Well, this news made me sad. At an otherwise offensive annual meeting back in April, I at least got to sit next to the retired judge whose small-talk consisted of charming tales that stretched back to the Ford Administration... meetings with Kissinger... some young assistant who went on to become Acting Secretary of State but couldn't quite recall his name... Great stuff, though we were soon enough silenced when the meeting came to order and any subsequent conversation was necessarily restricted to snide comments to colleagues via cellphone SMS.