God, this sounds wonderful.

The reading party sounds so wonderful right now. It's been such a long day and I really don't want all the stimulation of a bar. But that's where I promised I'd be. And I'm 3,000 miles away. Somebody drink a Manhattan for me, please.

What if I'm a caregiver, physically exhausted from my thankless minimum wage job, too tired to give much of a shit about the debate, though grateful that a Stranger Genius has built her non-profit Caregifted with us in mind. Should i go to Havana and hang out with opinionated brat "writers" who wouldn't know a real job if it bit them in the ass, and learn about my losing lot in life when we compare paychecks, or go to Sorrento and hopefully they don't mind if I shut my my tired eyes for a half hour or so on one of their couches?

So is the debate at Sorrento a "quiet time" event, or is it just a bar that happens to be very near the reading event? I'm not looking for something intentionally low-key, but it IS the closest place to my work...

@3 -- you should come to the sorrento and I'll buy you a drink. I'll be the tall guy with a shaved head tweeting in the bar.

@4 the bar and the reading area are in adjacent rooms.

Damn you hippies and ne'er-do-well Stranger writers: What a great idea. I'd decided to stay home and stay sober tonight but if I can talk the Future Mrs. Dr. A. into going, we just might be there. I could use a quiet evening in a nice place too.

5- thanks for the offer, but no thanks, for everyone's benefit. In an environment with literature, politics, drinking AND tweeting, I'd be head over heels up to too much no good. What do you think? Should I stretch comment #3 into an essay? Mail it directly to you when done. With mild copyright infringement in mind, I wouldn't trust it with your fellow cohorts. They feed off of ideas, and have no squabbles in how they get them.