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I Love Planetaria!
Apr. 11th, 2013 11:29 pmMom and I went to see Phil Plait give a guest lecture at the planetarium this evening!*
His topic was asteroids, since, you know, they keep trying to slam into us, and that is unsafe. He's an entertaining lecturer. His critiques on Deep Impact vs Armageddon always make me happy. And then he passed out a big chunk of iron meteor for us to take a look at, which was awfully brave of him.
The Q&A was brief--blessedly so, because Utah audiences are ASSHOLES. The first dude was a wise guy who as far as I could tell was trying to wedge in a plug for Budweiser. The second guy got hold of the microphone and immediately went stark raving Time Cube Guy:
GUY: My question is about how important it is that everyone read my website.
PLAIT: Uh huh ... ?
GUY: For example, homeopathy. It's a thing. You address it, and I have problems with something about the way you do. Have a tortured metaphor about Big Gulps! There are people being KILLED!
PLAIT: Um ...
GUY: Also, I don't want to be offensive, but let's start dissing Mormons!
AUDIENCE: DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION, DUDE?
PLAIT: *recovering* These are complex issues that I can't address in such a short time frame and thank you for coming good-bye ...
GUY: WHARRGARBL
PLANETARIUM DIRECTOR: Phil Plait, everyone! Now get the hell out of this theater, there's a movie showing in fifteen minutes.
At that point the audience burst into Crazy Guy Drowning Applause, and I dashed down to the front to act as a diversion. I had a legitimate reason--since I was in the very last seat in the nosebleed section, I was now Keeper Of The Meteor. So I jumped on the dais, handed it back to him ("Here's your meteor! It smells like money now!" "I know, right? Weird, huh?"), then went out to wait for him to sign my book.
It is funny to meet and chat with someone with whom you have a celebrity relationship. After all, you feel you know that person quite well, since you read their blog and books and things. It's easy to forget that they are unaware of you. You're all like HI PALBERT LET US GO OUT FOR BURGERS AND THEN WATCH MST3K LIKE WE ALWAYS DO IN MY HEAD and they're thinking, Damn I wonder how long till I can go to bed. I hope Wharrgarbl Guy doesn't corner me again. Next!
So instead of launching into a discussion of GAMMA RAY BURSTS AMIRITE BUDDY? I just asked him what the correct pronunciation of "Pleiades" is and a quick question about a moon for one of my stories.
He did like that my name was Amelia, though. I forgot that there's an Amelia in Doctor Who. No matter how awkward the setting, man, nerds can always bond.
*Once we had straightened out that the Bad Astronomer is not, in fact, a bad astronomer and would be quite fun to listen to.
His topic was asteroids, since, you know, they keep trying to slam into us, and that is unsafe. He's an entertaining lecturer. His critiques on Deep Impact vs Armageddon always make me happy. And then he passed out a big chunk of iron meteor for us to take a look at, which was awfully brave of him.
The Q&A was brief--blessedly so, because Utah audiences are ASSHOLES. The first dude was a wise guy who as far as I could tell was trying to wedge in a plug for Budweiser. The second guy got hold of the microphone and immediately went stark raving Time Cube Guy:
GUY: My question is about how important it is that everyone read my website.
PLAIT: Uh huh ... ?
GUY: For example, homeopathy. It's a thing. You address it, and I have problems with something about the way you do. Have a tortured metaphor about Big Gulps! There are people being KILLED!
PLAIT: Um ...
GUY: Also, I don't want to be offensive, but let's start dissing Mormons!
AUDIENCE: DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION, DUDE?
PLAIT: *recovering* These are complex issues that I can't address in such a short time frame and thank you for coming good-bye ...
GUY: WHARRGARBL
PLANETARIUM DIRECTOR: Phil Plait, everyone! Now get the hell out of this theater, there's a movie showing in fifteen minutes.
At that point the audience burst into Crazy Guy Drowning Applause, and I dashed down to the front to act as a diversion. I had a legitimate reason--since I was in the very last seat in the nosebleed section, I was now Keeper Of The Meteor. So I jumped on the dais, handed it back to him ("Here's your meteor! It smells like money now!" "I know, right? Weird, huh?"), then went out to wait for him to sign my book.
It is funny to meet and chat with someone with whom you have a celebrity relationship. After all, you feel you know that person quite well, since you read their blog and books and things. It's easy to forget that they are unaware of you. You're all like HI PALBERT LET US GO OUT FOR BURGERS AND THEN WATCH MST3K LIKE WE ALWAYS DO IN MY HEAD and they're thinking, Damn I wonder how long till I can go to bed. I hope Wharrgarbl Guy doesn't corner me again. Next!
So instead of launching into a discussion of GAMMA RAY BURSTS AMIRITE BUDDY? I just asked him what the correct pronunciation of "Pleiades" is and a quick question about a moon for one of my stories.
He did like that my name was Amelia, though. I forgot that there's an Amelia in Doctor Who. No matter how awkward the setting, man, nerds can always bond.
*Once we had straightened out that the Bad Astronomer is not, in fact, a bad astronomer and would be quite fun to listen to.
