(1) A DREAM. Pat Cadigan on Facebook:
It’s Christmas Eve, and you know what that means––it’s time for my favourite Christmas story!
One night, Confucius had a dream about chopsticks…..
(2) THE CASE FOR EMAIL. NASA calculated the surprising amount of money it would cost to send a Christmas card to Mars.
Next: they can calculate how much it will cost to send someone to receive the card on Mars. (With and without potatoes.)
(3) DECK THE TARDIS. Alex Kingston and Matt Lucas kick off the holiday.
You’ll find many more festive videos, galleries and games over at https://t.co/6ZgR50EMu6 #DoctorWhohttps://t.co/Eu9cw0xETz
— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) December 24, 2015
(4) THAT SPECIAL TIME OF YEAR. And the Doctor Who Christmas Special is just hours away. Here are two previews.
The Doctor reunites with River – The Husbands of River Song – Doctor Who Christmas Special – BBC
“Are You The Surgeon?” – The Husbands of River Song Preview – Doctor Who Christmas 2015 – BBC
(5) ART APPRECIATION. An sf art collector discusses a cover artist of the Golden Age — “Hubert Rogers’ Astounding Covers — And His Fascinating Correspondence with Robert A. Heinlein and L. Sprague de Camp” by Doug Ellis at Black Gate.
At IlluxCon this past October, one of our major purchases was a pulp painting by artist Hubert Rogers. Rogers was Astounding Science Fiction’s primary cover artist from late 1939 to early 1952, with a break from 1943 through 1946 due to World War II (which he spent in Canada painting war posters and other paintings related to the war). We’d made arrangements over the summer to buy it from a friend of ours, who had owned it for many years, and he drove it up to IlluxCon with him so we could complete the deal.
Ellis maximizes the visual interest of his post with copies of the covers, and reproductions of several letters from L. Sprague De Camp and Robert A. Heinlein.
One of the Heinlein’s 1941 letters to Hubert Rogers says —
I will be interested to see how you have conceived the character Lazarus Long in my new serial I thought of him as looking a good deal like Carl Sandburg, earthy and robust, but not tall. My wife says he likes like an Uncle Sam with a dash of Doctor E. E. Smith. We are anxious to find out what he actually does look like.
(6) Today In History
- December 24, 2011 – Cheetah, chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s, died on this date. Your monkey’s mileage may vary.
(7) Today’s Birthday Boy
- December 24, 1910 – Fritz Leiber
(8) SPACE CHOW. “Christmas dinner on the International Space Station: What do the astronauts eat?” in The Independent.
Nasa tends to dominate the operations on the ISS, so the Christmas food is more typically American – turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes and cornbread are staples, and they’re all served out of small plastic packages that can be heated up in a special onboard oven.
However, Russia also has a strong presence in space, so there is some regional variation – Cloeris said the Russians have some “really good mashed potatoes,” as well as excellent cranberry sauce.
(9) AND FOR DESSERT. “Oh, Just a Gingerbread House Rendition of the Overlook Hotel from ‘The Shining’” at Messy Nessy Chic.
Nothing says “Happy Holidays” quite like a cult horror movie turned miniature winter wonderland in the form of everybody’s favourite Christmas cookie! Come play with us…
(10) THESE AREN’T THE DROIDS I’M LOOKING FOR. Why would George R.R. Martin (“Puppies at Christmas”) endorse Sad Puppies 4 in advance of seeing what they actually do, unless he believes the power of suggestion can make it so?
For decades now, LOCUS and NESFA and other fan groups have produced reading lists at year’s end, long lists generated by recommendations from their editors/ members/ etc. If at the end of this process, Sad Puppies 4 puts forth a similar list, one that has room for BOTH Larry Correia and Ann Leckie, I don’t think anyone could possibly object. I won’t, certainly. A list like that would not be a slate, and the whole “slate voting” thing will become moot.
And that would be great. That would mean no Puppygate II. That would mean a spirited literary debate about writers and books without the acrimony and the name-calling. From that debate a truly democratic and diverse ballot could emerge, one that represents all tastes. That would mean no ‘No Awards’ at Big MAC II, and the Hugo ceremony could once again become a joyous celebration of the best and brightest in our field.
In my post-worldcon blog post last August 31 (( http://grrm.livejournal.com/440444.html )) I expressed the hope that the ugliness of 2015 could be left behind, that Fandom and Puppydom could coexist in peace. That’s still my hope. And right now I am feeling a little more hopeful than I was in August. People are talking books, not trading epithets…
(11) DOCTOR HOOEY. Or will this turn out about as well as people expect? In the comments on Kate Paulk’s “Hugo Category Highlight: Best Fan Writer”, Dr. Mauser pleads for even more attention….
