calimac: (puzzle)
[personal profile] calimac
So Scalzi wants to encourage voting for SFWA officers, which doesn't much personally concern me because I'm not a SFWAn, but a couple other of his recent posts do spawn thoughts.

1. The farthest I've ever gone specifically to see an author was probably the time I went some forty miles from Nashville to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to see Andre Norton, who most kindly gave time and personal attention. Actually I was professionally interested in seeing her library, which she'd set up as a by-appointment research- and work-space for fantasy writers, and she was happy to show it off. This was in connection with the Nashville Mythcon. Norton was not well enough to attend, but a sort of quasi-invitation had been given to convention members who wanted to come by. I expressed interest, so off we went.

2. Scalzi also writes about the experience of physically having an Oscar. This is a reprint, a bit ironic now since he really has - earned and not just physically holding - a Hugo, an award that impresses me as much as an Oscar. Of course, unlike Scalzi I don't know anyone who's actually won an Oscar, and have never seen the award in person, whereas I know quite a few people who've won Hugos and have seen many of the awards close up in person, both on visits and on the two occasions I sat on stage helping with giving them out, having been responsible for figuring out who got them.

As for having a Hugo, I had twenty of them. They lived in a crate in my garage for six months before the San Francisco Worldcon, except for the one I propped up on my mantelpiece to see what it felt like to have a Hugo. It had to be propped up because it was just the rocket, no base. I'd picked up the crate, sent by Peter Weston's Hugo-manufacturing company in England, from the shipping firm at the airport, lugged it home in my car - it was heavy - bought a special pair of scissors for snipping metal tape (the only souvenir of the occasion I still have) to get it open, and then lugged it up to the convention center and down into the hall - did I mention it was damned heavy? - on the day. Phew.

I do have a Mythopoeic Scholarship Award of my own on a living room shelf today, possibly the only one ever given for writing an Appendix.

Date: 2010-03-04 06:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] richardthe23rd.livejournal.com
You didn't have a Hugo, you had a box full of hood ornaments.

Date: 2010-03-04 09:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] randy-byers.livejournal.com
You met Andre Norton. I'm jealous. (Not that I would have had much to say to her other than, "I read all your books as a kid.")

Date: 2010-03-04 10:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cynthia1960.livejournal.com
I got to see and touch an Oscar (there were three) a few years ago. Those suckers are heavy.

Date: 2010-03-04 11:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scribblerworks.livejournal.com
Yeah, Oscars are heavy. I had a friend (song composer) who had two. The Emmy, though it has a bigger base than the Oscar, doesn't weigh quite as much (I've handled those too. But I don't have one, just "certificates for contribution to the winning of").

In fact... other than a mini-trophy for being on a winning women's basketball team back in high school (church league), and a few medals from Band and Orchestra Festivals... I don't have any awards. Well, other than the college degrees - do those qualify?
Edited Date: 2010-03-04 11:35 pm (UTC)

Date: 2010-03-05 12:14 am (UTC)
ext_28681: (Default)
From: [identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com
I have a former boss who had an Oscar -- technical one, don't remember the film -- but the awards that impress me more were my old coach's multiple Olympic medals, and my other former boss who picked up a Nobel Prize a couple of years back. Not only the international stature of the latter two, but the more stringent decision methods, make them rather more impressive, to me.

Date: 2010-03-05 12:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalimac.livejournal.com
Those certainly do rank at the top of the scale of impressiveness.

***

In the weeks that followed, things went well for me
An Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy
A Pulitzer and a Nobel
Five gold and one bronze as well
I'd like to thank my producer, and Jesus Christ.

- Loudon Wainwright III
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