I was at a diner this morning having breakfast and a couple who appeared to be in their late 60s were sitting at the counter, watching the muted CNN and talking about Flash Mobs.

"Does this have something to do with the big virus that's going around?" she asked, referring to the MSBlast annoyance that seems to be pestering those who are unprotected by system patches or firewalls. He explained that the phenonmenon was unrelated, that the mobs weren't protests against anything, just spontaneous gatherings arranged by email.

She remarked that the whole thing didn't seem to accomplish much, but then that was probably the point, and he concurred. He found it really exciting that these were arranged entirely online.

Then I went home and flipped open this week's issue of Time. There was an article on Flash Mobs. Those who are worried about the weblog fad flaming out, fear not. Mobs are truly the flagpole-sitting of the new millennium. As Joshua astutely observed, Flash Mobs are striking in that they are an affinity event for people who have no affinity group. A Meetup for people who like Meetups. How much more meta can it get? None. None more meta.

I must note, with a bit of disappointment, that neither the couple at the diner nor my favorite newsweekly mentioned weblogs in either of their stories. That means I must continue my incessant blog-pimping sidebar for another few years. Such is my burden.