I’m not sure what to make of this, so I’ll just put it out there.

As I mentioned here on Saturday, Friday night I attended a gathering of liberal/left/progressive New York bloggers for dinner, drinks, camaraderie, and nefarious conspiracies, real and Freeper-imagined.

As one of the organizers of the event I was put in charge of collecting money to pay the restaurant tab. I dread and loathe this responsibility since for the most part over the past 20 years during which the task intermittently has been assigned to me, the table more often than not has come up short, requiring me, the collector, to badger my companions to pony up a bit more or to cover the shortage myself.

I’m pleased to report that when I totaled up the collection plate, so to speak, those at Friday’s gathering more than covered the bill and the gratuity that was added by the house.

In contrast, as Nicole of Go Fish reported several months ago (I can’t remember when it was, can’t find the post, and so you’re on your own over there), at a similar gathering of Philadelphia bloggers, this one noted for, among other things, its ideological diversity, the attendees running the gamut from the left to the far right, things were quite different: Nicole said contributions toward the tab fell far short of the tally.

Is there a larger meaning in all of this? Are conservatives cheap by nature? Are liberals instinctually generous?

I don’t know. I ask, you decide.

[Post-publication update (October 14): Just to make clear, this was written tongue-in-cheek. At least a little.]