dinogrl can go into the mix, further reducing the stock of recycled questions, which will probably please the panelists if nobody else.We will use the write-on/wipe-off answer boards that we introduced at Norwescon, and thanks again to Cheryl for buying me the game that has them. This saves me having to buy 500-packs of oversize index cards and spend hours printing the backs on them. It may not be quite as "period" as the index cards, but it's certainly neater. OTOH, I'm now down to the last 50 or 60 blanks in my current supply and will have to go buy more the next time we do a show in order to print the questions.
It may not be obvious that I do try to put some thought in placing the various questions in either round 1 (relatively hard) and 2 (relatively easy) and matching the difficulty as I see in within the round, so that if A seems like a "gimmie," so will B. I also will put together thematically similar questions in the same round. Furthermore, I actually try to avoid having more than two "Dumb Dora/Donald" questions in the same show because while it's funny once or twice, it gets too silly after that.
If it isn't clear (and based on some comments, it may not be), I'm not criticizing Westercon 61's management for any of their decisions in how they've scheduled me. They have very good reasons for doing what they're doing. I've run programming myself at a convention larger than this Westercon is likely to be, and I understand the juggling act. What you're reading here is the fretting and fussing of the show's Executive Producer. We've always come together and made the show work, "all right on the night," you might say, even though it raises my blood pressure along the way.
Meanwhile, I need to get back to work on writing a user manual for an application I wrote for my department at work so that I can concentrate on Westercon preparations over the weekend.
