Meta StuffRandom Asides

The Oceanographer's Ball

I was hoping to post the third installment of my TAM 5 adventures today, but I am afraid that will have to be post-poned because of a very important social engagement. Tonight, I am going to the Woods Hole graduate student formal at The Captain Kidd Restaurant. The definition of “formal” attire is quite loose for this event, actually. I had forgotten about the formal until my friend reminded me this afternoon, and I only have jeans and t-shirts down here at my Cape Cod place. Not to worry, though… my friend Matt and I will shortly be going last-minute shopping at T.J. Maxx for our “formal” attire. I’m going to try to find the most ridiculous dress possible, hopefully for twenty dollars or less.

Of course, I could always wear my Pangea costume, which is what I wore to the last Woods Hole party I attended. The party was called “the P party” and you had to go as something starting with the letter P. As you can see in the photo below, my continents had already started to drift. I made the continents out of felt, and they could stick anywhere on my costume. I’m wearing a cape because I am (was? darn continental drift…) a supercontinent.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

Related Articles

18 Comments

  1. I thought that costume was so sad until I got to the bit about the movable continents. Now it's the best costume *ever*. Any costume with movable felt wins.

  2. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with slashnull here. I will also show some restraint and not make any suggestive comments using "continental drift" euphemistically. I promise :-P

  3. Evelyn, you need to keep writing and blogging. You're already a science popularizer; keep honing those skills. We need them so badly in this country.

    And that costume is brilliant!

  4. Movable costume parts. What a great idea.

    So how many drinks did people have to buy you in order to move your world (so to speak)?

  5. Uhm, re-reading I realize it might have been unclear what exactly I meant by that remark. What I meant was how many drinks to be able to move one of the continents about on your shirt?

  6. I will not use restraint… infact I will say that I would deffiniatly have taken the oppertunity to do an "sccidental" grope… and then of course semi-enjoy the slapping to my face.

  7. err… I mean accidental… you know I saw that type and said I would fix it then hit post anyway… im sad.

    oh and "post-poned" totaly cool.

    would have been better as "post-pwnd" because the only class of nerd lower on the totem pole them me is a gamer and any chance to make fun of their strange nerdy language is a chance I will happily take.

  8. Once the joke is explained, it's not quite that funny any more.
    (i.e. groping was implied, why else would there need to be bribing with drinks)

    I guess this joke doesn't go in the act.

  9. wait are you talking about me? cause I wasn't jokeing. Just stateing a horrible character flaw and lack of moral restraint.

  10. EXCUSE ME, Evelyn, but I can't help but notice you failed to mention who helped you come up with the idea for the pangaea costume. HMMMMM?

    That said, that picture is now one of my favorite ever. You are adorable.

  11. Hey, N.R. Miller, joking or not, you still killed my joke, you bastage :P

    I would say I have a similar character flaw, except, as most skepchicks can attest, I actually have too much respect for them (and myself) not to risk getting slapped across the face.
    Except when I've had a lot to frink, then I become clingy. Still working on that …

  12. My pangea costume was a big hit at the party, which was full of geologists and oceanographers. People actually came looking for me, saying, "We heard pangea was over here!" I thought it was great.

    I generally don't drink too much at parties (or ever, actually), but I had enough to drink that night to (gasp!) give away my continents by the end of the night. I gave away Africa and then South America just before heading home.

    I also lost India and Antarctica at some point… that's okay, though. India is just a subcontinent, and Antarctica is the lost continent anyway. Some nice party-goers returned my continents, though.

    Great party line:

    "Excuse me, but did you lose your Antarctica?"

    My reply:

    "Why, yes… thank you so much for returning it. Unless you'd like to keep it as a souvenir?"

    No euphemism there. Un-uh.

    And, yes, this costume was thought up during a summer visit by Rebecca! The moveable continents were her idea.

    By the way, the Woods Hole "formal" last night was great. I found a gold dress and matching gold shoes for twenty-five dollars. I looked stunning in that dress as well as borrowed cubic zirconia jewelry. A good time, overall.

  13. Speaking of gold dresses, whatever happened to that sparkly dress you'd been hyping up all this time, but ended up not wearing at the Forum party?
    (And for those not attending, don't get your hopes up, she was wearing a dress, it was just a different one).

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button