Will Jersey shore rentals be expensive because there are so many damaged homes or cheap because everyone will avoid the place?
I've been to Galveston a few months after a big hurricane and it was cheap. But Galveston and Jersey possibly have some differences.
Best make sure that the standard rental terms do not prohibit you from throwing parties or having more than n individuals in the house.
Here's a nice place not far from D.C.
I rented a house from Roxy Music and the lease said, "More than this, there is nothing."
Baltimore? Not sure of prices, but Lancaster house in Fells point is $300/night, 3 br. Regional train weekdays, BWI airport bus + bmore public transit otherwise.
Topically, I still don't know about going. I can't tell that far out.
Hmm, no experience with house rentals around there.
I'll move heaven and earth to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo get to Unfogged20con though.
Why easy to get to from D.C.? Respect for the location of previous UDCons?
I'm probably not coming, but have an idea to toss out: Harpers Ferry. The MARC train goes there, it's a lovely little town, you can swim/tube in the rivers if it's hot enough, and is maybe just a touch more convenient to Pittsburgh and Cleveland than DC would be.
Fuck yeah NoVa strip mall adjacent condo complex party!!
Harper's Ferry is a nice idea, as is B'more.
I guess for people from the DC area Harpers Ferry has associations other than "raid the arsenal at".
Are there sex grottoes in Charm City?
(You know Cheney has one on the Eastern Shore.)
MARC to Harper's Ferry is a commuter train, runs there in the evening and back to DC in the morning. Like once, maybe twice a day on the weekends. Seriously inconvenient IMO.
16 -- Oh, well, it was a thought.
Hmmm, we've been wanting to visit DC-area relatives, so this might mean I would have to bring the family along. Since all our DC-area relatives are going through divorces, there should be plenty of spare bedrooms for Lee and the kid(s) to stay in while I head for the sex grottoes. Maybe.
Are there sex grottoes in Charm City?
I haven't found the sex grottoes yet.
I second the suggestion in 7. If Unfoggedodecacon is held within walking distance of my house I might actually attend.
I'm going to have a competing celebration at my house in Los Angeles. This will be the case even if Unfoggedodecacon takes place at my house in Los Angeles.
Baltimore:
"Beat-up little seagull
On a marble stair
Tryin' to find the ocean
Lookin' everywhere
Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain't nowhere to run to
There ain't nothin' here for free"
I have a 14'x14' studio. You can all stay with me. It'll be very.
In an apartment that size, I think by the time you have more than three or four guests, it automatically becomes a sex grotto.
As I think Robert Benchley said of a workspace shared with Dorothy Parker, if the office had been any smaller, it would have been a sex grotto. Or words to that effect.
How many yurts fit in Stanley's house?
25: Please tell me you're a fellow Robert Benchley fiend! That would make so much sense, I think.
Robert Benchley is the greatest. I once named my fantasy baseball team "Milgrig and the Tree Wilfs".
And that dynamite grandson of his!
29, I kind of am, yeah. He is perhaps lower in the pantheon than DP but I have adored him since reading the little piece "Contributors to This Issue" in high school in a volume of upper-middlebrow humor.
MEDFORD LAZENBY probably knows more about people, as such, than anyone in the country, unless it is people themselves. He has been all over the world in a balloon-rigged ketch and has a fascinating story to tell. China Through a Strainer, in this issue, is not it.
(I use the descriptor "rather unattractive looking," [ibid.] as often as possible.)
Not a sex grotto (I already gave you a Palm Springs option and SPECIFICALLY identified homes with sex grottoes) but how about ON A [house]BOAT:
OK, this place is kind of expensive, but how sweet would this be. Check out the rooftop garden:
I was going to say that you could almost swing that if you had a bunch of people staying there and paying what they would pay for a hotel, but then there's also a $450 cleaning fee on top.
I mean it doesn't really have a sex "grotto" per se but there's a sweet master bath with a Jacuzzi and someone could totally get it on on the grand piano.
