Fanboy, fatboy

One of my little maxims is that SF fans have, in their own way, lead the culture. For example, back in the nineteen thirties and forties fans often lived in communes called slanshacks. Some decades later the flower children reinvented communes on a large scale.

Similarly, in the earlier days fans were frequently nerds. Decades later nerds were in with the arrival of computers and computer programming as a major cultural force.

One of the striking characteristics of fandom in the latter years of the twentieth century was the prevalence of hyperobesity. As we observe the social trends in America, we can only conclude that fandom has once again been leading the weigh.

Oops

In late August I was on my way, somewhere in Indiana, driving out to Massachusetts when I got a call on my cell phone from my cousin who also happens to be my insurance agent. He passed on to me the bad news that my drivers license had expired in June. SD, unlike MA, does not send out a notice that it is time to renew your license.

This made for a bit of a cropper. If I hadn’t known that it had expired I would have continued driving on without problems. I did know though, so naturally I did the right, honorable, and legal thing. I became a pedestrian and put Matilda in my backpack and hoofed it the rest of the way.

You read it here. Believe it.

Er, well, maybe you shouldn’t.

In any event Our Lady of the Large Black Dog flew out to Boston and rescued me. We took in the World SF convention (Noreascon 4) and then ambled down to NY where we did the tourist thing. We went to the top of the Empire State building, walked through Times Square, and took a tour bus trip around NYC. Not bad for a one afternoon and evening in the NYC. Deb was impressed; she said that it reminded her of Nairobi. She thinks NYC is a third world country. She may be right. It’s very photogenic though.

After NYC we drove down to Hagerstown MD. Why Hagerstown? Not, as my SF friends might imagine, to visit the grave of Harry Warner Jr, although that would have been a good deed. Instead we visited a highschool classmate of Deb’s, Janet Emral Shaool, nee Markley. Janet drove us into Washington DC where we did DC tourist thing. We went to museums where Richard insisted on looking at the dinosaurs and Deb insisted on viewing the Hope Diamond and the Julia Child kitchen exhibit. We also visited sundry monuments and took lots of pictures.

Having touristed (such a good word, touristed) we drove home through West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and dear old South Dakota. It’s a big old country, it is.

The scales of defeat greeted each of us with the sad news that we had put on five or six pounds on our vacation. Sigh.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

John Kerry at work?

And which timeline are you on?

Judging from my email and from some of the stuff that I see on the web this planet is the nexus of several different alternate universes with rather different histories. Indeed, some of these universes seem to have their own version of the laws of physics. My take on this is that the InterDimensionalityRealityControlBoard invented the internet (Gore was one of their agents) in the hope of exposing these competing realities to each other. They seem to have miscalculated; the agents of the competing realities are happy enough to exploit the internet without worrying about the little inconsistencies.