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For complicated reasons, we wound up driving the Hugo Award bases up to Montreal in the trunk of our rented car. (Just the bases, not the plaques; neither we nor our pre-Worldcon house guest Dave Howell, who designed this year’s bases, have any idea who won.)
Right now those bases are still in our car. Soon Dave will come and take them away. But for just a little while, we can truly say to the Worldcon—indeed, to the entire science fiction community—that all your base are belong to us.
(Thanks to Shana Rosenfeld for the critical insight.)
All we want to do is eat your base....
Ouch.
Planning on cheeseburgers for lunch?
If you happen to see an orthodox rabbi holding a thumb out for a ride, you absolutely must pull over and pick him up. That way, you can tell us what happened to the car when you mixed hasids and bases.
Scott Lynch @ 5, I won't lye. That was a base pun. Not that this will pHase you, I'm sure.
[weeps a single crystalline tear at the beauty of it all]
Patrick, this post has made me very happy.
As someone who went on a genuine, successful dragonquest while you were visiting, I can certainly appreciate the value of a good phrasing.
Well done.
The memes are coming true! Oh God! Someone, someone find Mr. T and strap him down before he eats my balls!
Looks like rain here -- hope you have all their bases covered.
My brain briefly tried to make it a different David involved with the bases (Hartwell). This did not make much sense, and my eyes eventually convinced the brain that it said "Howell", which made somewhat more sense (at least if it's the Northwest fan / artist, rather than some other geek of the same name).
But that was a rather weird couple of seconds there, at first.
I am torn somewhere between a groan and a laugh. What is the proper word to describe such a thing? A Graugh? Laun? Hmmm.
Larry @ 17: I think the proper term is "lawn," as in the Temptations' song, "...all he left us was a lawn."
As long as they don't need to have extra weight added for balance. (Remembering 1984 and the weekend base-weighting not-quite-a-room-party. Clay and lead birdshot.)
(Bringing in a handcart loaded with cases of perfume and cologne)
"Youse the guys who ordered the Hugo Boss?"
No, base. Base!
I think it's very nice of you to take such treble with the basses.
They had to - if they didn't, it would hit a sour note.
Supreme! (Caught the end of this.)
FOR GREAT JUSTICE.
Cadbury.
But Pendrift, wouldn't it be just like a couple of editors to leave us with a clef-hanger?
[[big grin]] Just the smile I needed!
DDB@16 -- yes, it's that Dave Howell. We were really pleased to hear that he'd won the competition.
So when they take them away, you can say "someone set us up the bomb!"
Now, if the Worldcon were being held in Hoboken, rather than Montreal, the temptation would be to say "All of your Sopranos are belong to us".
("That's base not bass, Fragano", says Serge, distantly.)
Funny! And I could use a funny story right now.
I'm taking "a moment to collect myself" before going down to work on the Reno party this afternoon. I saw the beginning of the Mike Ford panel. I can't claim a great and lasting friendship with Mike, but we knew one another for about 20 years and had the sort of "chat a little at Worldcon and Boskone" kind of relationship. And I enjoyed his comments on Making Light. I think he was also one of the many on GEnie in the late '80s and early '90s.
For some reason, just the beginning of the panel left me flummoxed.
Maybe I'm tired. But I almost feel like some sort of delayed mourning has just set in. What particularly hit me was Teresa reminding us that people kept going "Oh THAT Mike Ford," because he had many little accomplishments that people often didn't connect. I especially loved his "110 Stories" (http://nielsenhayden.com/110.html), about lives interrupted.
He's someone I'm especially missing this Worldcon.
Oh well. Time to get chipper again.
You can also say the bases are loaded (into your trunk) and that you're running the bases (to Montreal)
And your return trip would be a home run.
Erik@34 -- and that you're expecting to be thoroughly debased during the Worldcon.
You have to get to first base somehow!
Hmph. Tried to raise tone quoting Hamlet, on base capital crimes, but it was a brute crime at the capitol instead. There hugo, me memory's on the fritz.
Epricis @ 39: Speaking of Shakespeare, have you seen the "Bard's" dramatization of The Beer Summit?
BTW, did you have do declare them going through Customs? If you didn't, you might be accused of a base canard.
