More than a decade ago, I had a beverage-fueled, late Friday afternoon sessions with two dear, well-read friends. The little planning needed was done by e-mail. My employer, a university, had recently provided an ominous warning: “your e-mail is neither private nor secure.”

So I developed an ingenious, un-crackable code word for this gathering, “the seminar”. Very scholarly, eh. Of course, not really that ingenious a cover-up, given there are not many late Friday afternoon classes in higher education.

But it was apt, because we talked about and listened to each other on a wide variety of topics from personal challenges to politics, history, popular culture, religion, dogs, science, and the strategies of barflies to get buybacks…just about anything in the world was fair game. Thus, it was re-named the Seminar on World Affairs.

I will describe my co-conspirators in blunt terms. The first, I found to be surprisingly well-read and educated for an attorney. The second, I describe her as having the ability to take a male perspective surprisingly well for a woman. I was fortunate enough that these friends had the flexibility of viewpoint to consider these to be the compliments I intended.

Usually, each of us had read on the topic (or at least one thing) on the topics. We were like-minded enough, but also different enough, for a lively exchange. Extemporizing even when uninformed, and vehemently disagreeing on principle, were the best parts. This weekly fun continued for a number of years and achieved an almost “sacred” status in our my view.

Alas, it no longer meets. My two thoughtful, loquacious companions have been drawn away by the siren’s call of their many other interests. The “good old days,” if only we savored them when we lived them, but it will never be.

I occasionally find other less august gatherings. I participate in a virtual happy hour, founded during the pandemic shuttering of the public houses in. Held through video-teleconferencing, it admittedly sounds dreadful; surprisingly, it is not. Its participants are well-informed and articulate, the conversation is very engaging. It is outliving its necessity. But given the medium, it does not lend itself to either extended discourse or diatribe.

In short, is not “the seminar.”