Monthly Archives: January 2011

Bookmakers Bet Against Bookseller

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John Mansfield sends a link to TeleRead’s “A Run on the Borders” reporting new symptoms of the bookseller’s failing condition:  

A few days ago, I mentioned Borders’s financial problems—it had to delay payments to some publishers because it needed all the cash on hand it could keep as it was trying to refinance its debt after a new appraisal reduced the value of its assets. Now Galleycat reports that two of Borders’s executives have resigned: executive VP Thomas D. Carney and CIO D. Scott Laverty have both stepped down.

One big publisher has stopped shipments to Borders according to Publishers Weekly.

“So the race is on,” says John. He asks, “Who collapses first, Borders/Chapters/Barnes & Noble??”

Top 10 Posts for December 2010

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Graham Charnock’s TAFF candidacy attracted more interest than Joel Rosenberg’s antics in Minneapolis City Hall — as well it deserved.

Here are all 10 leading posts for December 2010 according to Google Analytics.

1. Not Your Grandfather’s TAFF Race
2. Rosenberg Arrested on Weapons Charge
3. Four For TAFF
4. Hollywood SF Memorabilia at November 6 Auction
5. Len Moffatt Passes Away
6. It’s A Most Wonderful Time of the Year
7. Terry Pratchett’s Coat-of-Arms
8. The Harlan Ellison Links Keep on Coming
9. Stu Shiffman Wins 2010 Rotsler Award
10. To Arms!

Pay TAFF With PayPal

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Voting fees and other donations to the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund now can be paid through PayPal.

Both TAFF administrator’s e-mail addresses will work on PayPal — Europe: Steve Green, e-mail stevegreen at livejournal dot com; North America: Anne and Brian Gray, e-mail akg.netmouse at gmail.com.

A note at the official TAFF site adds “It would be appreciated if voters sending the minimum £2 or $3 could add a little – 50p or 50¢, say – to cover PayPal charges.”

[Thanks to Steve Green for the story.]

Anne Francis (1930-2011)

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Actress Anne Francis died January 2, age 80; her most famous stfnal movie role was Altaira in Forbidden Planet (1956). However, more Americans are likely to remember her as the star of Honey West, the first female detective to be featured in a weekly TV series.

Other genre appearances: Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Rocket Man (1954), The Twilight Zone (1960, 1963; the first of these was the classic episode “The After-Hours”), Wonder Woman (tv, 1976), Conan (tv, 1997).

[Thanks to Steve Green and David Klaus for the story.]

Pete Postlethwaite OBE (1946-2011)

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Pete Postlethwaite, prolific British actor, died 2 January in hospital, aged 64. Genre roles: Split Second and Alien 3 (1992), James and the Giant Peach and DragonHeart (1996), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Animal Farm and Alice in Wonderland (1999), Rat (2000), The Selfish Giant (short, 2003), Aeon Flux and Dark Water (2005), The Omen (2006), Ghost Son (2007), Solomon Kane (2009), Clash of the Titans and Inception (2010). Steven Spielberg once described him as “the best actor in the world”.

[Thanks to Steve Green for the story.]

Renovation Taking 2011 Hugo Nominations

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Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, is now accepting Hugo Award nominating ballots.

Members of Renovation who join by January 31, 2011 and all members of Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon, are eligible to submit Hugo nominations.

Links to the online ballot and a downloadable PDF ballot form are here.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Top 10 Posts For 2010

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The fiery demise of F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre became File 770’s most-followed story of 2010, an outcome guaranteed when a New York Times reporter linked to Andrew Porter’s account in the paper’s profile of the late author.

There was also sustained interest in Peter Watts’ and Cheryl Morgan’s harsh experiences with authorities while either departing or entering the U.S. Hundreds of fans followed File 770’s coverage of Watts’ trial and sentencing.

Yet the single topic that produced more controversy than any other was Frederik Pohl’s nomination for the Best Fan Writer Hugo, an award he subsequently won.  Three of the Top 10 stories – Shy, Retiring John Scalzi (which despite its name became a forum about Pohl’s nomination), Overserved at The Drink Tank? and Hole New Issue – were propelled up the chart as fans returned to read the many comments people made in the debate.

The other topic to yield more than one Top 10 post was WisCon’s decision to cancel Elizabeth Moon as its guest of honor, as the arguments begun in the original post spilled over to a follow-up post about a mundane newspaper’s coverage of the story.

Here is the complete Top 10 list of most frequently viewed posts for the year 2010, according to Google Analytics.

1. Andrew Porter: Authorities Query Whether Fire Victim Is MacIntyre
2. Peter Watts Receives Suspended Sentence
3. Overserved at The Drink Tank?
4. Lost Prop Auction Coming in May 2010
5. Hole New Issue
6. SF3 Cancels Elizabeth Moon as WisCon GoH
7. Cheryl Morgan Refused Entry to US
8. Moon, WisCon Covered in Mundane Press
9. Shy, Retiring John Scalzi
10. 2010 Hugo Voting Statistics Posted

Is Borders Circling the Drain?

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Borders Group Inc. shares dropped more than 15 percent overnight on December 30 in response to reports that America’s second-largest bookseller has delayed payments to some of its vendors in order to conserve cash while struggling to refinance its debt.

Borders has been reporting losses for years, but its results worsened in recent quarters with heightened competition from Barnes & Noble and larger merchants including Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. The growing electronic book market is another challenge, although Borders has jumped into that realm, launching its e-bookstore over the summer and adding services to its website during the third quarter.

Borders is closing 16 stories. There is no assurance that any refinancing will come through. Borders has announced that it could violate terms of its debt in the first quarter of 2011 and “experience a liquidity shortfall.”

Which reminds me of Bob Shaw’s line about a company trying to market a ship that took “unplanned depth excursions.”

[Thanks to John Mansfield and David Klaus for the story.]

Update 12/31/2010: While out driving I realized I could use Google Ngram to test whether Bob made up that expression or appropriated it. The answer: a bit of both.  “Depth excursion” has been a term of art for underwater exploration since the 1960s, but Ngram returned zero hits for “unplanned depth excursion.”