If you’re looking for dynamic, this place delivers all the excitement of a cold bowl of yesterday’s oatmeal. Our club is pretty much snoozeville, the participation anemic, the membership dwindling in front of us and our prospects fuzzy. So why are you here? For the few in my life who discover or realize I haunt this site, and invariably pose that question, I just repeat my wife’s sneering accusation— “he’s hiding there”. And at this stage in my life, why not? But let’s shift from my vices to your own, and why it is YOU keep coming back, and here is my guess for why most of us are here. It’s simply that the place serves the same function as a bar or club. It’s the equivalent of a bar or social club, where disparate folks assemble in a sort of forum. It’s a floating party where you bring your own booze, and float from conversation to conversation, choosing those which interest you. I’m convinced that more of us are here out of habit and boredom than we would care to admit, but so what? And since you are a working academic, I would guess that the majority of us are probably a generation older than yourself. But I for one will in the future pay more attention, and if you prefer more lively answers concerning such topics as those hideous nightstands—here we go!! Save yourself a pile of money, go out and grab a bunch of milk crates and stack them appropriately.