Ha Ha, that's a good one

One more anecdote from that memorable meeting at the university:

We arrived at the journalism office a little sweaty and red-faced. It's very hot, isn't it? one of the professors asked us, seizing on that universal conversation opener, the weather. It's 37 and really we are lucky because in June, July and August here it is often 40 or more.

That's centigrade, he said, then paused. 40 degrees Fahrenheit is not cold at all. No it's more like Fahrenheit 9/11, that is hot.

Hmmm, Michael Moore is also a good conversational gambit, I guess. We laughed, some a little less easily than others.

One of his colleagues poked him and said, "You cannot make jokes about 9/11."