In what is becoming a tradition, we’ll be fighting the good fight against the Christmas traditions by celebrating them to max. Actually, we’ll be doing a Yankee Swap and socializing.

We’re a week early this month (due to the dread “Ch” word), but at the usual time and place, Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub in Harvard Square, 7 to 9 PM on Monday, December 19, 2011. Please bring a small, geeky, nerdy, cheap (under $10) skeptical gift so you can participate in the Swap, but if you’d rather not, then just come and socialize and laugh as the participants try to strategize. (I got an awesome pirate skull mug last year.)

RSVP on Facebook, if that’s your thing.

Merry Christm…errr, Season’s Greetings, everyone! It’s time to party with the Boston Skeptics: this year, we will be featuring a musical performance from the hilarious Dan Hart, who will entertain us with some wonderfully blasphemous Christmas songs! You know it has to be good when there is a song called “Santa God”… Check him out at danhart.net.

Seriously dudes, Santa God.

After Dan’s performance, we will be bringing back our Yankee Swap, which was a great success last year. If you wish to participate, bring a wrapped present of a geeky, scientific, blasphemous, or otherwise awesome nature (nothing pricey–under $10 is a good guideline). Pressies…I can’t wait!

We will be at our usual location and time: 7 pm at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square, on Monday, December 20th.

Don’t forget to rsvp on facebook!

See you all there! Happy Festivus, everyone.

Hey everyone! As many of you know, there has been some interest expressed in taking a group road trip to go see Bob Novella’s haunted corn maze in New Milford, CT.  According to google maps it’s about 3 hours from Boston, so we will need to organize some major carpooling!

Here’s the deal: The trip will take place on Saturday, October 16th. The haunt opens at 6:30pm, so we will plan on going right when it opens.  Then, we should be able to get back to Boston by 10:30 or 11ish.  If you would prefer to stay in a hotel, you can sort that out with your carmates!  Bob will not be available for dinner, but he would be up for lunch, so we could plan on getting there around lunchtime and then entertaining ourselves until the haunt opens, perhaps with some sort of park visit or other local activities.

Bob has offered us $1 off each ticket, which means the price-per-ticket is $14. You should also expect to chip in for gas if you are carpooling!

SO: If you want to come, email me at liz@bostonskeptics.com by Friday, October 1st. Put “Haunt Trip” in the subject line so I don’t miss you! Please let me know if you have a car, who will be traveling in your car with you, and how many available seats you have.  If you are traveling with a group and just can’t bear to be separated, please let me know and I will do my best.

I will do everything I can to make sure everyone has a ride, but please bear with me! Please respond only if you definitely plan to attend.

You can rsvp on facebook, but you MUST email me if you plan to attend!

Happy Halloween:)

Skeptics in the Pub: Mothers’ Day Special

WHEN
Sunday, May 9, 2010
7:00pm – 10:00pm

WHERE
Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square (top floor)
96 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA

Facebook event page

Good news, Everyone! You’re all invited to a SPECIAL Boston Skeptics in the Pub this Sunday evening, when our guest will be the FANTASTIC Jon Ronson.

Jon is probably best known as the author of the book “The Men Who Stare At Goats,” which became a movie starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. Jon’s written several other books, and his journalistic work has appeared widely in print in the UK and elsewhere. Additionally, Jon has appeared several times on Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” and has created documentary series for TV and radio.

Jon is a charismatic, funny, self-deprecating speaker, and while we KNOW Sunday is Mothers’ Day, you could still cap off the day by bringing your moms to Tommy Doyle’s to listen to Jon’s talk! And yes, while the event is FREE OF CHARGE, your mom doesn’t have to know that… tell her you got her a ticket as a present! BONUS!

Either way, as Jon himself said on Twitter, “[W]e’ll have just the greatest time,” so don’t miss out!

Hey gang!

First, we just want to thank everyone who came to SitP last night. Jeff Lieberman was fantastic, and we’re very grateful to him for speaking to us! And in case you stayed home in favor of watching the video version of this month’s event: sorry, but there IS no video this month! You really missed out this time. Plus, our videos don’t tell the whole story, so it’s always worthwhile to come out and meet your fellow skeptifriends!

