White ties in the White House

I writing this in bed, at a 2.5 star hotel (well we are a start up company) on the extreme outskirts of Washington DC. Interestingly I am here to support a recently accredited practitioner in two potential projects as well as delivering a lecture on complexity to the NSF. Tonight is a meet up for anyone interested and in the area.

I am not the only visitor from the former colonial power. Mrs Windsor is in town and as a result there are few hotel rooms. The hotel is OK, but not without problems. The ironing board is set up across the door of my room, not to repel the natives (although the two school parties whose coaches arrived late last night under my window might constitute threat) but as the only part of the room where there is wireless access. It is therefore my desk for the next two days. at the same time I have had to reply to one contributor in a complexity listserv who, incredibly, is defending the fascist comments I referenced on May Day (ironic in retrospect)and intelligent design; more on that later in the week. While all of this going on I am also listening to CNN. The main item is an extended piece on the protocol of meeting English royalty. The first ever white tie dinner in the White House apparently. There was me thinking I was in a republic ……