There was a prior thread where it was decided that DC area had the best chance of maximizing attendance. And people rejected the first-best choice of Palm Springs.
I'm totally there for the sex grottoes and pianos, unless I'm not.
Ah, so Memorial Day. Possibly right on schedule for a Western Finals elimination game Spurs/Steve Nash beatdown.
OK, Robert Benchley fans, has anyone read SJ Perelman? Amazing how little attention he gets these days, such a terrific writer. As he himself always said, before they made SJ Perelman they broke the mold.
If I have a job by then and I have vacation time and I can use that time and I'm not visiting family, I might actually go to this.
I had to google VRBO, initially thinking that "off VRBO" meant off the coast of somewhere.
I'm torn. I would like to go, but that would require leaving my hovel. Also, going would mean meeting all of you, but it would also mean you all meeting me.
PGD, my parents and grandparents are obsessed with Perelman, which is probably why I never read him as much as I should have. There's some very funny stuff, I admit.
I thought the Cosma hosting thing seemed promising, but people would have to ask him (again). Then again, the west coasters may disagree about east coast-ish settings. I'm doubtful to attend in any case.
Also, going would mean meeting all of you, but it would also mean you all meeting me.
You could go and claim to be someone else.
42: I've tried, but he's never clicked for me like Benchley and Thurber.
Perelman seems to mostly be spot-on parodies of things that have been forgotten for 60 years. Doesn't seem funny in its own right.
44: it's okay to google things sometimes.
I briefly thought VRBO might be some cute abbreviation for Virginia Beach like OBX is for the Outer Banks.
Yeah, I thought Virginia Beach as well. I mean, there's NOVA, and Delmarva. Why not VRBO?
57, 59: Me also. I had no idea it was a verb site until 44. I think maybe it has been mentioned here prior but the name never sank in.
It sounds more like one of those realtor-created neighborhoods, like Village Right Behind Observatory or something.
Or like the acronym Knecht uses for his neighborhood/township/region. (I've forgotten what that is exactly.)
Or MILspeak where the words make no more sense than the acronym, Vehicular Rationing Base Operations.
Mother-In-Law speak? That's assuredly a thing.
Why am I seeing this in FB posts from my anarchist friends before it's a frontpage post here?
You could go and claim to be someone else.
It'll be really embarrassing when the real Matt Weiner shows up.
67: Write up a guest post! I am curious what you imagine there would be to talk about in relation to that review. Worst restaurant experiences you've ever had?
Or MILspeak where the words make no more sense than the acronym, Vehicular Rationing Base Operations.
This is funny. I went to the Wikipedia page for CENTCOM yesterday. Apparently one of CENTCOM's responsibilities is something called "Exercise Internal Look". Unfortunately the abbreviation EXINT is already taken so they have to actually say the nonsensical phrase every time.
I've never been to North Carolina except on a drive through to go to canvass in South Carolina. Would the Outer Banks be a possibility? Can you get there on a bus?
Chincoteague is near DC, right?
I bet the Outer Banks on Memorial Day would not be so inexpensive.
73: I know. I'm just enthralled by the thought of being able to swim in the ocean on Memorial Day.
I know you all are a bunch of atheists, but maybe there's a nice Unitarian retreat center we could rent out. Most of the Episcopal retreats I've been on have had plenty of alcohol. They don't call us Whiskeypalions for nothing.
63: Real estate people are trying to transform a little fragment of Manhattan I'd probably refer to as "that rather unattractive looking stretch of Hell's Kitchen that has a few theaters in it" into MiMa meaning Midtown Manhattan. I find this vexing. Partly because, aloud, it sounds like Mime, the hateful dwarf who makes Act I of Siegfried such a long sit with his unmelodic nattering.
Are you planning to go to unfoggedconX yourself, Heebie?
73: Also probably booked solid already.
69: Well, just off the top of my head:
Why is it so easy to write a bad review of a restaurant, and so hard to write a good one? Are restaurants really all that bad, and if so, why do we keep eating at them?
