I've been spending much of the weekend going through my mother's, brother's, and sister in law's books, sorting what can be disposed of how. I've found a set of sonograms and a postcard of endearments from my brother to my sister in law. I might be half way through the project, and i am NOT getting sidetracked. Christine's taken some books that touch on her Edward Said inspired interests, my Dad reclaimed the boxed set of books that was going to be a big payday at the the book reseller -- 6¢ books, 11¢ books, but the boxed set of Shelby Foote was gonna be $22 plus.  I bought home some books that didn't scan as salable. Most of the non-salable fiction is headed to the Friends of the public library. The Book Club books that haven't slipped my attention are going to the "share shacks" at the dump as well as books written in, damaged, and covering topics like late 90s congressional record and tax code. Dad took the massive case law compendiums.

We saw Jaws in the theater yesterday afternoon, which was delightful. I've only seen it with Christine and her sister before, annually watching it -- first by accident at Memorial Day, then when we realized the date was wrong, July 4th. That and Gettysburg. Really, someone needs to do some mashup of all the generals talking about it being good ground.

Since that was very near Trader Joe's, and it was open,  i went there and spent some gift card on olives and olives and pestos that don't have cashews or walnuts.

The heat is astounding with the front yard recording heat indices of 120° twice and 123°. It's going to make seasonal 106° heat indices feel fine.

Happy things

Worries alleviated: The new chairs are very comfortable.

Bleh-brown prints replaced: Replaced covers on four throw pillows that came with the brown couch we retain: two blue fuzzy pillows that are "dusty" blue but not dusty enough to match the rug. They are very soft for cats, though. The other are two blue toned "Strawberry thief" William Morris (inspired?) prints.

Rearranged the hassocks and benches to improved room experience.

Bruno has found a lovely cozy spot for himself on the bottom shelf of the table in the angled spot between Christine's chair and the brown couch. He spent much of the weekend in the living room with us.

Tuesday Carrie was up early, and it was good to see the comfort the two are growing to have together. Big jumps with Bruno's socialization -- but he also peed on the couch (possibly Carrie's presence in his safe space was just a bit too stressing). Glad i bought a waterproof couch cover.

Watermelon rind simmered in tomato sauce with onion! Watermelon rind roasted with peppers and onions! I think it's a great veg, not merely fiber (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40910198/), and it doesn't need All The Sugar that it gets when preserved (candied).

I don't know if it is happy, but i had much catharsis writing my self review as i reflected on what looks so hard and draining about the coming year.

I learned that shredded wheat is really shredded: it's not ground into a flour and then extruded into those threads.

The original Boston convention (actually New England) was Boskone, named after the planet of evil masterminds from the Lensmen series. It ended up developing the problems that most successful cons of the time had; too many attendees, lots of them young and looking for alcohol and sex (which they found). Result: lots of salacious stories in the news about the science fiction sexathon freaks, Right Here In Our City!

Also the usual chaos; people foaming the hotel hallways with fire extinguishers and doing high speed sledding, pulling multiple fire alarms over the weekend, drunken orgies, etc. Boston hotels basically decided as a group to no longer host science fiction conventions.

It was a fun con, by all accounts. But the people at the top (Boskone was a fan-run con, as all good cons are) finally had enough. They moved the con out of Boston (I think it was once held in Springfield, which is as far away from Boston as you could get and still remain in Massachusetts) and clamped down HARD. No cosplay. No parties. No alcohol. NO FUN OF ANY KIND!

Also they instituted a strict membership cap.

The result was an extreme reduction in the size and popularity of Boskone.

Years passed. A group of younger fans decided to start a Boston con for general science fiction and fantasy. They named it "Arisia", after the secret planet of •good• masterminds from the Lensmen series (a little jab at Boskone, which still exists to this day in diminished form). They found a hotel in Boston's financial district that was willing to host. And so the first Arisia was held in 1990.

That was my first con, by the way. A friend got me to go. It blew my mind. We entered the amateur video contest that year and won first place.

I attended the con faithfully for the next 25 or 27 years. Became a panelist there early on, and did hundreds of panels (no exaggeration). Taught origami classes to young kids several times. Read books to kids. Helped a friend with some prize-winning costumes at the big costume competitions. Helped my young son make cosplay costumes; they made him the regular closer of the kids' part of the show. Had a lot of amazing adventures.

But nothing lasts forever. A new group of young insiders took over, and they had big plans. Bathrooms would be unisex. Gluten would be banned. The old guard would be eliminated. Older, experienced panelists would be excluded. Topics that offended their refined sensibilities would be forbidden; for example, an outstanding series of events for dialog between theists and atheists was cancelled because "only straight white guys are atheists" (which was absolutely untrue; the audience and panelists were among the most diverse I saw in my whole time at the Con).

Within a few years, everyone I knew had either been banned or chose to no longer attend or serve as staff. The number of annual attendees crashed from nearly 5,00 to under1,000. It also came out that some of the new leaders had been harassing and r@ping some of the attendees and lower-level staff, but that was covered up by the Con Committee for years.

I was one of the banned. My crime was wearing a costume that included a latex balloon, although that wasn't forbidden. I also committed the signal offense of talking about the changes the leadership had made online, which I was told was absolutely unforgivable.

#Arisia #Convention #cons #ScienceFiction #Boskone