Benefits of Being With Smart People

The container in which I discard coffee grounds had developed an... interesting set of growths in the five weeks I was gone. I poured as much of the liquid out and discarded the science project into the trash. Later, I mentioned this to Lisa, saying, "The skin that had formed on top of that container looked a bit like the surface of Io." She went "ugh" and laughed. But she knew what I meant. I didn't have to explain myself. I appreciate this.

After returning to the office after the longish period I was away around Worldcon (about a month including the time working from home before and after the trip), I jokingly referred to the pace of change there by saying to one of the other engineers, "I figured that in time I was gone you would have repainted everything purple, rearranged the desks in order of employees' middle initials, and announced a new policy that all documents must be translated into Esperanto.

"What's Esperanto?" said the engineer in question.

"Never mind," I said. My cultural references are not the same as yours.