What quality of SWPL is expressed by the Fieri-esque exultation of various parts of American trash culture? (Bonus topical Chuck Klosterman tie-in)
Does anyone besides utterly clueless wannabe starfuckers actually eat at stupid celebrity theme restaurants? Are there any good ones? (Restaurants that is, not wannabe starfuckers)
Is there any way to read the words "Donkey Juice" other than as the obvious double entendre?
76: I think so? It's a little up in the air, but from this distance there's no reason I can't attend with new tiny baby along for the ride. It would be about 6 weeks old.
It's hard to write a good review of a restaurant?
72: So, reading the Wiki articles, it appears that:
1. There aren't any ponies on Chincoteague
2. Except for domesticated ones
3. And "Misty of Chincoteague" wasn't a feral Assateague pony at all
So the whole thing is just a passel of falsehoods!
I'm coming. Who's picking me up from the airport?
80: It's almost impossible to write one that the restauranteur will consider "good", I'll tell you that much!
I dunno, when I read restaurant reviews, the good ones are all snoozefests with a bunch of silly adjectives. Often, they're just puff pieces about the people involved, with hardly any sense of what the food and ambiance are like.
77: Nobody here already owns a place, huh.
They had a couple of auctions at my church. One year somebody donated a week at a house in Aspen. The other year there was a donation of a place at Hilton head.
The NYT review of the Fieri restaurant was fun, but in the paper edition there was the interesting juxtaposition with this review of another restaurant, which mostly praises the restaurant but feels it's just a bit too understated. It made the over-the-topness of the other one stand out even more.
Fort Story:
http://www.capehenryinn.com/booking.htm
The NYT review of the Fieri restaurant was fun
I liked this version.
85.--Huh, that's right by one of my preferred Goodwill stores. I'll have to make an outing soon.
Well hell. I think I'm going to be in Venice that week. Maybe not though.
Well wait, what about moving the whole thing to Venice?
91: that's a great idea. Let's charter a plane!
Why can't one of us stop procrastinating and get really really rich?
You missed the necessary final step, where they decide to devote their riches to coddling the rest of us. Screw kept women, all the cool billionaires maintain a kept commentariat.
Screw kept women
Well, OK, if you insist...
99: A friend of mine worked as a literary agent (here) for an heir to the Daily Mail fortune. He did fly almost everyone he knew to his birthday party in Venice. They might have even had champagne fountains.
Does he want to adopt an eclectic web magazine?
We'll vote for him when he runs for office if he does. Because we appreciate "gifts".
105: He's English, so I don't think he can run for office in any election we could vote in.
Some of us could. Or if he flew us over we'd engage in voter fraud. After all most of us are Democrats or assholes.
Remember the magic word is "gifts".
In English, the construct "either ... or" is usually used to indicate exclusive or and "or" generally used for inclusive. But thanks for making that explicit, asshole third-party voter.
As I said in the previous thread, I will most likely attend this regardless of when and where it is.
I feel like at this point the planning effort could use some clear decisions about what our highest priorities are for a location.
112.2: Who has that in their Deliverables on a Go Forward Basis?
Somebody should make one of those simple user-friendly approval-voting polls to see what our priorities are. I poked around for a few minutes and then gave up. It's been that sort of day.
114: Or choose the location by lottery.
115: I'm sure everyone will be excited to know that the pro-lottery side came out ahead in last night's Commonwealth Club debate. In your face, elections!
The Hyatt Place Hotel in Harper Court.
ICE BURN on your mother's knees.
11: I am, indeed, more likely to go to Harper's Ferry than to DC. Whether that's 80% vs. 75%, 50% vs. 10%, or 2% vs. 1%, well, I just don't know.
It's almost impossible to write one that the restauranteur will consider "good", I'll tell you that much!
On the contrary, I've gotten some very nice notes from restauranteurs.
Actually, the 2 nicest notes were from the wife of one and the father of another. But still.
Personally I like the Harpers Ferry idea a lot. There are advantages to being in a bigger city, though. This is why I think we need to spell out what exactly we're going for before deciding on a location.
