Jessica Young, my friend from Mensa

November 30, 2021December 31, 2021 ~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

jessicayoung1995 I’ve just learned of the death of Jessica Young, on November 23. I knew it was coming for a long time, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept. Last February, she emailed to tell me she had inoperable pancreatic cancer (the same thing that killed my grandmother two decades ago), and that she’d just been through a year of chemotherapy and high intensity radiation treatment. So I spent the last year sending her chatty emails every month or so, just to let her know I was thinking of her, and because I really was thinking of her.

jessicaandian2014 I first met her at the Mensa Annual Gathering in St. Louis in 1995, where she took me to the Gateway Arch. We ran into each other again a few years later, at the AG in Philadelphia in 2000, which cemented our friendship. After that, we saw each other intermittently, at Annual Gatherings. With the coming of smart phones, we communicated more often, sharing fireworks photos when we weren’t at Independence Day celebrations together. We saw each other only rarely, but every time, it was just picking up where we’d left off the last time, one long friendship.

ianjessica2016 Only once did we see each other outside of Mensa: In February 2016, her chorus sang at Carnegie Hall, and she was in New York for nearly a week. I got to see her most of the days she was in town, showing her around my home town, enjoying her concert, seeing a Broadway show, just hanging out, as good friends do.

She hadn’t responded to my most recent emails, and I knew the end was near. But a few days ago—at my sister’s house for Thanksgiving—I wondered that I hadn’t heard anything from her. After getting home tonight, I did a web search for “Jessica Young obituary,” and found it: she really is gone. https://www.kutisfuneralhomes.com/young-jessica-c/

Jessica Cerridwyn Young was a member of St. Louis Area Mensa. She is survived many family members and friends, all of whom, I’m sure, saw her far more often than I, and were far closer to her than I, and thus will miss her even more. But she was a very dear Mensa friend to me, and the excitement of next year’s AG will be tempered with the melancholy of knowing she won’t be there.

Philcon, this weekend

November 16, 2021 ~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

philcon_logo It’s starting to feel like the before-times again. I just got back from a weekend on the road (I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, for Charlotte Blue Ridge Mensa‘s Regional Gathering, which hosted the AMC meeting), and now I’m getting ready to leave Friday for Philcon, my second science fiction convention of the new world.

As a typical science fiction convention, I’ll be spending most of my time in the dealers’ room at the Fantastic Books table. We’ll have many copies of Allen Steele’s brand new novel Sanctuary, and of the non-fiction book On Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren (I’m hoping to have Delany himself at the table for some of the time, to sign copies). But I’m also on programming. If you’re looking to catch me there, my scheduled items include:

Friday at 6:00 PM in Plaza 2: “Perils and Pitfalls of Near-Future Scenarios” with Jennifer Povey, Margaret Riley, Michael A. Ventrella, and Joan Wendland

Saturday at 1:00 PM in Plaza 4: “Writing and Publishing in the Digital Age” with Neil Clarke, Gordon Linzner, Margaret Riley, and Ann Stolinsky.

Saturday at 5:00 PM in Plaza 3: “The Future You Imagine is the Future You Get” with Mitchell Gordon, Mark Roth-Whitworth, and Jeff Warner.

Saturday at 7:00 PM in Plaza 3: “Alternate Histories” with Scheherazade Jackson, Roberta Rogow, Mark Roth-Whitworth, and Chuck Rothman.

Sunday at 11:00 AM in Plaza 5: “A New Dune” with Randee Dawn, Barna William Donovan, Robert Hranek, and Lawrence Kramer.

I hope to see a lot of you there!

Back on the road and on the stage

October 26, 2021 ~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

I went to Boston Mensa’s Wicked Good RG this weekend. It was a bit smaller than in the past (but then again, what convention isn’t these days?), but it was a very good time. Most of that, of course, was due to seeing friends in person who I hadn’t seen in almost two years. But I also got a chance to play a few strategy-type games, which I hadn’t been able to do in a long time, so I enjoyed that.

And I gave a brand-new talk, one that I finished writing (oops!) about twelve hours before we left home to get there. It was my first time on a live stage since before the pandemic, so getting my legs back under me to interact with a live audience was a bit nerve-wracking, but I quickly fell into the old rhythms (I really do love being on that kind of stage). And the audience was quite enthusiastic, so I’m going to polish the talk a bit more. If your group would be interested in hearing about “Punctilious Punctuation,” let me know. I describe it as “telling tales with (and of) those jots and tittles, including why they’re called jots and tittles, and the horrifying story of why the period goes inside the quotation marks.” And the long-form write-up is:

What sets humans apart from the animals is our ability to miscommunicate with language. With thoughts, ideas, musings, and maunderings on what we’re trying to communicate, with a plethora of words meaning almost exactly the same thing, we stumble to communicate; sometimes even to think. But as confusing as all those words are, they would be much, much harder to understand if it weren’t for the punctuation we use—when writing—to divide them, group them, emphasize them, and combine them. The horror of texting (and newspapers’ space-saving attempts) may be responsible for turning punctuation into a dying art form. But Ian Randal Strock posits that punctuation is not only necessary, but beautiful, evocative, meaningful… and a heck of a lot of fun. Come listen to this talk… if you dare. You may find yourself agreeing that the “schmutz” on the page really deserves our love.{[(‘/’, “;”, ‘:’)]}

fivervcs The weekend was also remarkable for a certain group of attendees. We managed to take a picture with five of the six Region 1 Regional Vice Chairman who are in attendance. Left to right are: Lisa Maxwell (2015-17), Deb Stone (1999-2000), Teresa Campbell (2021- ), Lori Norris (2007-11), Ian Randal Strock (2017-21). Not pictured, but at the RG: Andrew Heffernan (2011-15). And talk about Mensa leadership positions: Lisa also served as Secretary. Deb was Chairman and Treasurer (the first person to serve on the AMC in another role after serving as chairman), and is currently a trustee of the Mensa Foundation. Lori is currently the First Vice Chairman, and was Secretary. And I’m currently the Secretary of the American Mensa Committee (the board of directors of this member-led organization).