Sometimes I look forward to academic talks, because sometimes the topic is interesting, the analysis is sound, and the speaker is intelligent. Of course, sometimes I seriously contemplate oral surgery without anesthetic during a talk. Never do I look forward to the question-and-answer period, however. Although intelligent speakers are rare, idiots in the audience are all too common. My two major pet peeves: 1. The questioner who asks something that twists the original topic into something unrecognizable in order to link the questioner's specialty to the talk. 2. The questioner who speaks for five minutes, yet fails to ask a question. So, while the talk on post-war Jewish identity in Czechoslovakia was fascinating and, luckily, no pet peeve number one was present, pet peeve number two was well-represented by this bearded guy who is everywhere. He's doing research into the same topic, but he doesn't speak Czech. Hmmmm...since sociology seems to be a field that requires a certain amount of personal interaction, that would appear to be a major obstacle and a serious methodological flaw... -Zh.