Last night I attended a great blog party in Princeton, New Jersey -- the Spring BlogFest a/k/a Jersey Blogmeet, which was kindly sponsored by Fausta Wertz and Jim of Parkway Rest Stop, and held at the Triumph Brewing Company. (A great place to imbibe, too, or maybe over-imbibe, which no reputable blogger would ever do of course.) The beer and food were fantastic, as was the company.

Fausta and I are old friends, and last night was the first time I met Jim, who writes some of the funniest stuff I've seen in the blogosphere. If you're not religious about Barack Obama, his post about breakfast at Obama's Diner should work you into fits of hysteria. (Hmmm.... It might just produce fits of hysteria for those who are into that sort of religion.)

By the way, this morning Fausta has a very amusing post about the event which is a takeoff on the latest New York Times meme of "Death By Blogging." The official word from these scientific giants is that blogging can be a deadly disease causing,

weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

Seriously, I had no idea that I'm shortening my life with every post.

(I'm pretty sure that everyone walked away from the party alive last night, but then I didn't do a body count.)

Anyway, among the many bloggers who made it to the event despite death-defying odds, I was delighted to see Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna again, and I met Grouchy Old Cripple for the first time, as well as Teresa of Technicalities and Kate of KateSpot. Mr. Bingley of Coalition of the Swilling was also there, and I'd met him previously but didn't get a chance to chat last night. (A lot of people were there and I'm not one of those people who excels at making rounds.)

Over dinner, I had a wonderful time talking with blogger extraordinaire TigerHawk, a Princeton phenomenon, an exciting conversationalist, and a great political analyst. And sitting right next to me was longtime blog friend Judith Weiss who took a picture of me with Mary Madigan and was nice enough to send it to me this morning:

Sitting on the other side of me were Gregor of Sad Old Goth, and Erica Sherman. Great blogs both. (And I am sorry about the death of Erica's family cat; all I can say is that I've been through it with several dogs, and it's like losing a human friend.)

Checking out some of these blogs this morning, I see at Coalition of the Swilling that Charlton Heston died. A hell of a guy and a true inspiration, and I'm honored to be able to say that I once shook his hand. Fausta also has a post about Heston.

R.I.P.

I was also delighted to meet Joated, who has commented here, and whose link to an incredible picture of an albino alligator warmed the cockles of my heart, as I've always wanted to be a typical white alligator. You know what typical white alligators do, don't you? Why, they make typical white alligations.

Sorry to get off topic, but it's very difficult to visit these blogs and stick with the point, which is that a great time was had by all who survived!

There should be more events like this.

My thanks to the hosts.

Needless to say, I probably missed a few bloggers I met. If so, let me know! (Reading New York Times idiocy early in the morning has been scientifically proven to induce memory loss.)

UPDATE: My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post in the New York Times-defying roundup. Welcome all!

I'm especially happy to see comments from the great folks with whom I narrowly escaped death last night!

Glenn asks an interesting question:

Say, now that blogging turns out to be such a highly dangerous endeavor, will that mean the end of "chickenhawk" slurs in the blogosphere?