Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

On my last trip up here, one of the many things we did was to try and plant grass in some of the bare spots in the middle field. Lisa pointed out to me yesterday that most of the planted areas have come up tolerably well, although we clearly didn't have enough grass seed. Unfortunately, we forgot to save the seed sack, so we can't be sure of buying the exact same type of seed when she sets us to planting more areas. The new grass is very nice-looking, and has already grown high enough to need trimming.

One of the neighbors out here has at least one pig. I think it's meant to be a pet, although I'm not certain. This morning, looking out Lisa's father's living room sliding-glass door, I saw the pig making its slow way across his lawn. Now one doesn't want to mess around with pigs. They are large and can be aggressive. However, I also know Lisa doesn't like the neighbors' animals, be they dogs or pigs, wandering into her father's property, because it sets a bad precedent. So I made my careful way out onto the porch, prepared to retreat should the pig prove to be more boar-like than piggy.

"Shoo!" I called, and the pig looked startled and jumped a bit. "Git!" I yelled, and waved at him. He turned and trotted away a few steps. I slowly walked toward him. "Come on, go home, pig! This isn't your yard!"

Slowly -- that pig is so fat I don't see it doing anything quickly -- he trotted toward the road, with me keeping pace behind him. If I stopped, he stopped. Once he went through a hole in the hedge and out onto the road, I decided my work was done and went back inside. I do wish I'd remembered to take a picture of this incident, however.

I really ought not to get into this, because I have far too many other things that need doing, but the comments here about Hugo Award eligibility distracted me enough for me to go reply to them. The initial complaint was that an SF Book Club publication got nominated for a Hugo Award, which was Bad because that meant its distribution was too limited. Now he's gone on to say "nominated works should be notionally available to all those who might become Worldcon members," which as I put it suggests that nothing could every be eligible, because it would require every conceivable work of SF/F to be universally available to every person in the world, which is an absurd requirement.

If you must comment here, go ahead, but I think you'd be better off going there and giving your opinion where the discussion started.