If I can actually pull off this buying-the-house-from-my-ex bit, which is seeming increasingly likely, I am happy to volunteer my house.
I can vouch for the niceness of Cosma's house. It's very nice.
So anyway, here are the decisions that I think we need to make, using heebie's criteria in the OP as a starting point:
1. Ease of access. Are we trying to maximize the number of people who can attend this without a major effort in transportation? In that case it would probably be best to be in a major city where a lot of commenters live. Are we trying to make it easy for people to get there without a car? In that case we're also probably looking only at major cities. Are we trying to maximize the number of people who can get there from multiple cities, with the understanding that transportation will be a manageable but non-trivial undertaking for most of them? In that case a smaller community with a central location might be better than a major city.
2. Size of the place we're renting. How many people are expecting to come and stay at the party house? 3? 10? 25? I recall some pushback on the idea of renting a house in the previous thread, but it seems to still be in the plan. That's fine, but if we're renting a place we really need to know how big a place we need.
3. Near hotels. Obviously not everyone is going to stay at the party house, but how close to the hotels does it need to be? Walking distance? That would probably limit us to either major cities or towns small enough that everything is walking distance. Also, how many people are coming? Do we have a rough headcount? How many hotel rooms do we need? That could be a limiting factor for small-town settings, especially on a holiday weekend.
4. Price. What's reasonable to expect people to pay, both for the rental house itself and the hotels nearby? How willing are we to pay a bit more for a larger city or otherwise more convenient location? Remember that transportation costs are going to be an important component of this calculation.
There are probably other questions we need to answer too, but those strike me as the major ones that we need to get out of the way before making any decisions about specific locations.
The answer to all those questions is sex grotto house in Palm Springs.
Actually no it's just rent a big house in DC.
Actually no it's just rent a big house in DC.
I'm inclined to agree. It would be hella expensive, though.
Let me be the first to suggest Fresh Salt.
I would probably have to bring my daughter with me so she would require some dancing and hugging. She might cope a feel here or there too.
She might cope a feel here or there too.
Well, in that case, count me in. Nah, kidding, I'll probably come, but I'm saving myself up for apo.
I would certainly show up in DC if I'm still living in one of the cities I am imagining I will be living in. Easy to get to and I have a place to stay, notwithstanding grotorrum sexualibus.
I would make an effort to attend if it's relatively close to DC (and I don't find a job somewhere far away in the meantime). It's also possible I could host a couch surfer or two, as I live within drunken staggering distance of the metro.
WMIBSALB, but it's "restaurateur".
I thought so, but I figured Natilo would never be wrong, so....
Needless to say, if it's at Cosma's house, I'm 100% in. And I repeat my offer of lodgings, a scant 15 minute walk away. We're in a flurry of home improvements, so the lodgings should be pretty nice. We would even hire a babysitter so the next generation can have their own little Unfog[somethingclever]con.
That's for her biographer to relate.
Wait, if J, Robot and x. trapnel and I room together as planned, do I need to find a first initial too so I don't feel left out?
In other news, I have a date in an hour and a half. Woo!
Or I already have, for all you know.
The kids still say "Pitching woo," right?
I don't, but I don't think I really qualify as a kid anymore.
136: Maybe that's why they hated the reviews so much!
150: And you're not from Muskogee.
Given the proper scope of the blog, I suppose the question that should be asked is "Do you make a party out of lovin'?"
"Do you make a party out of lovin'?"
I haven't yet, but we'll see how the date goes.
I'm saving myself up for apo
Well now I suppose I'm obligated to attend.
155: Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
'I still say "pitching woo"', he said, surprising no one.
Have you tried saying it very loudly right in the ear of someone who doesn't know you are there?
157: That's a hell of an ominous reference, there.
I'm not really sure how to interpret the "Okie from Muskogee" references.
Perhaps that is because you don't like livin' right, or bein' free.
Although it would be hard to imagine what else you could do after moving to Alaska to prove that you did like those things.
