Funny AC stories?

Well, there was the time at AC 2001 that Kage's mother and Dan DeCarlo's wife got drunk in the bar.

-- Giza ("I'm in trouble now!" )

Well there was one AC in the Adam's Mark, might have been 2002, that I was coming back from loading up the truck to get the art equipment to the hotel and had three other furs in the car. Well, I missed the turn off due to the traffic not allowing us an opening to cross over when the con truck did, and for those who know the lovely highway organization in that section of Philly, it can be an ungodly hell trying to find a place to turn around unless you know the streets by heart.,, which none of us did. Anyway, we turned down the first street we came to that looked like it might let us head back... and ended up in a rather... unkempt area of Philadelphia on a one-way street. As we surveyed the boarded up buildings and shot-out street lights, we noticed shadowy figures peering from the dark alleys... more and more of them as the seconds went by. Naturally, no one in the car, myself included, felt inclined to ask for directions. I said, "You know... I highly doubt any cops are around here, and if they are I hope they'll escort us out!" I whipped around and floored it out of there! Fortunately, I somehow found an overpass and got us back headed the right way to the hotel. It's a funny story only because we survived!

At AC'05 I think it was I had a strange experience in the elevator. It was like 2-3 in the morning and I got into an empty elevator went down to what I think was the floor that was the offices for the hotel. It was dark and I didnt know what was going on. I turned back around and pressed the elevator button and 2 seconds later the same elevator came down packed with people. I have no idea what happened but it ended up being a funny story later on.

I have a somewhat humorous story from last year's AC. I was at the anthropoly panel (which can totally be its own story), and I was fiddling with my camera trying to get a clean shot with the flash turned off, since it was dark and my camera's flash doesn't go much farther than 10 feet or so. Without a very steady hand, taking a picture in the dark, without a flash is tricky, so I was more or less experimenting.

So anyway, I went to take a picture. I held it steady, focused it, and hit the button. I looked up from the screen, and I realized that one of the panelists was missing. His chair apparently broke.

I looked back down at the screen, and to my amazement, (and that of some who probably have heard this story already) I caught a picture of his feet up in the air, as his chair was breaking.

I thought it was hilarious, though I'm sure he didn't enjoy falling down very much haha...

Pics

up (taken afterwards)

and down

Oh, I've got bunches of them. But Uncle Kage would kill me if he ever found out.

Last year on Fri. night, as I was awaiting one of those mini-Pizzeria Uno pizzas, I was listening to KDKA on my Walkman and heard them kidding around about those wacko
furries that were in town. "Now, some of them actually
seem quite normal" (gee thanks); "we've been getting reports
that the hotel smells like feces..."

hoo boy...then I finished the pizza back in my room where
I happened to see a TV report on the convention by their
"sister station", KDKA-TV. News anchor Ken Rice called us
"Arthrocon", a fact duly noted during Closing Ceremonies
on the video screen. (Other TV/radio stations took note
of us, and there was some kidding around, fairly good-
natured)

http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_167193226.html

Contact with the media is best left to authorized Con
staff! (In past years, like at the Adams Mark, we were
actually across the street from 2 TV stations and a few
radio stations, but we managed to keep them at bay
lest any goofy rumors about us got out...)

If you're still hunting silly stories, it occurs to me that we did have a moment at AC...04, was it?...when i last helped on the art show clean up team. Art show clean up mostly consisted of pulling down the pegboards and breaking down these big frameworks of rebar-like metal rods. The whole thing led to the only time anyone has used my swiss army knife for innuendo.

That was also the year when i decided to invest in a lovely pair of silver horns, so some of us on crew decided that if my father (who was picking me up) asked how the gather had gone, i should say, "Great! First some folks made me horny when i tied one on, and then i met some nice men who let me get my hands on some long hard rods..."

I have a strange feeling i may have overstepped the cleanliness rating on this forum; if i have, i apologize. Still...*sighs* In the right contexts, it's so much fun making things sound much worse than they really are.

I don't know that this is a particularly funny story, it is just barely amusing. You folks judge!

During the last AC at the Adams Mark (it was '04, I think) I decided on the first day to go into town and see a painting in one of the art galleries (the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, no less). I arrived in my room, set down on the bed to recover for just a moment...and the next thing I knew, it was late afternoon. Too late to take the bus downtown.

OK, I make it a point to eat at least one, really good meal in the premier restaurant in the convention hotel. For the Adams MArk, this was "The Marker", a quite classy restaurant with a hostess and live music, provided by a pianist in the sort of formal tie and tux that Sinatra would have felt proper for one of his concerts. Whin I entered, there was one other patron, sitting at a table with a paper, and the wait staffer were most defferential to him; the guy just radiated influence, yah know? The kind a guy you don't mess with, if you like to continue breathing air.

I ordered the rib-eye steak. It had to be the best, most tender rib-eye of my life! Cut with a fork? Heck, I could have cut it with the mashed potatoes, but settled for using the spoon. I decided that such a steak needed a more adult beverage than a Coca-Cola, so I ordered a Strawberry Daquiri.

This elicited a comment from the other diner, - whose name I thnk I vaguely remember as Gino - as to what part of the country I was from, to order a drink like that. I told him that I was from Burbank, the cartoon capital of the world, and that people there often drink things like that...then I wised up and remembered my manners, especially how much I enjoyed the use of my limbs, and politely inquired as to what sort of drink he would suggest for such a meal?

Gino suggested either a Martini, or a fine glass of red wine. I thanked him for his advice, and ordered two glasses of the house wine - one for me, and one for Gino.

Gino chuckled; countermanded my order, specified a specific wine, and put it on my bill; as he meant to be friendly, I didn't object.

And he was right! it was a very good wine, and not too expensive as such things go, so I had no reason to get churlish and uppity. I turned my attention to the piano player, and proceeded to put dollar bills in the 'kitty' as I asked him for a few numbers, mostly Big-Band standards and some later jazz numbers, and he knew them all.

Then I asked him to play the "Mickey Mouse Club March" - and just at that moment, Uncle Kage walked in, and entered the private dining room up above the main floor, with the Guests of Honor - Stan Sakai, Michel Gagne, and I think the DeCarlos and his parents and one of his staffers - as the "Mickey Mouse Club March" ended.

By this time I was on another glass of wine, and I remember asking for a couple more "furry themed" songs, and then tried to get the pianist to play "Katyusha". The hostess - who was from Ukraine - asked how I knew of "Katyusha", and I explained that my name was anglicised when my forebears came into the country through Ellis Island, and told her what I thought the original name was - a fine old Cossack name, very rare in this country. She had heard of it! Hey, that was neat! Since the name translates into "boatman", I said that the family song was "The Volga Boatman" - even though I kind of doubted that Zaphorozhe Cossacks ever got near the Volga.

Gino was taking this all in - especially the "Ellis Island" part. "Music from the Old Country, eh? Hey, play 'Anastasia'!" he called to the pianist. Gino knew the pianist - and the pianist knew Gino. There was no need for Gino to put a dollar in the kitty.

Well, the pianist played what he thought was "Anastasia". Gino, he didn't think so. They had a discussion about it. I thought it was time to pay my bill, and did so, thanked the pianist, thanked Gino for the drinking lesson, and retired for the evening.

I decided that "The Marker" was a pretty neat place, if somewhat pricey, and that I would make a point to stop in again during my stay, but didn't get the chance.

...And it is all gone now.

I wonder, sometimes, about the fates of the Ukrainian hostess, the wonderful pianist with all the anecdotes about Big-Band and Jazz greats, and Gino - where does Gino lounge now, in the afternoons?

Not particularly funny - but memorable.