This would never have spiraled out into the greater blogosphere if Russ' response to my first email hadn't been so... extraordinary but, FWIW, I think this is significant. OK, it's not the war in Iraq or global warming, but creating an exclusionary, laddish expectation for a technical conference is of some greater importance too: this particular expression of Patriarchy isn't likely to kill anyone, but it's part of the same set of attitudes that stones rape victims for "adultery" elsewhere in the world.