Actually, moving to a different part of the state than Anchorage would probably work.
Are we trying to maximize the number of people who can get there from multiple cities, with the understanding that transportation will be a manageable but non-trivial undertaking for most of them?
Just to say that I would really like to attend -- I haven't made it to any of the previous unfoggedcons, and there are many of you I would like to meet, but it does matter to me that (a) it is held within reasonable proximity (and transit) from a major airport and (b) that it's more than just one evening/night. I'm still hoping it that it will be extended over multiple days, because the idea of spending 20 hours in transit* for 8-12 hours of unfoggedcon would be hard to justify (I think this is being planned to extend, but that's part of why I haven't attended previous ones.
* That may be an understatement. To get to a location in NYC, for example, is 11-12 hours total for me (2.5 hours to get to the airport, 1 hour at the airport prior to departure, 7 hours flight time, 1 hour to get from the airport to the destination).
So I'm excited about the party, and thank teo for explicitly raising some important logistical questions.
it does matter to me that (a) it is held within reasonable proximity (and transit) from a major airport and (b) that it's more than just one evening/night
Yeah, I think "proximity to a major airport" is a particularly important criterion for people traveling long distances. As for multiple days, my tentative plan is to make it part of a larger trip where I see other friends in whatever area it ends up being, but obviously not everyone will have other friends nearby.
And now I'm off to my date! I will be sure to pitch some woo.
Trying to remember which Cole Porter song speaks of pitching the woo. "Too Darn Hot"?
My brain defaults to Mel Tormé for that one.
I just drove 6 hours to get somewhere I could have flown because getting to/from the airport where I live would have been fairly complicated logistically and taken at least an hour-90 minutes of driving. Adding in waiting at the airport, flight, ground transport on the other side and the flying option would have taken at least 4 hours.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I have the energy to leave the hotel and get dinner, so maybe I should have flown. Also, I don't see a safe in this room.
Anyway, I'd make an effort to get to Pittsburgh.
Unless some workthing or family obligation came up to prevent it, we would totally come to Pittsburgh.
I would very likely be able to make it to Pittsburgh that weekend, or to DC.
I think I mentioned this when heebie originally floated the idea, but I will travel anywhere I need to for this.
Pittsburgh is a longer haul than DC but I've passed it on the train half a dozen times and often thought "I wonder what this town is like." I'm in.
Extrapolating from my two trips through Pittsburgh on the train, I suspect it is never daytime there.
Is white lightning still the biggest thrill of all?
I could easily do either DC or Pittsburgh. DC has more other friends I could see, but there's tons of interesting stuff around Pittsburgh I didn't have time to see when I drove through there before.
Is white lightning still the biggest thrill of all?
It's certainly more thrilling than anything that happened on this date.
One circumstance that was pretty cute, though: we ordered the same beer, having decided on it independently, then proceeded to also order the same thing to eat, also independently.
180: Not that well, if you're here telling us about it so soon!
|| The longer I lie here, the more I want to take the "risk" of not wearing a tie tomorrow. |>
the same thing to eat, also independently
Jinx!
Anyway, yeah, it was definitely not a sex-on-the-first-date sort of situation, but it was quite pleasant. She's an interesting person who seemed interested in me, and I'm quite confident that there will be a second date.
I'm also happy that we managed to do the date at all, as the gales of November (per Stormcrow upthread) were threatening to strand her in the Pribilofs earlier in the week.
Nu? What's she like? What's she do?
She's nice, and an environmental scientist.
Like pulling teeth, talking to you.
You've got a question, ask me a question.
Tevas are not a common topic of conversation in Alaska.
All the better as a distinguishing topic.
I'll keep that in mind for the second date.
Nor you nor she is a common person, I'm sure.
No one in Alaska is very common, it's true.
Do Alaskans have an incurable sadness, owing to the Russian influence?
Tevas are as common in Alaska, fake accent, as people are in Alaska.
The Old Believers have some fantastic music.
