Diesel Consideration

-There have been a few comments going around about how the Boston Poly crowd behaves at its weekly gathering at the Diesel Cafe. (lifecollage had some very cogent thoughts.) Some of these objections are quite good. Some are more arguable. There seem to be three categories: The behavior the owners of the Diesel can rightly expect, the behavior the other patrons can rightly expect, and behavior that other people might expect, but aren't actually justified in demanding.

-The Boston Poly crowd tends to be large, and a little loud, and we spill all over that quadrant of the cafe. (I use "quadrant" loosely here. By sqaure-footage of floor, or by percentage-of-seats, we tend to occupy much less than a quarter of the cafe.) We quite likely occasionally bother the other patrons. Because it's a regular gathering, and because there are a lot of us, we have a sense of entitlement, a sense that we get be to comfortable, and act like we want to.

-This is not entirely unjustified. The people who find us loud and disruptive are acting from the same sense of entitlement. They believe that since they can rely on the Diesel to be a quiet place to study six days of the week, they are entitled to expect that seven days of the week. There's no particular reason why this is the case.

-In principle, "appropriate behavior" for the Diesel is not set by different patrons' sense of entitlement. It's set by the wishes of the owners. (And common courtesy, which I'll get to below.) The owners mostly want to make money, and not lose customers. The expectations the owners of the Diesel can rightly expect are:

• That we will purchase something while we're there, and not just use the cafe as a place to meet.
  
• That we will not bring in outside food.
• That we will bus our tables. (I sometimes forget, so when I remember, I try to pick up a bunch of stuff in addition to my own, in order to build up karma.)
• That we will not leave the chairs, etc., scattered willy-nilly.

-And, of course, if we want to stay on the staff's good side:

• We can tip well.

-Common courtesy says that there are certain things the other patrons do have a right to expect from us. This includes:

• Not using perfectly serviceable chairs as coatracks. (I do this myself far too often.)
• Not blocking the aisles so people can't get out.
• Not actually shouting.

-Some of the complaints I've heard against the Poly Boston crowd are, frankly, really weird. These are some of the things I think the other patrons don't have a right to expect of us:

• That we not be hairy, overweight, and unattractive. (What hallucinogens was this person on? Most of the Poly Boston crowd are above-average in my eyes, and many are teh hott.)
• That we not look like D&D geeks. (Yes, well, Yours Truly is guilty as charged. John and Jane Q. Public can deal.)
• That we not be so touchy-feely with each other. (Actually making-out may be over the line, but I will not apologize for our tendency to be a huggy group.)
• That we not talk.
• That we not be there at all.
• Edit: Oh, and apparently, we smell like Doritos.

-Okay, so: Opinions? Am I talking out of my hat?

How Does He Smell?

-In other news, the new Harry Potter movie is getting excellent reviews. I particularly like this quote from Manohla Dargis in the NYT: "[The portrayal of] Voldemort may be the greatest screen performance ever delivered without the benefit of a nose."