Giant Toothpicks

"Bring us the new DemiDecker!" said Derek Painter, a Utah Decathlete wearing a pink sweatshirt (pink is not a color, he had assured me earlier--it's a statement.)

I obliged, and led Craig over to meet him and his teammates, as well as a student from Ohio and another from Connecticut who was busy painting.

Earlier, Derek had met Grant Farnsworth, who singlehandedly wrote a third of DemiDec's materials in the long, mad summer of 1997. For lunch Grant and I finally had sushi and smoothies together--something we had been planning since at least the turn of the century.

Then through the rest of the day he had met other DemiDeckers as they rolled their bags into the gigantic, mosaic-spangled lobby of the Palmer House Hilton: Tom Brazee, who had no voice, Chris Crisman-Cox, who came in a suit (easier to pack the clothes and wear the suit, he said), Melanie Goodman and Lanie Kagy, who deciphered my subway instructions even though they were meant for a different airport, and April Roberson, a Texan.

Over dinner six of us discussed ways to improve the test-writing experience at www.demidisc.com while munching on the Rock Bottom Brewery's "giant toothpicks"--enormous fried taco sticks, as far as I could tell.

But the DemiSummit begins today in earnest. About an hour from now, we'll discuss category organization. Which means I should leave to pick up breakfast for everyone. I learned a little bit about this from our hosts in Taipei. I just wish I could bring back cartons of Taiwanese milk tea.