{"id":186252,"date":"2014-03-24T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T00:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/03\/24\/damn-26\/"},"modified":"2014-03-24T19:47:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T00:47:00","slug":"damn-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/03\/24\/damn-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Damn\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2nd<\/sup> member of the Arisia founding “Gang of Five”, Mary Robison, just died.<\/p>\n

It was at her New Years Day party where I made the joke that started the con. <\/p>\n

I did not mean it seriously, honest. It was a John Swift-like (I wish) essay called, “A Modest Proposal on NESFA and Boskone.”<\/p>\n

I never expected anyone to take it seriously.<\/p>\n

Tom Fish died last year, so it’s just Chris Shuldiner, Brian Cooper, and me who are left.<\/p>\n

I always figured that I would go first, even though I was the youngest (by only a LITTLE).<\/p>\n

BTW, I just realized that the essay is not visible on “The Google”, so I am posting it here, where it will be indexed. (After the break)<\/p>\n

I printed it out on a dot matrix printer, and seeing as how I do not have a dot matrix font on my blog, it is in Courier.<\/p>\n

If you don’t get the context, which dates back to 1988 fandom bullsh%$ or so, count yourself lucky, and do not<\/b> Google it. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
A Modest Proposal<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Concerning the Problems<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
with NESFA and Boskone<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Matthew Saroff<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span>Over the past few years, the character of Boskone<\/b> has changed considerably. Some philistines have even suggested that the quality of the convention has declined. The official response on the part of NESFA<\/b> has been to tell people who differ with them that they have the option of going elsewhere.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>I would never consider it my<\/b> place to disagree with an organization with the long and illustrious history of NESFA<\/b> about the exclusive nature of their once preeminent science fiction convention, Boskone<\/b>. They believe, and who are we to disagree, that it is their<\/b> conven\u00adtion, and that they<\/b> have the right to redirect the focus of their <\/b>convention.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>We should be eager and happy to help this august group in their attempts to redefine their convention. For those who feel that they would prefer a conven\u00adtion more similar to the old Boskone<\/b>, an effort should be made to present these people with an alternative. This will get these unappreciative ruffians out of NESFA<\/b>‘s hair.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>We are obligated to NESFA<\/b> for the service<\/b> provided to the SF community by putting on Boskone<\/b> all these years, and we should provide an alternative to all those ungrateful brutes who forget everything that NESFA<\/b> has done for us. <\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>Now comes the time to repay the favor. We should provide an alternative closer to what these ungrateful people want. A convention in Boston on Presi\u00addent’s Day, 16-19 February 1990, weekend with a focus closer to the focus of earlier Boskones<\/b>. To stay in the proper E. E. “Doc” Smith spirit, we’ll call it Arisia<\/b>.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>We owe it to NESFA<\/b>. They have their hands full trying to run Boskone<\/b>, and having all those pesky fans are a problem. They harass the guests with ques\u00adtions and autograph requests, crowd the events, eat the con suite food, drink the booze at the Boxboro Fandom <\/b>party, and create a potential security problem are a problem for convention staff. We have a moral obligation to help them get rid of this problem. As shown by the Boskone XXV<\/b>, NESFA<\/b> is making a game effort to do this, but they need our help. Let’s help them get those fans out of Boskone<\/b> and into Arisia<\/b>. It’s the least<\/b> that we can do to help them.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>Notice:<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>IF YOU ARE CAUGHT WITH THESE DOCUMENTS YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO EAT THEM<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>(It works best if you delicately saute them with butter, garlic, and parsley.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2nd member of the Arisia founding “Gang of Five”, Mary Robison, just died. It was at her New Years Day party where I made the joke that started the con. I did not mean it seriously, honest. It was a John Swift-like (I wish) essay called, “A Modest Proposal on NESFA and Boskone.” I …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}