It's Not an Acronym

I wonder why so many places where I see references to the top honors in the SF/F field presented by the members of the World Science Fiction Convention, the writers of the articles feel compelled to style it "HUGO Award" as if "HUGO" was an acronym. The "Hugo" in "Hugo Award" isn't an acronym. As I hope everyone reading my journal regularly knows, the Award is named for Hugo Gernsback, sometimes called "the father of modern science fiction."

At this rate, I reckon we'll see people trying to back-form a "real" name for the Awards that somehow fits into the letters H-U-G-O.

Great Day at the Railroad

We had a wonderful day at the Nevada State Railroad Museum riding and recording the restored McKeen motor car. It's a beautiful job of restoration work, and I'm uploading photos that I'll point to when I have a chance. We also looked around the rest of the museum. The main interpretive center is closed for updating and repairs (it was supposed to open last week, so it should be back online by Worldcon), but the back shop was open. Lisa and I (and Kuma Bear) got to ride a hand-cart for a short distance, although it wasn't really enough to get a feel for what it must have been like to pump a cart by hand across the miles. Kuma Bear has also posted his report of our day.

After spending several hours at the museum, we drove up to Reno and checked in to the Atlantis. The room is very nice and quite well-appointed, and we were delighted to learn that they have free wired and wireless internet in the guest rooms. I'm glad I remembered to bring my small router so that Lisa can connect her machine as well. While the room is nice, we really wish we had a mini-fridge, and Lisa is seriously considering bringing her electric ice chest when we come back for Renovation so we have some place to keep milk, juice, and other small perishables. I'll write more about the Atlantis and Peppermill later when I get a chance, but we were quite late getting dinner and I'm tired from being out in the sun and wind much of the day. The step counter says I logged over 16K steps today, so I reckon I earned a good night's sleep, and we don't have to be up early tomorrow, either, since we got two nights for the price of one here at the hotel. I only wish I could get this hotel rate in mid-August for Worldcon!