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It appears that for Yuletide I chose the hardest story title in the world to vanity google. "December 25th, 2010". Yep, just try to find my story by googling the title. I dare you.


Also, fuck, I'm missing Hunt. Enough of my friends are involved that I keep catching glimpses, and it doesn't help that I was still linked to all of my old team's admin emails and things until yesterday. I got an email from someone at MIT Hillel asking if they can count on me for the minyan this weekend: I was such a regular that they grew to count on me every year to be there. I see this business about the wedding of M&P and start trying to figure out who M and P are, what references I'm missing. I remember back to the SPIES Hunt when we spent hours trying to dissect the hidden code in the invitation to kickoff before we realized there was no hidden code. And then I remember I won't be at Hunt, it doesn't matter who M&P turn out to be, all I should care about are A&S. And it sucks.


Also, my brother tossed this question at me recently and it took me a few minutes to come up with an answer. Let me toss it to you: What was the best SF novel of the past ten years?

My eventual vote was for Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery. But I considered Glasshouse by Charles Stross and Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. I think that's my top 3 in order.

I also pondered top novel by a female writer. Justina Robson's Silver Screen comes to mind, as does Maureen McHugh's Nekropolis and Melissa Scott's The Jazz. I haven't read the new Willis Oxford Time Travel duology yet, but I haven't much liked anything else Willis wrote this decade. But I think I have to go with Nalo Hopkinson's sensational Midnight Robber.

(no subject)

Oh, hey! On the bright side, I'm not on any team so I don't have any qualms about speculating publicly ahead of time on who M&P are. I don't care if my team's brilliant insights are revealed to other teams.

So here's a few thoughts. MP are the initials of Metaphysical Plant. One likely possibility is that M and P don't mean anything at all, they're just names chosen because their initials match the team running the Hunt. And because by not showing the full names Plant gets to fuck with you.

Also, it says Massachusetts Institution of Technology instead of Institvte. M and P are also the initials of Mental Patient, and I'm sure that given the demographics of Hunters, insanity would make a delightful theme for a Hunt.

Also, it's not impossible that M & P mean something as simple as Mysteries and Puzzles.

Or Madame Psychosis! She does work at MIT, per Foster Wallace. Wouldn't an Infinite Jest Hunt be fantastic? Anyone? No, just me, I guess.

Mater and Pater (or Ma and Pa) also come to mind as a longshot possibility, a wry and kind of obvious bit of wordplay. But that could only kick off a time travel-based Hunt, and we've done too many of those lately.