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Intellectualism: alive and well in the nation's capital!
Sally Quinn, a doyenne of Washington hostesses and wife of the former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, now writes a column about how to be a good dinner-party host and guest. Today's topic is how to keep people from dominating the conversation with tedious business-chat. What could be worse than a banker who won't stop talking mergers and acquisitions with another banker at a table of guests with varied interests? That's actually not a rhetorical question, for Quinn has a ready answer:
(Maybe she's just bitter that scientists tend to raise awkward questions about her "shaft of multicolored light" tale.)
I'll tell you what's a real killer: scientists. The only way you can handle them is to keep them away from each other at the table or get them to talk to the whole table about what they are working on. And then change the subject.And then change the subject. So, eminent Boston-area scientists, you may want to think twice about accepting a Quinn invitation when you're called to Washington to testify on a beige topic like global warming, stem cells, the war on cancer, or nuclear proliferation. I mean, yawn.
(Maybe she's just bitter that scientists tend to raise awkward questions about her "shaft of multicolored light" tale.)
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Joshua Rothman is a graduate student and Teaching Fellow in the Harvard English department, and an Instructor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He teaches novels and political writing.
