The Sunday, Monday Wrap-Up.

We've been hanging out at a magazine conference for the past two days, and here is what happened.

1. Overheard from a conference attendee: "I've been in Providence less than 24 hours and so far I've seen a Portuguese festival, a picket line, giant puppets, a street fight and a fife and drum corps."

2. That was uttered before the tornado watch on Sunday. Oh dear. Now we really seem weird.

3.Los Angeles food critic Patric Kuh confessed his biggest restaurant pet peeve: servers who clear tables by sweeping up the dishes and silverware into a big, clattering mess, as if it's all cheap garbage instead of the expensive servingware that chefs have chosen with great care. But he says he doesn't like to write stuff like this in a review because it sounds snotty.

4. Esquire writer Chris Jones gave a talk that was worth getting out of bed and into a hotel meeting room at 9 am on a Sunday morning for. He discussed his recent profile on Roger Ebert and award-winning 2008 feature, "The Things That Carried Him," described as a "breathtaking, true story about one soldier's last trip home." (It was not described by Chris that way. He is really humble. I stole Esquire's line because I could never do this story justice. Click here, print and read.)

5. At last night's awards dinner, RIM's "The Dish" e-newsletter was honored among the country's best, and our marketing department took home top prize for Community Service Project, aka the fundraising "Best Of Rhode Island" party.  Nice! Congratulations again to "Dish" writer Jenna Pelletier and marketing manager Robin Erickson, those stars. (Way to leave on a high note: Jenna starts a new position next week as a feature writer for the Projo. We will dearly miss her (!!) but are eager to read her work with the paper. Watch for her byline...)

My own personal highlight was finally seeing the inside of the State House since I moved here two years ago. How gorgeous!

Okay, back to work.