The crews of BWAWA, Inc. (Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association) and SPRAWL will host a party at LoneStarCon 3 on Thursday evening to “float” the possibility of a Worldcon Bid in the Washington, D.C. – Baltimore region. Quotation marks in the original. I hope this is a pun on a thematic refreshment, not an allusion to another Boat Bid.

As for SPRAWL, in William Gibson’s fiction, the Sprawl is a colloquial name for the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis (BAMA) — what it means in fannish terms I’m sure one of you can explain.

Recent construction in the Washington D.C. area has made the city a viable Worldcon candidate once again. Washington DC’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center opened in 2003 but not until November 2011 was ground broken on a 1,167-room Marriott Marquis across the street. Fans have long considered such a hotel the essential missing piece in any plan to return the Worldcon to Washington.

In 2004 Michael Nelson publicly discussed the possibility of a DC bid for 2011, if the convention center hotel was built in time. Of course, it was not.

Along the way, Nelson was inspired to write this priceless observation about convention bidding —

The military version of the DC-3, the C-47 (Dakota, R4D, Li-2, etc.), was nicknamed the “Gooney Bird” during World War II. While doing a little research on the DC-3 and gooney birds (a.k.a. albatross), I found this following quote in a Smithsonian Magazine article:

“After spending as many as seven years at sea, juvenile albatross   will return to Midway to begin an elaborate courtship process,  which involves dancing, head-bobbing, bill clacking and whining vocalizations.”

This is the finest description of a Worldcon bid committee I have ever seen.