137 - Needless to say, if it's at Cosma's house, I'm 100% in. And I repeat my offer of lodgings, a scant 15 minute walk away.
If it ends up being in Pittsburgh, I would love to stay at your house. Because I love your house. And your wife and kids look nice. But mostly I love your house.
as the gales of November were threatening to strand her in the Pribilofs earlier in the week.
I'll be disappointed if you didn't take the opportunity to discuss the reference and its context and the whole backstory of how you spend some of your time.
Pittsburgh is an easy drive for me, which means I'd be glad to use the Chum Wagon to ferry others as needed. (I don't actually call it the Chum Wagon, I confess.) And after saying that Baltimore sounded nice I remember how frustrating it was to do a beer run there. We may not need the sort of place where beer is sold in grocery stores and gas stations, but that might help.
I think Pittsburgh would be a fine place for it. It's vibrant! Also, in addition to you all, I have a couple of friends there now.
Aw, and Dr. Oops doesn't live in Pittsburgh anymore. But it does seem like a fine location. If this happens in Pittsburgh, and the plan is for it to last a couple of days, I nominate JRoth to locate bike-rental facilities and identify pleasant but not terribly demanding bike routes for the portions of the day when it's too early to drink.
Is Pittsburgh considered easy for people to get to from the east coast? and Chicago?
You can rent bikes downtown on the trail by the Mon.
Once you're in Pittsburgh, is there easy public transportation, to get to and from a party and hotels?
219: There are buses that get you from the bars to Moby's house even late at night, so that's one option.
217: As far as flights go, it doesn't have the number of direct options you might get with a bigger city. Getting here by train is, I hear, possible but slow.
Either The "burgh or DC and environs is fine with me.
Seems like it's easy enough to fly there from MSP, so good for me.
219: There's buses and taxis. Buses aren't really much of an option after midnight. You could rent a Segway and get to almost anywhere in a reasonable amount of time if there was a place where you could rent a Segway and if you didn't mind looking like a tool.
Getting here by train is, I hear, possible but slow.
Getting anywhere by train is slow. I'm the only person who is nuts enough to need to know this and I'm quite used to it. Hey remember that time Obama was going to get us started on the path to high speed rail?
Last night I was listening to On the Twentieth Century and realized, with some bitterness, that it takes four hours longer to get from Chicago to New York than it did in 1938.
225: Didn't they shitcan the Broadway Limited and start making one change trains at . . . Pittsburgh?
Apparently, there is a direct connection from NYC to CHI, but it is slower than the one where you switch trains in Pittsburgh even though you have a four hour layover in Pittsburgh.
Nope. I read that wrong. The Pittsburgh connection a great deal slower.
the portions of the day when it's too early to drink
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion alcoholism.
MegaBus has pretty good options to Pittsburgh (NYC, DC, Cleve, Det, Philly).
There are certainly more direct flights to the DC airports than P'burgh and better mass transit once there. DC works for me
But if do choose Pittsburgh, we can host a few and will have multiple cars available for shuttling if needed. Also would try to do a Fallingwater and/or Youghigheny whitewater rafting excursion if there was interest (or just three rivers kayaking in Pitt if that suited better). Because holiday weekend would need some level of pre-planning.
I would probably go to PGH, which I love but haven't been to in 15 years, but am more likely to go to DC. FWIW, which is not much.
We're pro-Pittsburgh and D.C. but will likely be there no matter where it is. Because we're feminists.
Well, if we're Nate Silvering it up, it's about 50% that I'd go to Pittsburgh and 99.99% I'd go to DC.
(Actually, keep it on the DL, but there's a chance I'll be getting a new job that would require some travel to Pittsburgh.)
If it's in PGH I'll be bringing a car.
Assuming I can work out the custody issues, as I'm supposed to have the boy that weekend, I will happily go to either Pittsburgh or DC.
I'll come. Especially if there are other Cecilys involved (hi 207!)
DC's easy for me, but Pittsburgh sounds fun too.
Oh for the days of the Broadway Limited and the Twentieth Century Limited.
identify pleasant but not terribly demanding bike routes for the portions of the day when it's too early to drink.
