It was a marvelous night at O’Beirnes last night. Kate and Jim were gracious hosts–they really throw the best parties. NRO readers in attendance were overwhelmingly enthusiastic. It was wonderful to meet so many of The Corner community—all of you who HIT REFRESH more than once a day and enjoy learning, listening, laughing, getting angry, and forwarding pieces while reading this website here.

We did have about a 1-1 ratio of NRO writers to readers, which made for lots of fun and fascinating conversation. Questions were asked. Debates were had. We shared the secrets behind Ramesh (he and his lovely bride arrived late because she had received an important award that night, leaving us with a golden opportunity). Derb sang an old Maoist standard in Chinese (Really. Really. Photos to come.). Derb might have been the star of the show until Goldberg the Next Generation showed.

NRO readers came from Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Idaho, Chicago, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Connecticut. We were delighted and humbled by the treks made and the kind words of thanks and utter enjoyment.

And, of course, readers had some excellent suggestions too—as you always do.

I’m sorry more of you were not able to come, but I’m fairly confident they’ll be more opportunities like this one, and others. On a different level—there’s a hang-out-with-Ramesh opportunity in San Fran this week (scroll down).

Thanks to all who attended this weekend—to support NRO and, frankly, raise our spirits and cheerlead, I hope what we give you in return here day after day continues to be worth your time.