The original Salons were champaign-and-brie cocktail parties among the decadent French aristocracy, who'd invite a couple of intellectuals over and pretend to care about the debates they engaged in for the amusement of the pseudosophisticate poseurs. Those idiotic, bewigged bobbleheads would nod and simper like they were so grave and earnest...and yet, they didn't have two neurons to rub together to spark even a single thought. Some things never change.