New Barbarous, y’all, Go back and read the chapter starting from here to get caught up. No, wait, that started right after the previous chapter ended on a cliffhanger, it’s in media res; better go back to the very beginning and read the whole thing. Yuko (that would be Ota) and Ananth (Hirsh, y’all) are so very good at what they do.

Now, about that Stupid I mentioned …

No. [screenshot taken today]

Now, that’s not necessarily definitive, as EmCity’s Google search still lists it as on [screenshot taken today], but the convention was cancelled by ReedPop¹ two weeks back. So let’s drill into the DragonCon site and see what’s up.

Double No. [screenshot taken oh hell, you know]

That’s on an undated page that says further decisions will be made within two weeks, and that the Westin con hotel will have an announcement about what happens to reservations within the next 48 hours. Not sure when the clock started on those statements, and nothing on the Wayback Machine, so I can’t say with any certainty that it went up after a certain date, either. I guess pester them on social media?

Let’s be clear about something, folks. There is no way in hell that a mere two weeks after it’s too dangerous to hold EmCity in Seattle (which was an early hotspot for the novel coronavirus, and which has actually done a decent job of managing this outbreak since), it’ll be safe to hold DragonCon in Atlanta (which is currently an accelerating hotspot for the novel coronavirus because the governor opened the state too early, too aggressively, and which is setting new record highs for diagnoses, hospitalizations, ventilations, and deaths every godsdamned day).

And even if by some dark magic the powers that be in Atlanta decide What the fuck, Disneyworld and Universal Studios will have been open for more than a month by then², we can’t kill people any worse that that with one weekend! it will not under any circumstances be safe to attend. Even if capacity is limited, even if everybody decides to socially distance, even if there is widespread mask acceptance (that ain’t happening), even if the traditional 12-to-a-room geek habit dies, it will not be safe.

Look. We’re all getting cabin fever. But as Jim Zub put it so eloquently about Toronto’s moves towards Phase II:

All I can think of is someone I love dying in a hospital while the shuddering realization washes over me that this is happening because I was bored.

Bored and impatient.

Well said, Zub. Yeah, he wasn’t speaking about DragonCon specifically, but you know who is? Jennie Breeden. If the queen of DragonCon guerrilla exhibiting can decide that after-midnight kilt-blowing isn’t a necessity³, you can give it up. And that goes for you, too, Baltimore Comic Con. Take your shit off sale. Mass gatherings ain’t gonna cut it until there’s an effective, widespread vaccine, or Americans can learn to put up with a minor amount of inconvenience for the general good.

Which means not until the vaccine.

Notspam of the day:
Today marks 31 years since the last public performance of XTC that I’m aware of; they went on Letterman to promote Oranges & Lemons. It was their first appearance in seven years, thanks to Andy Partridge’s crippling stage fright. He seems to be doing okay in that clip.

Anyway, thought you’d enjoy.

_______________
¹ More precisely, converted to a digital event sometime in August, with automatic refunds of memberships transferred from March to August due to be refunded by yesterday.

² The spread due to the people that flock to the parks on their reopnenings next month will only just be getting traced to all over the country by that point … thankfully, New Jersey has announced a mandatory 14 day quarantine going into effect tomorrow for people returning from high-infection states, and Georgia and Florida are on the list.

³ In case you didn’t look at the alt-text for that comic, it reads:

Yeah, Skipping Dragon Con. It’s going to SUCK but I’d rather see everyone in the future than lose some of you now.

Thank you, Jennie.