The show, which should have completely soared, instead
which scans along with the penultimate line of the sheet music. "Completely" was originally "adroitly," but I decided that was too arty.
I worked long enough composing this quatrain, and in general contemplating the proper use of this year's catchphrase, that my brain now believes that "sagged bonelessly and was dead" is the actual last line of the theme; I can no longer hear the music without those words. And I have been hearing the music a lot since Thursday.
This is a small price to pay, however, if people laughed.
My other great delight was the audience reaction to Mike's introduction, which I had no guarantee would work. I knew, of course, that he had written a very competitive set of entries.
We ended up, BTW, not creating the Mike Allen rule, but rather remembering the long-forgotten John Kessel interpretation of the Darrell Schweitzer rule. Turns out that the latter never did state that if you lost twice, you had to leave the competition; what it has said all along (I really need better reading glasses) is that if you finished behind the reigning champion twice, you had to step down. The correct interpretation was first discovered after one-time loser Kessel beat reigning champ Geary Gravel at Readercon 12, but Shariann Lewitt beat them both. John was allowed to return and lost to Glenn Grant at Readercon 14.
So Mike not only gets to compete next year, he needs merely to finish ahead of the audience to compete again at Readercon 24 (something I was unaware of until minutes ago). After that, it may get tougher.
no subject
The show, which should have completely soared, instead
which scans along with the penultimate line of the sheet music. "Completely" was originally "adroitly," but I decided that was too arty.
I worked long enough composing this quatrain, and in general contemplating the proper use of this year's catchphrase, that my brain now believes that "sagged bonelessly and was dead" is the actual last line of the theme; I can no longer hear the music without those words. And I have been hearing the music a lot since Thursday.
This is a small price to pay, however, if people laughed.
My other great delight was the audience reaction to Mike's introduction, which I had no guarantee would work. I knew, of course, that he had written a very competitive set of entries.
We ended up, BTW, not creating the Mike Allen rule, but rather remembering the long-forgotten John Kessel interpretation of the Darrell Schweitzer rule. Turns out that the latter never did state that if you lost twice, you had to leave the competition; what it has said all along (I really need better reading glasses) is that if you finished behind the reigning champion twice, you had to step down. The correct interpretation was first discovered after one-time loser Kessel beat reigning champ Geary Gravel at Readercon 12, but Shariann Lewitt beat them both. John was allowed to return and lost to Glenn Grant at Readercon 14.
So Mike not only gets to compete next year, he needs merely to finish ahead of the audience to compete again at Readercon 24 (something I was unaware of until minutes ago). After that, it may get tougher.