"What the heck is a Q-algebra??"

Monday September 3, 2007, 8:50 AM. Buttoned shirt tucked neatly into my pants, I arrive at the dacha to meet my new boss. Fast-forward six years. I can barely breathe from laughing so hard while we're having dinner with his family in East Village, NYC. Flash-backwards but not all the way. Frantically emailing with him and our co-authors from my dark tent because we seem to have solved a 35-year-old problem on... Q-algebras?!