(12) PRODUCTION NUMBER. “California Christmastime,” from Rachel Bloom and the cast of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, and Will R. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Iphinome.]
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First! Happy Christmas! (Or whatever you happen to celebrate, if anything.)
Two-Fifths!
Regarding Doctor Hooey (heh) just to quote a wise person: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Happy celebrations to all, and to all a good night.
Merry Christmas to you all.
I hope, along with GRRM, that Sad Puppies IV does come up with an unranked and lengthy list along the lines of Locus and others. I doubt it will matter in the long run, because Trelane will be Trelane.
To be a stick in the mud, I’ll point out there’s a lot of question about that death of Cheetah–the chimp in question was suspiciously lacking in documentation and would have been astonishingly Guiness-book-of-records old for a chimp. I’d honestly be pretty surprised if he was actually one of the (multiple) Cheetahs, but we’ll never know at this late a date.
A pleasant holiday to all primates, however!
Scrolls bless us every fifth.
Until I saw RedWomat’s post I wa s going to say “Wow, I didn’t know chimps lived that long!”
Now I will say I hope Cheetah had a good, long life.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Happy Celebration of choice to all!
Merry Christmas and Happy Whatever You Choose to Celebrate!
So tired, but had a wonderful goose dinner with friends.
Best wishes to all the Filers for much joy and time spent with the ones you love (furry or otherwise 😉 ). And many books.
Merry Christmas!
Happy fifth fifth everyone.
Merry Christmas, and a good day to all whatever you celebrate. Sang in the choir at the vigil Mass, now enjoying a shot of rum in a cup of spiced tea before I go to bed. Will throw some sparkly toys to the kitties in the morning, not that they know or care what day it is, but hey, toys!
Merry Christmas to all Filers from across the pond.
Hope you all have a great day, and many, many thanks for all the entertainment and book recommendations over the past year.
Came for the kerpupple, stayed because of the sheer fun and joy posters bring.
Have a good one.
Did I not clicky? Looks like I didn’t.
Merry Xstalk filers.
And a happy Chanukwanzmasticivus to all my [insert belief system or lack thereof] friends!
Contributing editor of the day, three times, three times, three times, in a row. I feel so loved by fandom Santa.
(4) We get to see it tomorrow, so I’m avoiding seeing even the trailer.
(10) We can hope.
(11) I’m going to find stuff I think is worthy & nominate them. As for the rest, let’s see what happens.
Season’s greetings to one & all!
I was going to go over and argue with GRRM; I agree with a lot of what he was saying, but I had a clear recollection of SP4 going something like “We’re going to put out a list of 10 (and you should nominate the top 5),” which is just another slate.
But when I actually looked at SP4 (reasearch!), all I found was:
Which is basically saying “If you’ve read something fabulous this year, something you want to see win an award, and it’s on our SP4 list, you should nominate it.”
Which, umm, yeah, yes you should.
(Also if it isn’t on their list you should! But yeah, also if it is.)
Haven’t managed to find any references to the “vote for our top picks regardless” thing I remembered. So I came here to write instead:
—
I’ve been checking in on SP4 recommendations now and again, and my impression is the same as GRRM’s – I’m glad to see them flourishing. Over the past year, the most visible presence of the Sad Puppy campaign has been complaints about what they don’t like; SP4 is finally a place focused on celebrating on what they do. It’s a chance for all us non-Puppies to see them at their best, being fannish, talking about things that they love.
And, as GRRM says, I’m definitely hopeful that what SP4 puts forward can be some excellent work, ranging all over the field. If that happens, it will be a welcome change from SP3, because it will sever the link between the “you’re gaming the system” argument, and the “your reading preferences are crap / you haven’t actually read the pieces you nominated” arguments. That does make the arguments tougher for us; less clear-cut and self-evident. But it does so by improving the actual state of matters – better works on the ballot; pieces selected for actual popularity (in a particular fanbase) rather than arbitrarily; stepping away from lockstep voting. These are all good things.
Most importantly of all (to me), I think GRRM’s right in identifying a welcome change of focus, that can make a real difference. SP3 Puppies were self-selected for jumping onto the “Let’s stick it to the SJWs” bandwagon. SP4 Puppies look poised to self-select for being interested in sharing and reading recommendations. That’s an incredible difference.
