Ghost of a flea

I forgot to mention that Irshad Manji, author of "The Trouble with Islam", was present and thanked Professor Hanson for coming to Toronto.

Thanks again, Chris. You know, I could not stand the thought of sitting through that Socrates at Delium story again. Now, if I had known Irshad Manji was going to be there...

the rabbi, who is friends with irshad manji (which partly explains her presence), had been slightly concerned what the turnout would be, since VDH is not yet a 'big name' (cf. Will, Frum, Krauthammer have spoken at the temple recently), but over 600 filled the hall.
as a young'un, i sat on the stage between one guy with VDH's Autumn of War and a guy with Tuchman's Guns of August. I felt small as all I had was a Ludlum book.

Daniel, that turnout scares me a bit because VDH is coming to my campus next week and they've scheduled him for a rather puny lecture hall. The same was done for David Horowitz some time back and the result was serious combat for seats.

Perhaps I should bring along a really big and heavy book...

I think the turnout surprised the staff at Holy Blossom Temple, too.

As Dan can tell you, we were in a very spacious auditorium downstairs, and the rabbi repeatedly mentioned that we couldn't move upstairs to the sanctuary because of another event taking place. So as a last resort they asked the folks with "young legs" to volunteer their seats to the older attendees. Which worked out better anyway, because the stage I ended up on had better sightlines to the podium.

As an aside, I'm 31 now, so I really should be able to claim the priority seating with the oldsters. =)

Nice try Chris, but the median age was probably 60. and yes, the stage did have a better sightline.