I’m in NYC this week at LinuxWorld Expo. The elevators at my hotel are being reprogrammed and reinstalled, or something, and the upshot is that it takes up to fifteen or twenty minutes to leave the building at peak times. 50 floors, a dozen or so elevators, general insanity.
The tradeshow is what a tradeshow is: sore back, lots of hand-shaking and smiling, dry air, overpriced everything (I thought three bucks for a Coke was bad, but apparently the actual show management prices are worse: for having anything delivered to the show floor– a letter, say, or a laptop– the fees start at $200. This is called “drayage” which is defined as “the use of a dray” or “the fee paid for the use of a dray.” And a dray, as you all know, is a horsecart or similar low cart used for pulling heavy things around, which has largely been replaced by wood pallets and forklifts.)
At the end of the day I begin to wonder if I’m repeating myself. I am, of course, but I can’t remember if I’ve said a particular portion of my spiel to any given customer. After a few hundred times, it gets confusing.
Anyway, after all the polish and shine of the day, I was amused to find Robert Love selling an ironic trucker hat. Oh, sure, trucker hats are ironic appropriation in and of themselves– but this one is a trucker hat’s trucker hat. Brilliant. (See also the Dave Camp fanboy shirt).
Secretly Ironic 