Question Time

I just met a person who as an opening gambit asked me... 

Which building are you in?

I wasn't genuinely trying to be unhelpful, but I was a little thrown.

I knew the context of where I was somewhat, but I just didn't fully understand the question.

And it wasn't one I could easily bat away.

All my easy comically dismissive answers seemed more dismissive than comic, and actually pretty unhelpful to the process of small talk. So I didn't use them.I just looked a bit bewildered and pathetic for a bit, until somebody else took pity on me and told her. It's not just university people who are doing this.

It turns out that this is the sort of question you get when you're teaching at a University.

The building clearly represents the contract or specialty in which you may be doing research or teaching. But more accurately it appears it represents your identity in that sphere.

I remember being asked a question some years ago in Edinburgh that caught me out for a second

Are you in the business?

What business ?

I should have known . I was in the entertainers' bar chatting to two entertainers, one of which was Paul Zenon, the excellently sceptical magician, who was pointing out to me Rich Hall just behind him.

Of course the business was show business. There's no business like it.

I just wasn't expecting the question.

I'm intending that this sort of thing won't happen again.

But the fact is I'm not sure which building I am in. 

And I'm not even sure if I'm in the business.