CO gave me a last friendly pat on the back for good luck as we negotiated the final set of stairs to the lecture hall. This was it then. It was finally time for me to deliver the closing keynote speech at the huge SLA conference in the US. Who was more excited over this eagerly-anticipated performance: the audience or me? It was difficult to tell.

My presentation was a complete and utter disaster. In spite of the months of preparation and weeks of rehearsals the whole performance failed miserably. I forgot the main line of argument completely (even when I referred to the notes) and all the supposedly clever jokes, witty asides, and entertaining anecdotes fell flat. Then the microphone broke. Each and every audience member was appalled: they couldn’t wait for me to leave the stage.

When my 45 minutes were finally up TPR rushed over, caught me in his arms, and carried me off to safety away from the braying crowd.

Meanwhile my career was officially declared dead at the scene.