Lies with Words
is the title of the panel I did earlier tonight at illogiCon iii. Lawrence Schoen, one of the con's guests of honor, hosted and ran the panel. He did a great job. Bill Ferris, Gray Rinehart, Ed Schubert, and Michael Williams were the other victims panelists.
The concept was simple: In a series of rounds, Lawrence handed us each a card with an obscure word on it. In each round, he gave us all the same word. One of the cards had the real definition on it. The others were blank except for the word. We made up and wrote on our cards definitions for each word, and then we read aloud our definitions. The person with the card with the correct definition had to read that definition as if he'd written it. After we'd all read our definitions, Lawrence took a vote of how many people in the audience believed each of us to be telling the word's real meaning. We each got one point for each audience member who believed us. At the end, Lawrence and a volunteer scorekeeper, Liz (sorry for not getting her last name), tallied the votes and declared a winner.
As you might imagine, many of the definitions we invented were funny, as were some of the real meanings. Being funny proved to be irresistible to many of us with many words, even though it cost us points.
When the panel ended and the final votes appeared, Ed Schubert and I were vying for first place. As Lawrence announced who would be the runner-up and who would be this year's winner, Ed and I held hands beauty-contestant-style. When Lawrence announced Ed as the runner-up, we both shrieked and hugged, and then Ed put the crown--a large rubber band that happened to be sitting on a nearby table--on my head.
It was all very touching.
No, there are no photos and no videos of this particular pageant.
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