i've been out in the field a fair bit in the recent past at work, enjoying some sunshine and fraternizing with some construction workers. well, not fraternizing exactly. it's more like they are working on houses and i walk by and then it gets real real quiet for about 10 - 12 seconds, then the chatter slowly starts up again in my wake. either my University of Chicago hat inspires more shock & awe than i had previously believed, or i have begun to manifest the heretofore undiscovered mutant ability to kill a conversation simply by walking by.