I still fully expect vitriol and “stick it to the SJWs” rhetoric – from the same people we’ve heard it from up until now. But SP4 supporters participating in the recommendation process will be coming from a rather different place. They’ll have firmly in their mind the stuff they love, at least as much as the stuff they hate. They’ll be coming in with clear favorites, works they’ve recommended, that they’ll want to put on their ballot even if they’re not on the SP4 list. They may begin to be understanding that with 160 posts on the “Best Novel” thread, not everybody is going to get their favorites on the shortlist.
Looking at SP4 as it currently stands, I think it needs to be recognized that it isn’t looking like a slate. That doesn’t mean it isn’t problematic or harmful – any influential list can be problematic or harmful, and there’s an underlying hostility to the Hugos, to WorldCon, to non-Puppies, that brings harm to the fore. But it’s not a slate. It’s something else, not nearly as harmful .Perhaps harmful in the same manner as a slate, but to a much, much lesser degree. It’s a change that actually has the potential to improve things considerably.
Obviously, there’s a lot that remains to be seen. This doesn’t mean anything is over, or anywhere near over. But I think it’s cause for some cautious optimism and cheer. 🙂
Merry Christmas !
DOCTOR HOOEY
Hah I checked the comments over there – Mauser is congratulating himself on the number of comments here on his article and stating readers did not understand his subtle points. I guess any attention even if it’s negative is good.
THESE ARENT THE DROIDS I AM LOOKING FOR
SP4, well it’s a list right now but I am adopting a wait and see attitude.
Standback: I’m pretty immune to attempts to spin SP4 in advance of seeing what they do with those recommendations. And in contrast to GRRM, I’m in no hurry to draw hasty conclusions from what’s been recommended there through Christmas 2015, because in any other year the majority of Hugo voters only start to think about their nominations in January, so if SP4 truly has a following I expect there will be a lot more participation closer to the opening of Hugo nominations and who knows what those people will recommend?
It is also shortsighted to think only about SP4 when Rabid Puppies 2 is going to deliver a group of votes for Vox Day’s agenda.
@Standback
Which is why they plan on ranking the entiries by the number of nominations they received to increase their chances of getting their choices onto the ballot per Paulk when they started this process. Vote high on the list with others to increase the chances of getting on the final voting ballot which I am somewhat leary about.
To me the jury is still out until we see what is actually done. I expect the RP to lump themselves as a voting block again using the SP list as a starting point.
ETA: Ninja’d by OGH
The discussion looks good, but I would have more faith in SPiv were they not going to sort the lists by ‘popularity’.
Still, I wish them the best today – not from any seasonal goodwill, but because I’m going to the Kennedy Space Center today and nothing can kill my good mood.
Winners of the real Quarter Finals of the Science Fiction Movie Bracket can be found here. The Semi Finals are open for voting here.
@Mike: I agree with all that.
IMHO, saying “this bit of behavior is good; I appreciate that” isn’t any kind of guarentee that future behavior will be any good. When they do something, I can give my opinion of it. No conclusions. Just reactions. Right now I think they’re heading in a good direction; if something changes that, I get to revise my opinion then.
I also agree that RP2’s influence hasn’t been discussed here, but I don’t think that’s being shortsighted. It’s just, well, not what this particular snippet of the discussion was about.
@Shambles and @GSLamb:
The “sorting by popularity” bit might be what I was remembering. I wasn’t able to find a reference; could you point me in the right direction?
@Standback
From the about page …
It’s an improvement from last year but again I have a wait and see approach.
11) Dr. Mauser is as usual. Fail totally at argument, then proclaim victory.
One last point in respect to Mauser – for someone defending Lou A in an article; Mauser will do him no favors by getting it on a voting packet. It’s just going to bring a lot of negative attention on Lou’s past behavior versus what Lou is trying to do now – which is hopefully to improve his behavior.
Happy merry jolly holly to you and yours that celebrate and best wishes for the new year to all. And don’t believe that propaganda reel: it’s actually cold in California this Christmas.
@Shambles: Wait, that quote is saying the list will be of the most-recommended works, not that the list itself will be ranked or sorted by popularity. Am I misunderstanding you?
(Again, I see the issue of “Let’s have a pre-nomination nomination,” but I’m not seeing the singling out of the 5 most popular works vs. the other works on the list.)
Standback, Paulk’s quote is: “If you want to see your favorite author receive a nomination and an award, your best bet will be to cast your nomination ballot for one of the works in the top ten or thereabouts of The List.”
