Matched Sets

Do you ever wonder why certain tastes and proclivities come as a packaged set? For example, why can people who like organic food and sandals reliably be counted on to be into African dance, practice reiki, sit in drum circles, wear hemp clothing, and smell kind of funny? Or for that matter, why do people who support school prayer also tend to oppose gun control and favor expanded oil drilling? Doesn't that seem like apples and oranges and pears to you? Even more baffling - why do so many firefighters and cops have mustaches, and why do so many professors tend to have beards?

All this based on a visit to the Vermont Renaissance Fair yesterday to see people play dress-up and eat an enormous smoked turkey leg. It got me thinking about how many other people there were computer programmers, and that got me wondering again about the strange ways of our tribe. I have noticed a predisposition towards Renaissance Fairs, science fiction, martial arts ( especially anything Japanese ), knives and swords, CPR training ( all the sysadmins where I work are EMTs), beards and utility belts. Where does it all come from? Did I not get the memo?