I'm at the Korean Mathematical Society's Fall Conference. The chair of the session introduces the next speaker. "The next speaker, Kim Wol-jong, will speak on invertible shuffle algebras."

Everybody claps politely.

"Thank you for the kind introduction. " Wol-jong begins.

"That introduction wasn't kind." I blurt out. I know I shouldn't, but I was thinking about something else.

"Uh. Sorry?" Wol-jong pauses.

"The introduction. It wasn't kind." I say, "That was the bare minimum that he could have said. Kind would be if he said, 'I am delighted to introduce the next speaker who not only is a great dresser, but has also has had a great influence on me as a mathematician..' or some shit like that."

"Yeah." he says. "That would really be nice!"

We both look over at the chair.

"What?" he says. "I don't even know Kim Wol-jong."

"Well then what is your business introducing him?" I ask.

"Someone has to," he says. "I just got chosen for this session."

"Can't you say anything about him? What's his affiliation?"

"H___ University." He points, "It's right there on the slides."

"Anything else? Is he a student? A post-doc?"

The chair looks at Wol-jong questioningly.

"Post-doc." he mouths to the chair.

The chair gathers himself and tries again.

"I would like to introduce our next speaker," he says. "A handsome young post-doc from H____ University with a nice leather belt, Dr. Wol-jong Kim, is going to enthrall us with his interesting ideas on shuffle algebras."

"There you go!" I say, as the audience politely claps again in welcome.