119: Only One of Them Is My Bludgeoning Hand, John

Octothorpe

John is not assigning blame, Alison is someone, and Liz is bludgeoning.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [e-mail], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky or on Instagram) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Sexual assault (Neil Gaiman allegations, at 39:28 to 42:02).

• Letters of comment
  • Niall Harrison
  • On our Hugo win/recusing
    • Andy on Mastodon
    • Chris Garcia
    • Meg MacDonald
    • Perianne Lurie
    • Renay
    • Sandra Bond’s poem
  • On info desk and maps
    • Alan Fleming
    • Doug Faunt
    • Peter Sullivan
  • On communications
    • Chris Garcia
    • Duncan MacGregor on Mastodon
  • On WSFS Business Meeting
    • June Young (email, 9 September)
    • Chris Garcia (email, 29 August)
      • Martin Freeman circa 2001
      • Post from Nicholas Whyte on consultative vote
    • DC on Mastodon
    • Duncan MacGregor on Mastodon
    • Raj on Mastodon
    • Our brand is now WSFS Commentators and people like it?
    • Laurie Burchell
  • On Worldcon attendance numbers
    • Tero on Mastodon
    • aoanla on Mastodon
  • Miscellaneous
    • Hugo finalists: Raj on Mastodon
    • Programme: aoanla on Mastodon
    • Back to Our Futures
  • We also heard from:
    • Ali Baker Brooks, Angela Rosin, Catherine Pickersgill, Curt Phillips, Damien Warman, Dave Coxon, España Sheriff, Farah Mendlesohn, Fiona Moore, Fran Dowd, Gav Reads, Iain Clark, Jonathan Baddeley, Julie Faith McMurray, Karen Schaffer, Leigh Edmonds, Lilian Edwards, Malcolm Hutchison, Mike Scott, Neil Ottenstein, Phil Dyson, Roseanna Pendlebury, Trish
• Neil Gaiman
  • File 770
  • Genre Grapevine
  • Elise Matthesen on Dreamwidth
  • The Guardian
  • Theremina on Patreon
• Future Worldcons
  • Seattle 2025
    • Seattle is having a Poetry Hugo
    • Seattle has announced a judged film festival
  • LAcon V looks good
    • Good guests
    • “The LA in 2026 bid received 452 out of 531 votes cast.”
  • Tel Aviv in 2027
  • Brisbane in 2028
• The latest episode of FANAC History Zoom is “The secret history of Plokta”, with Steve Davies, Sue Mason, Alison Scott, and Mike Scott
• Picks
  • John: Alien: Romulus
  • Alison: KAOS
  • Liz: Control
• Credits
  • Cover art: “We got a lot of letters” by Alison Scott
    • Alt text: A famous photograph of Margaret Hamilton standing beside printed outputs of the code that took the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon, overlaid with the words “Octothorpe 119” and “Our Listeners Write In”.
  • Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)