Chairman

Take aside the horrible weather, my stay in Philadelphia was rather enjoyable.

One evening, I had the opportunity to dine with a group of American and European colleagues. After a bit of wine and sake (oh, we had so Japanese food), we were discussion what we were going to during the conference.

JP, a physician from Canada, said, "I have to chair two sessions, one tomorrow, the other on Saturday."

"Oh, how busy..."

"Alas! You know how difficult it is to be the chairman of a symposium," he sighed, "People just keep asking questions after a speaker has finished, and the program just overruns"

"Is it possible to ask the audience to submit their questions to the chairman for selection so that only a few interesting ones are asked?" One of us asked.

"Don't be silly. No one would agree with such an arrangement."

"Why?"