Noreascon 4: Thursday

We made it in to Boston around 1:30, missing the huge hotel
check-in lines that were reported later. I went to the 2:00 pm
orientation seminar, and left after a little bit, as it was pitched
to people who'd neither been to a con before nor read any of the
pre-Worldcon advice online.

I headed for the dealer's room, where I was immediately smitten
by wood puzzles by Judy Peterson (alas, no web site; you can get an
idea of some of the simpler ones from
this book cover). I made the mistake of leaving a truly
amazing phoenix (done in very pale wood) rising from flames (red
wood, of course) until I could talk to Chad about it; it was gone
not two hours later. Later I bought a one-piece standing dragon
made from a gorgeous African wood called bubinga; I put
it on the hotel TV so I could admire it, and on Sunday evening
found that the maid had broken it while dusting. Grr. The hotel
says it will pay for a replacement, however, and in the meantime I
will try to repair the broken one with a very small amount of
Elmer's glue, as Ms. Peterson recommended.

I've already reported on the 4:00 pm
panel on exposition. At 7:00 pm, I went to "Ask Dr. Mike." This
was great fun, though there were a lot of references to The
Day the Earth Stood Still, which I haven't seen (Chad kindly
explained the plot to me on the drive home). I asked a much less
lofty question, "do the bug vacuums really work, or what's the best
way to kill the nasty creatures I find in my bathtub some
mornings?" The answer: armored minions with flamethrowers, though
that does create other problems, like the need for an asbestos
shower curtain . . .

[Edit: I now recall bumping into veejane at the end of
that panel. IIRC, she and oracne were at the party
later too. It was lovely to meet them.]

Before "Ask Dr. Mike," I'd helped marykaykare a bit
with party setup, but when we got back, we found that dlacey
had done so much from 7-8 that there was really nothing left. ("Charles Dodgson"
helped with decoration, and put up the "LL YR VWLS R BLNG T S" on
the wall (picture).) MKK
had a 9:00 pm panel to go to and left me in semi-charge for some
reason, which I frankly found a little unnerving. (There was one
really creepy person I couldn't seem to keep out, but at least that
person didn't stay long.) The party was later written up in the
newsletter, and I was unfairly mentioned—let the record
reflect that dlacey was the one doing a heroic job of
restocking the food, while I did door duty.

Other than feeling like I didn't know what I was doing on the
door, though, it was a lovely party. I saw papersky,
pnh, tnh, ckd, cheshyre,
rivka, tammylc and child, xopher_vh,
thomasyan, lilairen, annafdd,
fluffcthulhu (accompanied by feorag and
autopope), hazelchaz (if you're reading this: I
was wrong, the term I meant was "glom," not "glomp"), seawasp,
dhole (those last two I'm not sure was then, actually),
Cory Doctorow (who came bounding in saying "I found a place with
steaks *this* *big*," and both Chad and PNH thought he said "snakes"),
and about a gazillion other people whose names currently escape me.

Person who said she'd found the very worst Mary Sue ever, if
you're out there, care to take credit? (It was formerly on ff.net,
about a 14-year-old girl who was in a concentration camp and had
Dr. Mengele fall in love with her. Yeah.)

We quit the party a bit before midnight, I think. I completely
forgot about the Tenn reading, and did not make it down to First
Night, but felt pretty good about the way the con had started all
the same.

ETA: other Thursday reports:

• marykaykare's early con report.



• ckd's blog post.



• rushthatspeaks's reports: one, two, three.