In the interests of holiday spirit, I’m not going to link to that shyte. You can Google it, if you’re so inclined.
I will only point out once again, that the Puppies mistake the Hugo fiction awards as being awards for authors, when they are actually intended to recognize specific works.
In other words, Puppies: “If you want to see your favorite work receive a nomination and an award, your best bet will be to cast your nomination ballot for that work”.
Standback: that quote is saying the list will be of the most-recommended works, not that the list itself will be ranked or sorted by popularity.
Can you explain the difference to me?
@Standback
There will be 2 lists – a short list of the most popular entries by number of recommendations and a link to the longer list. The actual implementation details we will not know until it’s presented.
Just popping by to say Merry Christmas (and/or happy seasonal celebrations of your choice). Hope all Filers have a good ‘un, whatever it is.
JJ – the question is, will it be just a list of ten? Or will they be ranke 1 to 10?
By the way 1.99 deal for Ancillary Mercy on Amazon US
@Nicholas
To me the ranking is less important given the diffusion of individual nominations in many of the categories where there are no clear favorites such as you might see in popular media properties
Just wanted to say that I appreciate Mike pushing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at every opportunity. It’s been one of the most fun shows this year, done a great job of balancing the usual romantic comedy tropes while pointing out that the protagonist is clearly mentally ill and quite horrible a lot of the time. Amazing songs, a really diverse (and talented) cast. Rachel Bloom really deserves her Golden Globe nomination.
Whoops darn it. I meant Justice ! Sorry too late to edit the link.
@Mike can you fix it ?
@JJ: Sure! But I’m growing to think this is a tangent, a misunderstanding I had of the SP4 plans rather than something they actually said.
My recollection was that the plan was this: In each category, they’d list the top 10 most recommended works. But, they’d be sorted by popularity. And (in my recollection) there was straight-up advice to nominate the most popular five. Something along the lines of “OUR recommendation is to nominate the most popular works.”
If that were the case, it would kind-of not look like a slate, because there’d be ten entries in each category. But since it’d be effectively agreed upon which five of those ten to nominate, it’d function just as effectively as a slate with five entries per category, with almost everybody voting the same, and locking up the ballot.
— But all that, at least so far, doesn’t seem to be the case. They aren’t saying they’re sorting the individual lists by popularity. More importantly, they aren’t saying “vote for whatever our list determines is most popular.” (It would be trivial to measure each list item’s popularity, and I’m sure people will.) So my understanding seems to have been a misunderstanding.
And what that means is that the ten-item list really is what it says on the tin. You can fault the Sad Puppies’ taste all you like, and there’s plenty of time for new developments before nominations are closed – but what they aren’t doing, so far, is colluding to give lockstep nominations to a slate of five pieces per category. Just the diffusion of choices across 10 candidates instead of 5 can be enough to cut their effective power by half, or more. (It also cuts considerably into the Rabid Puppies’ ability to ride on SP support, because the only way they get it is by choosing pieces that are highly popular anyway.)
I think that’s worth recognizing.
@JJ: Ah! I think I see where I formed the impression. The quote you gave me was probably the source, and it’s been modified (clarified?) slightly for the SP4 About page (which I quoted above).
I think what Paulk is trying to say is “If you want to recognize or , it’s better to pick a work by that author/from that subgenre that’s on our list, because it’s popular and coordinated so that’s the tactical choice.”
What she’s actually written is “If you want to recognize you should vote for something on our List (even if isn’t on it),” but I don’t think that’s how it was meant (or even how it’ll be read).
What I thought she’d written was “Whoever you like personally, you should support SP4 by nominating the first 5 items on each category list.”
—
So I do think she’s encouraging tactical voting. Which I can’t say I’m happy about; I’d prefer everybody voted their true preference. But it’s also not so awful a statement, particularly because she limits the tactical voting specifically to “you’ve read it and agree that it’s worth an award”.
A happy Christmas to all!
(1) A DREAM
I am deeply glad to hear from Pat Cadigan, and that her voice of humor and compassion remains.
(11) DOCTOR HOOEY
Regarding his interactions here, Doctor Mauser is apparently under the impression that “my comments on their behavior were a little too veiled” rather than people here were being polite.
Merry Capekmass to all.
ETA: (Not letting me do the C with the antennae accent.)
Merry/happy $n day everyone, for whichever value of $n is most appropriate in your neck of the woods!
Happy Halloween everybody!
(Because DEC 25 is also OCT 31.)
Also: Tenth Fifth!
Best wishes for a happy new year.