And now back to our regularly scheduled program: rain. Rather this morning it was mist, so we covered up the chair with a tarp and set off back to the con for the ::sob!:: last day.

Again, neither of us had a panel until eleven. In fact, James came to my eleven o'clock panel about European midwives. I'd seen part of this panel last year and enjoyed it. They basically talked about how good, well-trained midwives did pretty well on delivering babies until the male doctors began to get in it. Rather than treating pregnancy as a natural occurrence, they treated it as an illness, and sick people were supposed to lay down, so instead of walking around during labor pains and using a birthing stool, women were forced to lay down and give birth, which is the worst position to do it in. Also, since the doctors had to work with the wealthy, they were better trained at having good manners than at midwifery. Also, they didn't know about germs back then and the doctors didn't wash their hands or their instruments; the midwives didn't know about it either, but they did heat blankets and sheets to receive the baby in. The heat killed germs. In one case this gave a midwife in 18th century France an almost spotless birth rate.

James went to another class, about making a leather cuff, and I was off to Jeremiah Mitchell's Robert the Bruce panel. I now have him and William Wallace straight in my head (Sterling Bridge and Wallace's death came first). He didn't mention the spider legend, though. I remember seeing this in a Disney film. I'm pretty sure it's So Dear to My Heart.

Incidentally, James had better luck with the leather cuff than the chain mail. You can tell it's a first effort, but he could probably wear it to a convention and no one would look askance. He tooled some stars and owls into the leather and, instead of using a brown dye, he used a purple one, and the leather came out a nifty dark brown.

Everyone at the panel got one of these little meteorites, made of comet dust.

At one o'clock I went off to the astronomy panel, which had all the science guests together. Part of the chat was about Pluto not being a planet anymore, which they thought was silly. Planet means "traveler," which means even the tiniest asteroid could be classified as a planet. In fact, "asteroid" is a fairly recent usage, and some of the people who coined the term are still living. One of the panelists had talked to one of these scientists who came up with it and asked why they decided to call what were previously called "minor planets" "asteroids." The scientist explained, "It sounded neat!" They also showed slides of some of the more oddly formed asteroids. One looks like a big dumbbell. Another looks like Olaf from Frozen.

Our final panel was in the Literature track: "The Business of Writing." The guest writers talked about self-publishing, working with Amazon (more complicated than they say it is), agents, incorporating oneself (one lady was an "S" corporation—don't ask me what it is; I didn't even figure it out when I was a purchasing agent—but it worked considering her situation), etc. As always, the big advice: always read the contract. Every single bit of every tiny printed word. You could lose money or lock yourself into exclusion contracts.

"Business of Writing": at left Lee Martindale, in blue Stephanie Osborne, a real rocket scientist

We did a last drift around the dealer's room, then headed for home. It was still misty, but barely, and we could load the chair in the parking lot and not have to get it undercover like Friday night.

And there was much rejoicing from the critters when we got home—Snowy sang budgie arias and Tucker mooched for food—and we had supper and watched Victoria.

Incidentally, I'm really interested in what next year's Anachrocon will bring. The theme is "The Roaring '20s." I'm not sure if this means they will stick to the 1920s—but even if they do, there is so much potential for topics here: Prohibition, the rise of the Mob due to Prohibition, the aftermath of WWI in Europe (inflation, hunger, etc. which led to the rise of the Nazi party), the Harlem Renaissance, the rise of jazz, the flappers and women being given the vote, the failure of the League of Nations, the Lost Generation, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the beginnings of radio networks (ARTC can probably do a whole panel on this, or even a production!), and finally The Crash—or do what they did with "The '60s": use all the centuries. So, opportunities for MORE historical topics: the Missouri Compromise, the Trail of Tears, the rise of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Webster's dictionary, aluminum was discovered, first Braille book published, first railway (1820s) , Peter the Great and Catherine the Great rule in Russia, Gulliver's Travels published (1720s), and of course 1620 is Plymouth. You can almost do an hour just about misconceptions of the Pilgrims (no, they didn't wear all black, and buckles on their shoes and funny hats), and yes, Plymouth Rock is really small. And just on and on like that...

Labels: conventions, food, television

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