querying quants (a triptych)

I.
“I had dinner last night with someone who self describes as a ‘quant jock.’ Is that a familiar phrase to you?”
“Yeah, it gets used a lot at the Kennedy School.”
“So, I understand what it is to be a ‘quant’ - both in finance and in social science - but what’s a ‘quant jock’?”
“It just [...]

overheard

A: The toys and holiday gifts are in that corner.
B: Oh, okay. * picks up holy family finger puppets *
A: But don’t buy those finger puppets, go for the generic animal ones.
B: Sure, you say you’re not religious, but suddenly you get all squeamish when you see my finger up an angel.

allergic to conflict

Yesterday my son (B) - who’s eight - and I waited for an hour and twenty minutes to see a doctor. We weren’t in the emergency room or anything, we hadn’t been triaged to the end of the list. We had an appointment, and the doctor was an allergist.
While we spent some time working on [...]

overheard

“The name is the thing. It’s like trying to come up with a name for a band. I want it to suggest quirkiness without being precious.”
“Quirky - precious = us!”
“Nix on Pub Sociology II: Electric Boogaloo. Nix on Quirkass Sociology.”
“I think some of my students weren’t yet born in the days of [...]