We also announced next month’s SitP speaker: Kimball Atwood IV! Kimball is a practicing anesthesiologist, a blogger at Science-Based Medicine, and was named a CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) Fellow! We’ll have more information about this event closer to the date, as Kimball is scheduled to speak on Monday, March 29th at 7PM. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet him prior to his appearance at NECSS the following month.

Lastly, this week’s BS Book Club meeting is at 2:00 PM, not 2:30 as had previously been announced in yesterday’s post. That post has already been redacted down the memory hole, and we have always been at war with Eastasia. The venue and book have not changed, so check yesterday’s post for the details!

That’s it for now. Thanks again for your support!

Hi everyone! Do you have plans for tonight? Well, I certainly hope not, unless those plans involve stopping by Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square for tonight’s edition of Skeptics in the Pub!

That’s right! It’s finally time for this month’s talk, featuring Jeff Lieberman of the Discovery Channel’s Time Warp, the band gloobic, and all those other projects we talked about here! So just in case you forgot, well, that’s happening tonight at 7 PM. Get there early!

Also worth noting: This coming Saturday (Feb. 27th) is the next meeting of the Boston Skeptics Book Club! There’s still time to read this month’s book, 59 Seconds by our good friend Richard Wiseman. It’ll take you longer than 59 seconds, I suspect, but it’s still a quick and entertaining read. So be sure to come to the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square at 2:00 PM to join in the discussion!

And finally, a bit of a head’s up: Do you have plans for the early afternoon on Sunday, March 14th? Well, congrats on planning things so far in advance (a skill we could stand to cultivate!) but you MAY want to keep some time open. We HOPE to have more about this soon.

So there’s a quick summary of our upcoming events! We’d love to see you (yes, YOU!) at all of them!

Apologies for the rather late OFFICIAL notice, but the latest Boston Skeptics Brunch will be taking place this Saturday, February 13th at 11:00 AM, at the Asgard in Central Square. If you’ve never been, our brunches are really informal gatherings where we just eat, drink, and spend time getting to know other cool skeptical people. So come on out, if the tardiness of our announcement hasn’t put you off!

Besides, if we didn’t wait until now, we’d have missed out on the fantastic term “waffle frolic.”

According to Wikipedia:
“Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron from France, and waffle frolics or parties became popular in the late eighteenth century.”

Is it true? WHO CARES? It’s an awesome name. So come, hang out, relax, and eat yummy things with us this Saturday! Be sure to RSVP on Facebook so we know how many people to expect!

* NOTE * The Asgard may not actually serve waffles, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a waffle frolic IN OUR HEARTS.

Hey gang!

If you don’t follow us on Twitter or belong to our Facebook Group, you might not already know that we’ve got another Skeptics in the Pub night going on tomorrow!

We’ve all been shagged out since the Richard Wiseman event earlier this month, so we have to apologize for the late notice! But just because we don’t have another guest speaker doesn’t mean we can’t still get together for some fun times, right?

SO: Tomorrow night (Monday, Jan. 25th), join your Boston Skeptics friends for an exciting night of trivia! Stop by Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square at the usual time (7:00 PM) and join forces with your friends and fellow skeptics for some geeky trivia fun! We’re even trying to coordinate a surprise for you, though WE PROMISE NOTHING.

RSVP here on the Facebook Event page to let us know you’re coming, and we’ll see you all there tomorrow!

Just another quick post to remind you all that tomorrow is the next meeting of the Boston Skeptics Book Club! Join Mary and the rest of the Book Club at 2:00PM at the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square. I’m sure there will be plenty to talk about regarding this month’s book, Spook by Mary Roach, so stop by and check it out!

And don’t forget to RSVP here if you’re going to see “Creation” with the Boston Atheists and the Atheists of Greater Lowell tonight!

UPDATE: Just a reminder. We will be meeting up at Tommy Doyle’s this Monday at 7pm for BS Trivia-thon. Bring your thinkin’ brain!

Did you miss the previously-mentioned preview screening of the new film Creation here in Greater Boston? Well, Zachary from the Boston Atheists let us know about another interesting screening happening this Friday!

The Boston Atheists and the Atheists of Greater Lowell will be attending the 7:00 PM screening of the film, at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. Zachary suggested that there may be a Q & A with the film’s director following this showing, so be sure to go and check it out!

Please RSVP here on MeetUp.com to let them know you’re coming! If our three groups combined can get 25 or more people to attend, you can take advantage of discounted group-rate tickets!