Wait, we're not supposed to be biking while drinking? Since when? Tyranny!
DC is easy for me. PGH is not hard to get to.
Something to keep in mind, Rolling Thunder is in DC on Memorial Day weekend. This could be a plus or a minus. It always annoys me because of the road closures.
Huh. I think PGH would be interesting. It is a small trip from here, and I'd be at least a bit keen. DC is, of course, even easier. But md 20/400 is right. Rolling Thunder can be a PITA.
Rolling Thunder would be a great name for a new intestinal disorder, should you discover one.
urple is the explorer, if anyone is. Ask him.
What would be the cheapest / most convenient way for someone to get to Pgh from the West Coast? Plane to some hub like Chicago or DC followed by bus?
I have invented a genuinely novel way to sexually explore Pittsburgh.
Looks like you can fly to Pittsburgh w a connection for about $325 from the West Coast. That's not too bad.
245: Most convenient would definitely be to fly the whole way. Megabus from DC to Pittsburgh looks like it costs about $30 each way, which is cheaper than the cost difference in flights I see from a quick look at Kayak, but I don't know how representative those flight costs are.
245: I could easily drive up to 4 (or 5 with one tiny person) people from Louisville-indianapolis-cincy-Columbus-Morgantown or something like that if it would make it easier. So if there are other more appropriate airports, there may still be options,
I fly if I have to go more than a few hours driving away. I haven't always had luck with getting good tickets but I usually fly holidays and such.
I am so totally there, if it's anyone on the Eastern seaboard. And I've never been to Pittsburgh! Falling Water would be great to see--I'd like to confirm my mother's story about its being infested by mosquitoes.
251: If we have Houstonians or Angelenos we could probably give them West Nile!
I'd like to confirm my mother's story about its being infested by mosquitoes.
It totally is.
It's a very interesting place, though, and well worth a visit.
[Although mainly a lurker...] If PGH happened, I'd be willing to host some folks at my place (extra bedroom + couch); and/or host a party.
The only thing I'd caution is that Pittsburgh is pretty far from NYC/Boston; it's not really on the Eastern Seaboard in the same way DC is. I mean I know you can all look at a map, but it's a substantally bigger commitment to get to Pittsburgh from the Eastern cities where most of the commentariat is. I mean, not my problem, I love Pittsburgh and would love an excuse to go back, but if we're going there that should be explicit.
I mean I know you can all look at a map, but it's a substantally bigger commitment to get to Pittsburgh from the Eastern cities where most of the commentariat is. I mean, not my problem, I love Pittsburgh and would love an excuse to go back, but if we're going there that should be explicit.
Right, this is an important consideration. For those of us coming from far away the difference is pretty minor in context, but for people in the Northeast DC is way easier to get to than Pittsburgh.
Delurking to say I would come if it were in Pittsburgh. Five of my friends from Madison and one adorable child (that is an understatement -- she is actually the most adorable, sweetest, best-tempered, smartest child I've ever interacted with) moved to Pittsburgh all at once and I've been meaning to go down and visit them.
If someone is coming from Alaska, motherfuckers in New York have no excuse.
257, 258: This west coast concern trolling is ... interesting.
261: We're just tellin' it like it is, yo.
And seriously, I'm totally down with Pittsburgh, but I'm quite certain that more people from NY/Boston/etc. would come if it were in DC.
263: probably true. Also, more people from DC, probably.
I think what we may actually need at this point is for someone to set up a poll and get an actual count of who would attend in each case, since we seem to have pretty much settled on DC and Pittsburgh as the options.
No worries, I'm totally down with the west coast right now, as a big bunch of votes from LA County just pushed the PV margin to 3.9M. Totally going over 4M this weekend.
Would it matter when we posted the poll? My experience is that blog traffic drops during Thanksgiving week, so we might lose some crucial have-it-in-DC voters. (Oops, I've tipped my hand.)
