-- The Touchy-Feely Thing. A point that was echoed by all of the younger members there was that the "hugginess" of Carolingia can be very offputting to a lot of potential members, especially female ones. On one level this isn't anything new, but it seems to be more striking now than it used to be, and a bigger problem. Many members of the Barony have spent many years internalizing a touch-oriented culture, while the student world has apparently gotten rather more conservative in this respect.

We were complaining about this eighteen years ago and ten and five and... I'm not sure if people have gotten more conservative or rather that the culture has changed so people feel more empowered now to express their discomfort without worrying about sounding like an uptight idiot.