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[Bulova]

Before we find ourselves slave to an incipient "tradition" that has the potential to spiral out of control, I would like to make a few observations.

At Dexcon IX, for reasons that were almost understandable, I found myself subject to a short period of being poked at. It could have been worse. And, having discussed the concept with Vinny, who created the Poke-a-thon, I took some measure of control of the game, and there were seven actual winners. I was not one of them (although I should have made it a "Win Paul Birnbaum's Prize Points" kind of thing...then I would have been able to keep the 3 left over). Although, I am still being occasionally poked.

It's one thing to be the judge oneself. It's quite another to have to subject oneself to the various players' interpretation of what the rules of the game might be, and have those results judged by another group entirely. This is the situation into which I was thrust at Dexcon X. I was not happy. I felt more a victim than a participant.

Although there was a slide at Opening Ceremonies proscribing the use of machine guns in the event, the made-up term that was used, as it had no specific definition, left me with a lingering dread that someone would take it to an unkind extreme. That, and the open-endedness of the event combined to make the time from its start until the end of Dexcon, itself, a possible source of paranoia...any one of the members *could* be "out to get me" in the name of "playing a game."

I expressed most of the above to Vinny, himself, on Wednesday night, concuding with, "The only viable revenge for this is to win it."

Little did I realize that the word "shlappoople" would cast a Confundo upon the attendees, such that no one could even figure out what the heck Vinny meant. This seemed to protect me, as no one even attempted a proper shlappoople!

Of course, that didn't mean that a feeble shlappoople could be judged victorious. As much as I wasn't confounded by the spell, I knew that to extract my vengeance, I would have to produce a worthy shlappoople. And so I did.

So, Vinny, according to your own posted description, you owe me an "everyone else has no choice but to bow down to worship the maneuver" and the "special prize" that was to be awarded with the trophy.

But this cannot be a continuing DE tradition, unless someone else wishes to volunteer for it. There must be no further escalation of the "blank-THE-Birnbaum" event. To go from "poke" to "shlappoople" is far enough.

I leave you with this thought: It is a far different thing to dive face-first into a platter of confectioner's sugar, than to have ones face forcibly pushed into it. It's a damn good thing that the winning shlappoople was the former.

[GM John]

I officially request here and now that I never be placed in that kind of position either.  It just takes one wacko to turn a joke into a tragedy, and I suspect we have more than one wacko attending, and many more who would qualify upon missing a night's sleep and one dose of medicine, a combination which occurs a lot at cons. 

And even if nothing happened, worrying about it would be darn close to just as bad.

John the Prefers-not-to-be-poked-or-worse

[wcshoe]

Well, put me on the list of people to not have unannounced things done to, also.

I am likely to react violently to a stranger (or even a person I know) coming up to me, and making unexpected contact.

As are quite a few others at this event.

[Kate Beaman-Martinez]

[Not actually commenting on the subject]

There was another post here. There is no post here. This is not the post you are looking for.

Move along, move along.

-Kate, you friendly neighborhood jedi mod.