I was staying as a guest in somebody’s grand mansion, waiting for a conference to start.  I went to the conference and there were long lines of people waiting to check in and get their badges.  I walked past a looooong line of attendees and straight to one of the guests-of-honor VIP lines.  I stood behind and began talking to the old NYC mayor Ed Koch.  We were ruefully trading stories about waiting in lines at other conferences.  "You know when you get there on Wednesday but you don’t have time to actually register and get your badge until Thursday or Friday? And sometimes you know one of the guys who works the booth, and he spots you before you’ve registered and you have to tell him in a stage whisper, ‘I’M NOT HERE…’"