Halfway between Pittsburgh and DC is Breezewood, the asshole of the mid atlantic.
Never let it be said we did nothing for you, Crow.
267: Good point. Maybe do a post the week after Thanksgiving with a link to a poll.
Harpers Ferry is actually roughly halfway between DC and Pittsburgh.
2637: honest-to-god, stanislavski, we just went through a whole presidential election season and you have the nerve to ask if it matters when a poll is fielded?!
Personally, I'm fine with either. I guess I'm just wondering if there are a substantial number of NY or Boston area people who would come if it's in DC, but not if it's in Pittsburgh.
273: erm... I may be commenting bexed.
We could just keep talking in this boring manner until comment 2637 rolls around.
... Which could fairly be interpreted as concern trolling, so I'll stfu. Also, it seems like there's already place we could hold it in Pittsburgh, which is a huge advantage. Although to be honest Cosma seems so smart that I'd be a little intimidated about spilling my drink on his carpet.
276: for which indulgence I would be grateful
I thought they broke after 1,200 comments.
276: Or we could talk in a marginally more excoiting manner. On that note, in response to your 212, I did not mention that reference or anything related to it, and we actually said very little about the almost-stranding by weather, which was more a topic of discussion in the lead-up to the date.
I guess that's not necessarily even marginally more exciting.
Or excoiting, even, whatever that means.
277: so you give him noogies.
a marginally more excoiting manner
Talk about the sanctity of off-blog "communications"
And Dick Romney is most likely going to come in somewhere below 47.5% which will round to 47.
284: Excoiting=cock-blocking, right?
286: or emanating from a coit.
Also, it seems like there's already place we could hold it in Pittsburgh, which is a huge advantage.
As I recall that was conditional on a purchase.
My what a towering coit you have, Tom telegraphed.
I've been through Harpers Ferry on my way to/from DC through Pittsburgh to/from Chicago. We should just rent a sleeper car or two.
Unfogged whistle-stop tour! You can join or depart at any time! Available all year!
291.2: sounds like a way to get thrown off a train. Or detained.
What I would do if it were in Pittsburgh: say I was going, get excited about it, then a month out get concerned about costs and travel time and care of my creaky old weirdo of a cat and possibly not go. Will there be a radio button for that on the poll?
Will there be a radio button for that on the poll?
We'll call it the "Smearcase special."
Halford is right. People shouldn't think of PGH as a quick 2 hour drive from Bosnywashmond. And it isn't as easy to get to via air as the bigger cities. But going there is a very attractive idea, even if it is a 4 to 5 hour drive for me. Sure beats getting attacked by Rolling Thunder.
I'd make the same effort to get to whatever location, but I wouldn't be visiting DC for DC. I don't dislike the place, but if I'm picking a city to visit next, it won't be there.
Talk to Nathan first, my peeps.
I will go almost anywhere if I can get free lodging and don't have to rent a car.
I mentioned the Decadegon to ogged and he didn't explicitly rule out the prospect of his attending if it were held in Chicago.
What if it were held in (what I understand to still be) his current, non-Chicago location?
Dodecahedron is 12, right? We still have years to plan.
He didn't mention anything in particular regarding that.
I would totally attend if it were there, but I suspect no one else would. Maybe not even ogged.
Ogged will just get "sick" at the last minute. Let us not cater to his every whim. (Although Chicago might be super convenient for me, prospective-summer-job-wise.)
308 is exactly right. It would probably give him cancer again.
I'd prefer Chicago to DC. But as I said above, I might be family-visiting, even if I had a job and money to spend on a trip. There are a few May birthdays and we've used Memorial Day in the past as a convenient time to visit.
You all aren't the close readers I took you for.
I went to land-grant universities.
On scholarship, but still I can't be expected to get all the nuance.
Maybe you're not a close enough writer.
You all aren't the close readers I took you for.
I understood you.
I'm just trying to keep ogged cancer-free, you ghouls.
Speaking of elections, this is one of the best graphic representations of the election results I've seen ("treemap" by state and county (towns in New England)).
