I haven't posted in a while because I spent all of last week in Boston, MA, the latter half of which for the annual convention of the National Puzzlers' League. The convention was fun, and I'll make some time soon to tell you more about it and the other sorts of puzzling I do in my Copious Spare Time [tm]. For today, however, I'm going to tell you about something I learned at the convention that isn't really related to puzzles at all.

First, a little background info: there were fewer than 200 people in attendance at the convention, and most are regular attendees. So even near the start of the convention many of us already knew nearly everyone there. By the end of the convention, even if I couldn't name everyone, I could recognize them. So when someone showed up around lunch on Saturday that I didn't recognize and was wandering around somewhat lost trying to find a name tag, I figured I'd introduce myself and try to make him feel welcome. So I did. The conversation went extremely awkwardly, even considering how socially awkward your average puzzler is. Something just didn't feel right. He cut the conversation very short, and ended up telling me to go away immediately before leaving the room himself never to reappear.

This got me to thinking about possible explanations. One thing that I came up with is a scam: confidently walk into the National Ball Bearing Manufacturers' Convention and act like you're supposed to be there. Chances are you're just one of a hundred people that any one person doesn't know at the convention, and while everyone else is eating, you can steal free food. This breaks down and becomes detectable in cases where the convention-goers all know each other fairly well, but even then, I can't claim that I was ever confident enough that they were really strangers that I was willing to call their bluff.

After I started watching for it, I noticed other random people walk into the room up to the food, grab something, and then leave. Others milled around looking nonchalantly under tables (perhaps looking for purses or other valuables?). I sure don't want to believe that all of the strangers were thieves, but I made it a point to keep my eyes out for these people at Convention functions later in the weekend, but never saw a single one of them again.

Its amazing what sorts of things happen all around without ever going noticed.