Last week was a travel week for me. Unfortunately, due to Chatham House Rule, I can’t talk too much about what I was doing, other than to say that it was part of a nuclear summit convened by the Longview Foundation and took place at a pretty amazing resort in New Jersey. I met quite a few very interesting people and got to participate in some pretty cool things.
But I am basically sworn to secrecy! I can confirm, however, that the RAND corporation uses NUKEMAP in at least one of its wargames, which made me… proud? Conflicted? Either way, it was neat.
I was also able to swing by Hoboken, briefly, on the way home, and saw some of my friends and colleagues, which was nice. The weather was… not the kind of thing one would get homesick for (torrential rain and wind, streets flooding, the works).
I will say that I smuggled home half a suitcase full of decongestants and cough suppressants back from the states. I am over my cold (I have been running out the last of the cough for the last week, but am otherwise fine), but am ready for the next one.
After getting back, we were able to hang out with our peripatetic friend and fellow historian, Luis Campos, and that was quite nice. After the three of us got lunch in a nearby café, Luis and I walked Lyndon down to the Seine and thereabouts, which Lyndon was thrilled by.
Before we left New Jersey last summer, we had some of our stuff shipped on a freighter here. After several delays, it finally arrived last week. Which is a mixed bag: it’s nice to have some of our stuff back again, but after 10 weeks, I had sort of forgot about what most of it was (except my banjo), and now we’ve got to figure out how it all fits into our apartment here. Well, we’ll get there.
I am going to write up something on House of Dynamite this week, having been able to give it a lot of thought — and having gotten many points of view from others on it. So look for that, this week! I had wanted to write it up last week, but the summit and travel took up basically all of my time.
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