Finally enough free time to skim the ~1000 messages I missed in this thread.
The SF2F was indeed made of awesome.
DCistas - so sorry I missed hooking up with you. The folks I was staying with weirded out. They took me from the airport to their house and left me while they each ran individual errands (like going to Home Depot) and their house has neither a landline nor a computer. And even though I'd invited them to dinner, they didn't get back from errands until past 7:00.
(By which point I'd gone through their entire house to discover that while still married they no longer sleep in the same room)
The whole thing was very uncomfortable, and it's probably just as well that you guys weren't exposed to them. One of them could be a Buffista, but the other...well, being around her these days is like chewing on tin foil.
However. So FREAKING AWESOME to see everyone in SF that any subsequent hassles were worth it.
and their house has neither a landline nor a computer.
FREAKS!!! I don't care about the separate bedrooms, but no landline or computer?
Who the hell are they, the Unabomber?
FYI, for those of you who were interested, I found the charm store in SF (the cable car went right by it). It's on Powell Street, called World of Charms. I checked it out - I told Beverly about the owls and lack of cable car charms. I also asked if they had Emperor Norton charms - they didn't and had never heard of him.
I also asked if they had Emperor Norton charms - they didn't and had never heard of him.
Then they're imposters. Emperor Norton is a founding block of the City's mythos.
Oh, cool! I should have known he was a real guy. (There's a
Sandman
story about him.)
P-C, my memory is a bit hazy, but IIRC, having declared himself Emperor of San Francisco - and make no mistake, the locals not only humoured him, they let him run with it - he then took on the Treasury. There was no mint in SF in those days, and so he started making coins with his picture on them - and the locals accepted it as legal tender.
Of course, the Treasury flipped its shit entirely, but we ignored them. And in the end, probably calling us names similar to the ones the NeoCons are calling us these days - they built a local Mint.
We love our freaks and crazies, we do.
Also, just posted in Press. Northeasternistas? Please to ping me?
According to Wikipedia, the few remaining items of Norton's currency have sold for thousands of dollars at auction.
Oh, cool! I should have known he was a real guy.
Oh, P-C. Please go google Emperor Joshua Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico RIGHT NOW. That's one of my favorite Sandman issues precisely because he was very real. He's also the highest saint in Discordianism.
