Because I'm a bad person, there follows a list of all the notable people I talked to at the World Fantasy Convention. You can feel free to assume that they all thought that I was brilliant, and offered to co-author important publications with me.
- Kate and I had dinner with Sarah Monette Thursday night.
- I chatted briefly with Scott Westerfeld at the Australian party Thursday night.
- Kate and I went to the Zombies Need Brains party Friday, hosted by Joshua Palmatier, Patricia Bray, S.C. Butler, Barbara Campbell, Jennifer Dunne, and C.E. Murphy. I helped hand out door prize tickets briefly, and picked up a spiffy lizard bottle opener that came in handy later.
- We had an excellent dinner of Indian food Saturday night with Victoria McManus, Ted Chiang, F. Brett Cox, Carol Emshwiller, Judith Berman and Patrick O'Leary. Michael Dirda stopped by to say hi (ok, technically, he stopped to talk to Carol Emshwiller, not me, but I was at the table, and that's good enough for a Vos Posting....)
- We talked to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, of course, and David Hartwell, and helped mind the door at the Tor party on Saturday night.
- I talked to Teresa Nielsen Hayden at the Tor party about the new Steven Brust book.
- We talked to Matthew Jarpe at the Tor party, and some other people whose names I've forgotten.
- After the urban fantasy panel we (mostly Kate) talked to Ekaterina Sedia and Marie Brennan for a while in the Dealer's Room.
- I bought a book from Gavin Grant and his fabulous accent. That counts, right? (As an aside, I went to Hal Duncan's reading, and his accent makes Gavin Grant sound like he's from Iowa...)
- I talked to Kathryn Cramer about Mathematica
- I said hi to Paul Cornell, who I was on a panel with at Worldcon.
I think that pretty well covers it. You may all collapse in a fit of jealousy now.
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This reminds of the time I was playing Uno with Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Feynman. Naturally, the conversation turned to Jonathan Vos Post's incessant name-dropping. Finally, Isaac said, "There's a marvelous anecdote Jonathan tells about Dick Cavett hosting a small reception for Freddie DeCordova at Marilu Henner's house when Harlan Ellison walks in bragging about having had a torrid affair with Claudia Christian from Babylon 5. Marilu and F. Murray Abraham are discreetly trying to steer Harlan into the kitchen, when Stephen Hawking says, in his marvelous mechanical voice, 'Isn't she a lesbian?'" Ray, of course, was apoplectic at the mere mention of sapphic love, but I thought Dick Feynman would bust a gut.
HP, hilarious.
Dear Chad: cool list! No offense taken, no "bad" by you. We don't do this, nor parody other who do, to provoke "a fit of jealousy" but, rather, to remind people why one should go to such venues, and why one should have the chutzpah to talk to anyone they admire, and hope to find a mutually pleasing subject for conversation. I also found HP's parody very funny, almost as good as a delightfully snarky one by Patrick Nielson Hayden on his blog.
In a sense, there is some value in what some disdain as self-promotion or name-dropping. Part of the reason that I chair or moderate several sessions at some conferences, such as two in Physics at ICCS-2007 is, though there are certainly some MUCH more credentialed physicists at these conferences, the people who present papers have commented that they enjoy being introduced by someone who can entertainingly put their work into context with Feynman or Asimov.
For the record, I've never met Dick Cavett (but would love to), nor Marilu Henner (whose memory of her own past, day by day, I admire), nor Freddie DeCordova (nor Johnny Carson), nor Claudia Christian, nor F. Murray Abraham. For someone who lives to close to Hollywood, and who has worked in TV and film, I go to very few "industry" parties or premeieres. I am much more an outsider than an insider, and appreciate meeting eminent talents through the insiders that I do know.
I am very lucky indeed to have spent time with Asimov, Feynman, Ellison, and Hawking (though never all at the same time), but insist that anyone with good manners can get lucky, and even luckier.
All human beings in this country are nominally equal under the law, but there is no question that I look up to these eminent folks as my superiors in almost all ways.
I do think that the ScienceBlogs readers should be actively encouraged to engage in polite and constructive conversation with Great Women and Great Men, and to share the nuggets of wisom contained in those conversations.
I could say something about "small world networks" here, but it occurs to me that Chad, HP, and I already did. Thanks again for sharing the fun events, and the wit.
*sigh*
I am incapable of reading Ekaterina's last name without switching the last two characters.