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This summer many of us have returned to in-person scientific meetings with feelings of euphoria... The talks were universally excellent, and I thought nothing of it when many of the audience commented, before asking a question, about how much they appreciated the talk.

Later in the summer, when in-person meetings were less of a novelty, I attended a Gordon Conference and was surprised that questions from the audience were still being prefaced with statements like “thanks so much for such an elegant and inspiring talk”. After this occurred twenty times in a row, I started wondering about my sanity. ...

Later, I mentioned this at lunch and was told that the questioners were using a “compliment sandwich." For those who are not familiar with it, a compliment sandwich starts with praise, followed by a criticism or a difficult question, followed by more praise (or the same praise repeated). ...

The popularity of the compliment sandwich at scientific meetings in 2022 reminded me of a different approach that used to prevail at seminars at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. Affectionately termed the “Monday Night Fights”, these events were characterized by wild and woolly discussions of data, methods and theories... ...