No more events in Amsterdam planned? I only just spotted your event at the ABC yesterday, two days late...

Surely Fluff is the GOH and you're just going along as bag carrier and emergency snack?

Welp, I know what I'm doing Monday night. Is it cool if I bring a book to get signed? (No more than that, I don't want to be annoying while you try to eat.)

Hey, awesome! I'll try and make it as well. Brewpubs are an excellent way to stave off jet lag, in my experience...

Deschutes is a good choice. Their Black Butte Porter and Obsidian Stout are among my go-to brews. If you go for kitchen-sink-style stouts, The Abyss is one of the things that started that trend. It might exacerbate the jet lag though.

I know you don't like West Coast IPAs, but you should give Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA a try. It doesn't have the treble turned up to 11.

I used to consider Rogue the best PNW craft brewery. Deschutes makes a strong claim to that title with a wide variety of brews which are all good examples of their style.

Speaking of Rogue though, if you have a chance you should try to sample their Imperial Stout. It's perfectly balanced: mouthfeel, nose, roastiness, malty goodness, hops, alcohol, and sweetness are all there but nothing dominates.

By wonderful coincidence I was in Powells about three hours ago when I heard someone ask about Charles Stross and the HPL film festival. I admitted some knowledge, ascertained she was more a horror fan than SF fan, and set her up with a copy of The Atrocity Archives. Serendipity is marvelous!

Note that this happened two blocks from the bar as Charlie was starting his first beer; if I'd read the post earlier I would have skipped the (very nice) banned books discussion at Powells and gone the 100 meters north for a drink.

Anyone more alert than me?

As a footnote to the footnote, if you're staying near there and are struggling with jet lag you should know that the Roxy is open 24 hours. It's got decent if unremarkable food, cool people, and idiosyncratic decor. Disclosure: I know an employee and am not unbiased.

Ah, The Roxy. Like Spartacus, one of the last tenacious remnants of old Vaseline Alley. They turned the Steam Baths into a luxe hotel, the one big dance club into a fancy theatre and everything else into variations on the theme of Genuine Overpriced Portland Souvenirs 'n' Snacks. The Web, and then Tinder and Grindr "disrupted" the cruising spots all away. (Mind, when money is handy, I rather like artisanal ramen, sustainable bacon and locally handcrafted boots, all served by darling lumbersexual guys and frumpcore gals.)

Unrelated but... Good news: Looks like we have a funding model that can supplant embedded ads as a way to pay for Internet (and real world) stuff. Bad news: It's worse. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/29/the-big-business-of-internet-bigotry.html

I didn't know which thread to put this question in, since the thread "The Present in Deep History" was closed. I wanted to ask this question yesterday, but I was too busy.

What are the 5 longest threads on this board?

I remember that someone had asked this question in the previous longest thread.

Since you ask:

The present in deep history (Sep 6 2015) : 1533 A different cluetrain (Feb 25 2015) : 967 Two Thoughts (Jul 19 2015) : 908 Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire (Dec 18 2013): 902 The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots (Apr 5 2015) : 851

Quite a jump to get a thread about 60% longer than any previous one.

Domo orogato Alan sama.

Not only 60% longer, but after it was closed there were still spinoff posts. I'm not sure the topic was exhausted; with 700 years of undefined history after the subject period, we didn't get much focus for judging what the hypothetical historians might care about.