Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:13:47 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Philcon
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

"Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:

> Principal Speaker will be: Eric Flint

Will you do without the "Flint-free" stickers on your books at next
year's Philcon?

A number of people at Philcon thought he was *this* year's principal
speaker, since he was mentioned as principal speaker on the back of
every Philcon badge, and some people didn't notice the "2007" there.

As for this year's principal speaker, Charlie Stross, I was able to
chat with him one-on-one for two hours yesterday morning from about 8
am when the last filkers went to bed until about 10 am when his first
panel began.  He was still on Edinburgh time, hence went to bed early
and got up early.  He is one of my favorite authors.

To save money I just stayed up for the whole con.  (I did arrange for
access to a shower.)  I arrived by Chinatown bus, same as last year.
I was driven home, or rather to a Metro station, by friends, but due
to random logistics glitches and delays, ended up spending Sunday
night at a friend's house in Maryland.

> As for the 2006 edition of Philcon at the new (this century) hotel,
> programming had more room changes, panel changes, panelist changes
> than one could imagine.

Some of them were quite understandable.  The con had scheduled Eva
Whitley to be on a panel with Alexis Gilliland.  I don't think so.

> And the Con Suite was on a Quiet Floor.

There were fewer parties than at Capclave, and only one of them was on
one of the three (!) official party floors, 20.  The others were on 8
and 21.  There was also a party-like Lojban room on 15.  The con suite
was also on 21.  As a result, I actually got a reasonable amount of
exercise at a con for once, as I climbed to 21 and back at least a
dozen times, and tried to get to the roof (30ish) once.  And the
floors were higher than the numbers suggest, as there were three
high-ceilinged floors below the 1st floor.

There were excellent views from the con suite and parties.  From the
con suite, you could see a building with no right angles and with blue
lights that turn on and off in patterns all night.  You could also see
the building whose stairs "Rocky" ran up, and behind it, a tethered
balloon that went up and down every few minutes during daylight hours.
>From other parties, you could see the PSFS building's sign which, over
70 years ago, inspired the name of the club that hosts Philcon.

One of the few panels I went to was on the Apollo Guidance Computer,
in which I got to see the actual hardware that flew on Apollo 14, and
learned the jaw-dropping wonders of "core ropes," which effectively
stored up to 40 bits in each one-bit ferrite core.

<samlubell at verizon.net> wrote:

> There were no open parties on Saturday.

There were at least three.  Did you mean Friday?

The con suite stayed open until 3 am each night.  After it closed, I
went to gaming on Friday night, at which I played Zendo and Jungle
Speed, and to filking on Saturday night, at which I mostly just
listened, as my voice was giving out.

Earlier on Friday night, I participated in the Jeopardy-format trivia
contest.  I didn't win, even though Martin Morse Wooster wasn't there,
but I did fairly well.  I was the only one who knew the name Jack
Williamson used for antimatter (contraterrene matter).

I also had a chance to cat with Michael Swanwick, and mention that I'd
been to a con in the hotel at which he set the gateway to the Mesozoic
in his _Bones of the Earth_.  He said he hadn't been aware that it had
ever been a con hotel, but just chose a DC-area hotel at random.