Yesterday I was drawn into the vortex of Debbie's professional life, and accompanied her to the dinner in honor of the various speakers at the conference that has footed the bill for our stay here in Zurich. So I donned my jacket and tie and met a coterie of her colleagues: a nice Irishman from Birmingham named Jim who looked like Jim Broadbent's little brother, a very serious Dutchman named Jeert, and Ruth, Debbie's pal from UW, and we all set off on the tram. The dinner was held in an old shipyard building that had been converted into a kind of multipurpose visitors center, where we drank wine,m ate dinner, and headed home.