Abstract
I was at STOC this year. At least part of the time. Chicago is a remarkable city, especially so when the Blues Festival is underway. What a contrast! The Chicago Hilton on South Michigan Avenue was the venue of STOC; Grant Park across from the hotel on the shores of Lake Michigan was the site of the Blues Festival---a seething melting pot of languages, skin colors, smells, street food, and the soul-tugging strains of the blues wafting in from all angles. What to do? Listen to the blues being chanted in the general monotone voice of conference presentations ("well, we were able to prove this much, but, by golly, the next step seems elusive...") or the blues being sung on park greens in deep, throaty tones to the accompaniment of a wailing saxophone ("My wife left me for a rhinestone cowboy and the dog just overdosed on asparagus...")? The answer of course, was: A lot of both. Somehow, as you might well imagine, the contrast between STOC and the Blues Festival was almost enough to warp a person's mind (were it not already warped). Ditto for the contrast between the Chicago skyscrapers and the cloud piercing peaks of the Rocky Mountains of Bozeman.
Published Version
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