr contacts.
We’d need a pretty big place, I think. Not that any of them would respond to the invitation, of course. Maybe after a couple of years when my plan for global domination starts bearing fruit and my armies of mutant seasoned curly fries can force them to accept.
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which is surprising considering how easy it is to create alternative personalities on the Internet.
Or is this surprising? I just find it an interesting thing to think about. I suspect that while creating the alternate personality might be easy, maintaining it consistently over time would not be. Of course, the blog-personality may be just one dimension of a RL one as well.
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Fun question: I’d invite you, Elizabeth from Half-changed world, Phantom Scribbler, Scrivener, Bitch, Ph.D., PZ, Duncan (aka atrios), Tim (since he’s close), Profgrrrrl, New Kid, and well anyone else who wants to come. We’ll be deep-frying a turkey, but there will be plenty of veggies for the non meat eaters.
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fling83 – Erika won’t let you sit next to me? Too bad, because with all the guys at your dinner table, I would be in top flirty form. Actually, I think it would be fun to invite Brad along with the conservatives at your table. I like a good food fight.
profgrrrl — yeah, the whole blog personality thing is fascinating. I am amused/disgusted by bloggers who create 2 dimensional blog personalities — the tough chick, the suave man, the humorless wonk… I’ve also realized through doing this blog that I present different sides of myself to different people. And because I have no clue who is reading this stuff, sometimes I’m confused about how to portray myself. Am I girly Laura or smart Laura?
Geeky Laura — I’ll take double helpings of the deep fried turkey, please.
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Laura, this is a great question.
I’d love to meet you, of course.
I’d invite Melanie Mattson from Just a Bump In The Beltway–to meet her, but also in the hopes that she’d cook!
Exluding those bloggers that I have actually met in person, I’d also invite Dru Blood, the eponymous Cathie from Canada, Zeebah from Zeebahtronic, and Jeanne from Body and Soul, Umair from Bubblegeneration, Michael Shaw from BAGnewsNotes,Terrance Heath from Republic of T, DBK (aka the blogger formerly known as GDFrogsdong) from Blanton’s and Ashton’s, Dave Johnson from Seeing the Forest, and Kenton Ngo from 750 volts.
The list could go on and on, but a dozen guests is already an ambitious dinner party for me. 🙂
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Fun question. In addition to some of the bloggers I’ve already met (like you:) and my cobloggers on Crooked Timber (both those I’ve met and the ones I have yet to meet) it seems like it would be fun and interesting to share a meal with Bitch, PhD, Ampersand (from Alas, a blog), Jeanne (from Body & Soul) and some of the regular commenters on CT. I’m sure I’m forgetting about a bunch of people, but I prefer smaller groups at meals anyway.
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