I'm Back From Cap

I am back from Capricon, where I had a reasonably good time. Herewith, some random thoughts about the con.

1) Capricon's hotel, the Wheeling Westin, is reasonably conducive to a con. However, they do have problems. First, they really need a parking garage - on Saturday night, the valets were telling people to park across the street and catch a hotel bus. This is in part due to the second problem - the hotel restaurant, Saranello's, is a Lettuce Entertain You member, and thus packed to the gills on Saturday night. Given the parking situation, dining can become complicated.

2) One of the panels involved listening to a radio show called "Stroke of Fate" which portrayed various alternate history situations. The episode we listened to was "Our Neighbor in Alaska" which assumes the Alaskan Purchase fell through. It was a neat concept for a panel, although a bit sparsely attended.

3) While at the con, I hung out a bit with Rachael AKA Roach, chief cook and bottle-washer at Eggplant Literary Productions. I also bought and read (and enjoyed) a couple of the novellas she's published. My review of the novella Brass Stars is up on POD People.

SFWA Fun And Games

SFWA member David Truesdale is circulating a petition against the appointment of an advisory board for the SFWA Bulletin. Theodore Beale, Professional Crank At Large, has taken up the cause with his usual tact and courtesy. My questions to Beale are posted below:

So every time the board of a newspaper overrides the editor of that newspaper it's a violation of the First Amendment? Every editor of every publication should have sole discretion as to what they publish?

Isn't, in this case, the Board the duly-appointed representatives of the membership that owns the publication? What recourse, if any, do the members have if their publication prints something they collectively disagree with?

What if the editor of a publication decides not to include something in their publication they have violated the author's First Amendment rights? There's no particular reason to expect say, Jerry Pournelle getting the gig.

More to the point, since when does the First Amendment apply to private organizations? SFWA is not Congress nor otherwise affiliated with government.