Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued 
I'm back from the Penn & Teller Show at the Rio. It was, as usual, highly entertaining. I haven't seen P&T since sometime in the late 1990s in Chicago, but they're just as good as I remember them.
Next issue: Shy and retiring putz that I am, it never occurred to me that any of my readers might want a meetup until one reader asked me about it yesterday. Perhaps my thoughts were colored by the memory of the couple of times before when I tried to do this with embarrassingly minimal to nonexistent responses. Judging from Twitter, though, there are at least a handful of you out there who, for FSM knows what reason, want to meet up with me. (Trust me, I'm not nearly as interesting in person as I am here on the blog.) Since I'll still be at TAM7, the least I can do is give it a try. I was thinking Sunday sometimes around 11:30 PM or noon (i.e., lunchtime) outside the conference hall. (I still want to make it to the Million Dollar Challenge at 1 PM.)
If you're still at TAM and have any interest in a meetup, either leave a message here, e-mail me, or respond to my Tweet last night about a meetup. I'll be in the vicinity, and now some of you know what I look like...
Comments
You know I would happily meet up with you if I was at TAM. It would be fun to talk to you again. But, the choice in my life currently is 1)stay home and pay 2 college tuitions or 2) go to TAM and talk to ORAC. Unfortunately, I have to choose #1. Maybe I'll make it out to your area and we can meet there.
Posted by: Dawn | July 12, 2009 7:49 AM
I'll be there, if no one else, but I think there will be more.
Posted by: Pieter B | July 12, 2009 11:55 AM
How about I hang around outside the convention hall between 11:45 AM and noon?
Posted by: Orac | July 12, 2009 12:15 PM
Works for me. I promise not to go all fanboy.
Posted by: Pieter B | July 12, 2009 1:26 PM
Pieter-- You can go all fanboy, just dont tie Orac to a bed in the mountains, break his legs, and force him to rewrite blog posts in a more woo-friendly manner.
Orac-- Get boobs. More people want to meet you if you have boobs. And dont tell me youre a guy and it wont work, cause it worked for PZ.
Posted by: ERV | July 12, 2009 1:35 PM
Hey Orac,
If you come back to Chicago, would you consider attempting another meetup? I felt too shy to say I would come the last time, but I think hanging out with you would outweigh shyness at this point :)
Posted by: Amy R | July 12, 2009 4:23 PM
What about a local meet up for those of us in the Ohio area?
Posted by: Becca | July 12, 2009 11:39 PM
Drat, if only I'd been in Vegas this weekend!
Orac, be sure to let us know if you find yourself in San Francisco! ;)
Posted by: Johanna | July 12, 2009 11:46 PM
or in india ;)
Posted by: geetha | July 13, 2009 3:17 AM
Sorry I missed you. . . Vegas was putting me into full-on "Hell is Other People" mode anyway, though, so it might have been for the best.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | July 13, 2009 7:40 AM
Argh! I missed this meet-up! Since I had no computer access at TAM, I didn't see this till now. Instead, I went to lunch.
I did look around after the 'challenge,' but couldn't find you. At any rate, I did get a chance to meet you earlier, and, I hope, gush and fawn appropriately, so all was not lost.
You must come next year, and set up a Respectful Insolence Meet-n-Greet in advance. I'm probably the 'reader' referred to in your post above, and, as you recall, I suggested that a skeptic convention with over 1,000 people is your most likely bet for success. I'm not sure how many were at the Science-Based Medicine mini-convention the day before, but right there you've got a focused fan-base. We'd have come. Really.
Posted by: Sastra | July 14, 2009 8:29 AM
Damn you! I had no internet at TAM, so I missed this. Next time, can you write it on the big board as well?
Posted by: Microbiologychick | July 16, 2009 10:38 PM