More SMOF Secrets?

Hey – maybe SFAwards Watch and IO9 will want to pick up on this one:

Glyer reveals in File 770 that the Secret Masters of Fandom have been talking about something called SCOOTERS.

I haven’t puzzled out the entire acronym, but I’m pretty sure that the first two letters stand for Secret Code.

Mike cleverly conceals whatever hidden message there is to be found in his entry by placing SCOOTERS into the context of a supposed conversation about handicap access at conventions. Of course, we have no real idea of what he’s talking about because the message itself can only be found on the SMOFs reading list which is, you know, kind of SECRET.

I’d really like to know what this passage is code for -

“So the problem for the Worldcon is not the expense, but having to front the money…”

Could this have anything to do with Hugo voting restrictions? Front the money from whom, to whom and for what?  It’s further illuminated by this later passage -

“Denconvention seems to have given that help to fans who planned in advance. The question really is what future Worldcons should provide for these last-minute needs, if anything.”

Fronting money?  ‘Help’ to fans? Could Worldcon be paying fans to join so that they’ll “vote the right way” come Hugo Awards time? 

I’m thinking that the ‘advanced planning’ referenced in the above means ‘smart enough and connected enough’ to get on the SMOFs list. So that you can request a payout.

Don’t believe me when I say something is up? Check this out:

“The best suggestion I saw in the recent discussion on the Smofs list was Sharon Sbarsky’s idea…

(Sharon) “…If the idea catches on, then more spare scooters could be rented.”

‘Spare Scooters’ indeed.  Don’t need the code book for that one! But in case you do – ‘spare scooters’ is obviously the insider’s outlandishly punny name for ‘non-worldcon-attending fans’ and ‘renting’ is the stand-in for buying their vote…

You could check me on all of this, but you’d need to be a SMOF to get at the source material, and we’re all sworn to secrecy…

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Exploding Heads

Is what happens when you wake up at 3:30 am, open up your reader and your blog and discover:

File 770 linked in to the blog.  This is Mike Glyer’s famous fanzine (now in electronic form here and here and really here) about fandom and fannish news.

If I weren’t in the process of moving, I’d be busily scanning a copy or two of the printed, 30 some-odd years old versions and putting them up here to give you all some idea of exactly what a fanzine really looks like (not to mention an idea of exactly how long Mike has been doing this).

BoingBoing mentions are all well and good and far-reaching and instantaneous and all, but a mention in File 770 is like, history man. ” – I mean, I’m no, I can’t – I’m a little man, I’m a little man, he’s, he’s a great man.” (Dennis Hopper, Apocalypse Now)

Maybe Linda Bushyager will resurrect Karass (I’ve got copies of that too to scan) and mention me in there too…

Then there’s this via BoingBoing: Copyright Renewal Notices Now Online

Way cool.  (Repeat after me)  “If I wasn’t moving today” I’d be typing a whole mess of titles into the search engine to check their status.

This has the potential of at least doubling the size of the print section of The Classic Science Fiction Channel.  Speaking of which:

The guy who maintained Phil’s Old Time Radio site over at Multiply.com has disappeared.  Right after I requested that he let me link directly to the radio show episodes he hosted over there (the ones you can’t play on The Classic Science Fiction Channel site).  I copied most of them down to my system and am going to upload to the server and launch them directly from the site, but some I didn’t copy and if Phil doesn’t re-surface, I may not be able to provide active links.  If anyone knows where Phil is, please get in touch. 

To return to File 770 for a moment: I’d have done a more visual presentation of Hugo Voting methods – if I wasn’t moving.

I also failed to mention SF Awards Watch, which just so happens to have a link to an article by Glyer currently running, which concerns predicting the Hugo winner for best novel and the divergence between the Locus Award, the Neblua and the Hugo.  Mike invites speculation as to why this is.

A lack of sweeps (winning all three) – I have no idea.  On the other hand: 29 of the 37 Hugo winners since 1971 (the first year all three awards were given out) have won two of those awards. So its a pretty good bet that either the Locus or Nebula winner will be taking home a Hugo, which means that this year either The Yiddish Policeman’s Union or The Yiddish Policeman’s Union has, based on historical statistics, a better than 78% chance of winning. 

On the other hand, Brasyl, Rollback, The Last Colony and Halting State (the other novel nominees – which doesn’t mean unusual nominees, it signifies length in this case) are all being given away as a free ebook (to current WSFS members), while TYPU is not.  Hmmm.

No, the authors of those books are not ganging up on Chabon in an attempt to skew the vote.  They just weren’t able to get permission to distribute a free e-copy.  (Rigggggght…, lol)

I could easily continue to do a second info dump at this time, more neat stuff (nifty keen even) keeps flooding in every second, but I have to stop somewhere, so I’ll close with these programming notes: I’m busily setting up internally hosted files of the “bad links” on the radio show section of TCSFC site, but today Comcast will be moving my service access from the old house to the new house, so these fixes may take some time.

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