Two things to report from yesterday (aside from the Fannish Inquisition stuff that I posted last night).

Firstly this year’s SMOFcon is the first to have a reading by a professional writer. Joe and Gay Haldeman were here to give one of their “how to socialize neo-pros” talks. For those of you who don’t know, Joe and Gay were fans long before Joe made it big as a writer, so they have a much better understanding of fannish attitudes that many young writers today whose first convention often only happens after they have been published. Anyway, in order to get things going, Joe did a dramatic reading of the panel description from the program book, and very amusing it was too.

Also, a lot more cheese came out last night. There was quite a variety. Some of it was stuff in plastic wrappers that you could find in just about any chain grocery store across the US, but Kevin and I were by no means the only ones to have brought good stuff. Humboldt Fog is the clear winner for the type of cheese brought by most people (3, compared to no more than 1 for anything else). From our selection I thought that the Inverness and Pierce Pt stood up well, but they are both quite subtle flavors and therefore not so memorable amidst a large range of choices. Kevin and I were agreed that the Point Reyes Original Blue (from California) was the clear winner of the night. Interestingly it came in two varieties: ordinary and “raw”). This suggests to me that the “raw” was made from unpasteurized milk. The web site is unhelpful, saying that the ordinary cheese is made from “raw milk” and not mentioning any varieties. I guess I need to find whoever brought the cheese and ask.