To start off with, great joke BIG! I missed the pun and I wrote it!
 
I would suggust the FML having the get-together near Columbia, but all we
could do is run over to the Missouri and watch the river roll....  In terms
of bringing ferrets, well, IMHO there are all kinds of ferret shows to serve
that purpose.  I would like to meet both people and ferrets casually rather
than "professionally" if you get the difference.  Nearly every professional
organization has periodic meetings to rub elbows, to discuss problems, to
learn new things, etc., but not really to work, per se, unless you're
helping Mr.  Bean empty the bottle.  I go to five or six mettings a year
(Next week I'll be in New Orleans on such a trip).  I don't bring my work;
but I do bring my ideas (and craziness...You haven't lived until I tell you
about the "Royal Order of the Baculum.") and we spend vast amounts of time
in "pre-presentation panic" followed by "post-presentation incontinence."
 
Meetings are primarily a social event in which you can distroy your career
by going mute during a presentation (or answering every question with
"Gaaaaa...".  I once had a defective projector burn a slide, and mutely
watched it melt in front of 60 or so people, and all I could say was, "I
knew the sixties would flash-back.  Cool colors, man.") and discovering
humility by making a pass at the cute thang next to you, only to discover
she was the one you flamed (in print) for her idiotic ideas concerning
allometry (Subsitute gender for those who qualify; forget "allometry;" its
unimportant).  The point is, eating bad food, drinking weak and overpriced
drinks, and getting sick on the Matterhorn are things that bind the
participants into some sort of unholy alliance we can laughingly refer to as
"ferrethood." (I was going to say brotherhood, but I'd like people to show
up....) It builds a sense of community, helps us to plan new ways to send
ferret-feces to Sacramento, and garners a little publicity.
 
You guys decide when and where and what, and all that, and I will show up
with party hat in hand, something in a brown paper sack in the other, and
with a huge button stuck to a loud sportscoat, asking, "Wanna hold my
ferret?" (That should make the local news.)
 
Speaking of publicity, did anyone else see the pet spot on ferrets on the FX
channel (in the last few days)?  I saw the last half, and was wondering who
the lady was.  Anyone on the FML?
 
Bob and the 13 Lentovirus Carriers [Ferretus iwantus]
[Posted in FML issue 1530]