Yes, this is entirely self-serving, but this is really neat to hear and I could really use an uptick in my paid speaking gigs. So, from a reader:

The email you posted from the fellow at W&L really intrigued me, since I too was at your talk at Washington & Lee University four years ago, and was also motivated by it to look up NRO, which I have enjoyed perusing ever since. I heartily enjoyed the experience, particularly your ability to strip away the meaningless platitudes the left wing loves to deploy, and examine what actually lies beneath. I specifically accepted Washington & Lee University because it was not as rabidly knee jerk liberal as most other colleges, with a fairly healthy representation of conversatives among its student body. I hope you enjoyed your talk at W&L as much as I did, and it’s interesting to see that I wasn’t the only student there impressed enough that we went out looking for more of the same. Just a rambly and belated “thanks for the great talk” note, I suppose.

Me: Really, this is very gratifying to hear. But I must confess that what I remember most (beside the beautiful campus) was my fear that I would start bleeding on the stage. I don’t mean metaphorically, but literally. I’d had a bad bloody nose for two days prior to that speech (I have a broken blood vessel up there — it’s been cauterized twice! — and every now and then it can be a real mess). I thought it would be a really bad look for a guy named Goldberg to start having a stigmata-like bleed on the stage of the W&L chapel.