Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I ran out of steam on my Wiscon report/posts, but because even sketchy may be better than nothing, this is based on notes I jotted down weeks ago.

Monday morning in the con suite, I got into a good discussion of language and dialect, which also included a FoaF story about a fan traveling in Tokyo, lost on the subway despite following his written directions, looking up and seeing someone with a Klingon t-shirt, saying something like "speak Klingon to me!" so he tried it, and got an astonished look and then directions in patched-together Klingon to get around the lack of some useful words. As the person who told us this said, the Japanese fan probably went home and told all his friens "you won't believe this foreigner I ran into on the train!" That conversation was good enough that I was late to the panel on "Tiptree winners you really ought to read," a discussion of winners (and shortlist and longlist works) that the panelists thought particularly well of, or had held up well. Matt Ruff's Set This House in Order came up briefly, someone mentioned that they weren't sure it was sf or fantasy, and I spoke up to say we'd discussed that at the time (that was my year on the jury). One very organized panelist had a list of what she recommended; I took a copy but may have forgotten to pack it. (She teaches literature, and has taught a large fraction of the Tiptree books and stories in one of her courses.)

I had a nice lunch Monday with Janet Lafler and Matt Austern. We walked around the capitol square first: there was a restaurant they thought might be open, and after a couple of days of overcast, I said I was quite willing to go for a random walk on the warm, sunny afternoon. The place they'd had in mind was closed, but most of the way back to the hotel we found a nice place, somewhat beer-focused but with quite good food as well. I resisted the urge to order poutine after finding out how large the serving was; I did order a pint of cider, expecting that I wouldn't finish it even if it was good. It was good, and I drank maybe a quarter of it, interspersed with iced tea. We finished lunch, walked out into the square, and heard and then saw that day's union/anti-Walker demonstration. I told my friends "I belong over there," crossed the street, and joined in on "Solidarity Forever"; someone cheerfully let me look over the shoulder for the verses (I know the chorus, of course). A couple of minutes of that, and then someone thanked us all and said something like "See you tomorrow, or Wednesday, or Thursday." I have no way of knowing if my participation did any good, but I'm sure it didn't hurt, and it felt right.

I spent some time on Monday talking to my friend L (who wishes to keep a low profile online), Matt and Janet some more, and to kateyule. I also had a nice conversation on Sunday with intelligentrix, who is still living in New Orleans and who I hadn't talked to in ages. (If I've left you out of all of these, it's not you, it's the nature of human memory.)

I'm having a good time at Wiscon; this is just a quick plug for Paciugo's gelato, especially the violet and cinnamon flavors (the orange is only okay) and for the Icon, a tapas bar. Excellent mushroom soup, lobster bisque, traditional tortilla, and fresh anchovies, among other things.