Wyman Cook @ 44, like this one, you mean?
For some reason, I find myself imagining a year when the company that engraves the Hugo plaques has a not-particularly-thoughful soon-to-be-former employee who is a science-fiction fan (in the sense of "enthusiast") and is active on the InterNet.
Wyman Cook @ 44:
I'd expect Patrick to duck answering that question.
So does the car in question have a spoiler, or is it a zero-wing model?
Caroline @ 45: Now that's what I call a fowl lamp.
Don Fitch @ 47: I don't plan on goosing him for that information.
Epacris @ 39: There hugo, me memory's on the fritz.
No, Fritz Leiber isn't nominated for anything this year.
Wyman Cook @ 44
It could be worse, they might have been taken aside by Customes and told to TAKE OFF EVERY ZIG.
Cadbury.
I will run no base humour: here, take the
humour-letter: I will keep the havior of reputation.
wrw @ 48, I'm not sure about the spoiler, but I know it has a custom paint job -- a design all the way around that looks like this:
/ / / / / / / / / / / /
It used to be a zig-zag pattern, but they took off every zig.
Wyman Cooke @31: First, you would probably want to censor the B-word, so you don't get arrested. Even "You have no chance to survive make your time" has been considered enough of a "borderline terrorist threat" to get people arrested.
Second, be careful not to correct the word order. Geekery demands precision.
So when they take the bases away you can say, "Somebody set up us the b**b." Maybe people will think you're talking about the Scott Fitzgerald story.
55: Verily it is said, "Who picks by the nit will be picked by the nit."
I have it from reliable sources that Fitzgerald did not write "Bernice boobs her hair."
My apologies for any confusion.
Clearly some kind of villain (or villanelle).
(Excuse me a moment while I MOVE ZIG.)
That's better, the cats get annoyed if I leave it there.
Cadbury.
Jo Walton reports on the Mike Ford Panel.
i am filled with joy, like that character from the race that loved practical jokes, even at their own expense, in "The Uplift War."
Tom Whitmore @3
All we want to do is eat your base....
... we're not unreasonable, no-one's gonna eat your prize.
Cadbury @58: "That's better, the cats get annoyed if I leave it there."
Surely that should be "CATS gets annoyed"...?
From New Your to Montreal, free-basing* all the way? Kinda rough on the system.
*Assuming you didn't get paid to take them...
John Houghton @63: I would say the charge, like the trunk of their rental car, is now baseless.
What was the rock that the base was made from? It looked (to my used-to-know-something-about-mineralogy eyes) like some kind of granite which consisted mainly of an iridescent feldspar. The pictures don't do the trophies justice -- the beautiful optical effects aren't really shown in the still pictures.
Clauclauclaudia @61: I bow to a master.
Today's Real Life Comics made me think of Teresa. It didn't seem worth dredging up one of the previous fan-fic posts for but I thought you might like it.
Joel Polewin @ 65: Sounds like you're looking for a geological ID. I can give you the designer ID; most of the bases were made from a widely available "granite" known as Blue Pearl. You should be able to cross-reference to a geo-identification from that. Note that some of the bases were made from other kinds of granite. Also note that designers (and monument makers, for that matter) will put pretty much any stone that can be polished into the category "granite, " or "marble," although very few of them are actually such things as geologists reckon them.
Dave Howell @ 68: Thanks, that was enough to let me track it down. Per http://www.mindat.org/min-32161.html, Blue Pearl granite is "A commercial trade name for the Norwegian plagioclase-rich rock larvikite wherein the feldspar exhibits a blue schiller." Apparently not a true granite according to current classification practise (which I don't know enough to quite figure out) but related.
Dave & Joel, #68-69: Further trivia of possible interest: larvikite is sold to the bead & jewelry market as "black labradorite" (among other things). It's very popular right now, so if you'd like a piece of jewelry with the same optical effects as that Hugo base, you should be able to find one.
Gotta say that #71 is rather appropriate to the topic of the post.
Not simply spam about bigger penises, but spam supposedly posted by the bigger penis itself? Do they sell them with in-built AIs now?
The thinking-with-the-little-head thing would sort of account for the word salad, no?