On 12/20/05, Mark A. Mandel <thnidu at yahoo.com> wrote: > --- Davdi Silverrock <davdisil at gmail.com> wrote: > > I think that sometimes it would help if he would drop the poker face, > > once in a while, when confusion has in point of fact resulted rather > > than amusement, and just say that he was joking. For example, there's > > the whole "Tsalmoth are giant land snails (or turtles)" debacle. > > No, SKZB never did that. What he did say was something like this: "I don't > want to give definite descriptions of everything before I need it, because > then I'd be stuck with them. If I said, for instance, that a tsalmoth was > a giant land snail that climbs trees and tries to capture its prey by > dropping down on it, then I'd be stuck with that description forever." It > was a purely hypothetical, contrary-to-fact example, which was then > misremembered and spread as a false rumor by readers of wherever he said > it. I know what you're referring to (it's in an interview here): http://scifi.com/sfw/issue224/interview.html However, I *think* (and SKZB may feel free to correct me) that at some convention or other event, Steve did actually say, in a *facetious* mode, that that (or something similar, like a turtle) is what tsalmoth are, and was misunderstood as being serious, and that is what the interview statement refers to. This post confirms that *someone* heard Steve directly (and did not get it from the interview, which was given in 2001, 7 years after this post (which is also more than a decade ago now, sheesh). I did not attend MOC (whatever that may be) [1], but perhaps someone else does recall hearing Steve say something like this? http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/a4476d1ac4fe7b45?dmode=source __________________ [1] MOC appears to be an overloaded TLA - Google references both a "Mid-Ohio Con" and a "Magnum Opus Con". Sigh. Although since the Mid-Ohio one appears to be more of a comics event, perhaps "Magnum Opus Con" was indeed what was meant.