At 04:45 AM 12/21/2005, Davdi Silverrock wrote: >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 Personally, I think that Steve was faced with a bunch of Draggies (the Dragaeran equivalent of Trekkies), got sick and tired of answering all the questions, and gave the most outrageous answer for Tsalmoth that he could think of at the time. The Draggies being entirely without humor, of course, took every word he said as absolute truth. -- Regards, Pete pgranzeau at cox.net