Re: [Phys-l] A contrary view of Fwd: The humble physicist

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

On Jan 20, 2011, at 12:26 AM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

> > The American Physical Society holds a big meeting every year in March.
> > The APS March Meeting is known as Geek Week.  The APS March Meeting
> > has also been disinvited from being in Las Vegas because the attendees
> > don't gamble or partake of the <ahem> hospitality <cough> sufficiently
> > to offset the discounts.  I asked a former president of the society if
> > this were true or an urban legend.  He claimed it was true.  So,
> > unless he is bustin' my chops...

They almost kicked the NJEA convention out of Atlantic City for the same reasons.  The city's restaurant owners came to our defense and the conventjon is still held there.  It is, by the way, the largest and oldest such state teachers' convention in the country.  NJ Transit has to put extra A.C. trains online to accommodate the volume of teachers.  The local restaurants do a booming business every year, as do the nearby non-gambling hotels.  The toll "take" on the AC Xway always spikes during those two days.  In fact, in the end, the casinos experienced an increase in volume also, putting the lie to the belief that teachers don't make enough money to throw some of it down the toilet at Trump or Borgata.  
Of course, this account is for all types of teachers... I'm sure that elementary teachers, making up the vast majority of members, need those two days of hedonism, after dealing with 8 to 10 year olds the rest of the time!  There are so few physics or chem teachers overall that if they depended on us there would be no convention at all. 

Marty
> >