Let’s be honest: every blog is a vanity project. Sure, people tell themselves and their readers that they’re saving the world by writing about the climate or influencing the arts through their film, book, and theater reviews. But in reality, their blog is primarily about one thing: it is all about the blogger. Blogs are, by the very nature of their design, subjective channels for voicing one’s thoughts, opinions and experiences. So, let’s dispense with all of the higher-purpose BS extolled by other self-deluded bloggers.
This blog is, like anything written by Elton John — which is to say, all about ME. Consider THE NORCAL PECKERWOOD your one-stop shop for everything ME.
First, there’s something I want to get off my chest. The concept of “blog” didn’t come to me via the Internet of the 1990s. No, that concept came to me via science fiction conventions in the mid 1970s — particularly, from an event called Minicon 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You see, long before there was “blog” (short for “weblog”), there was “blog” (a phrase used to describe a concoction of liquors, juices and other comestibles).
Minicon 11
Minicon 11 (April 16–18, 1976) at the Leamington Hotel in downtown Minneapolis featured 525 total attendees. The event hosted Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett as Pro Guests of Honor; Leigh Couch and Norb Couch as Fan Guests of Honor; and Jackie Franke and Rusty Hevelin as Toastmasters.
Today, “blog” is a noun used to describe “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style” (definition courtesy of Dictionary.com). Blog is also a verb used to describe “the action of creating and contributing to a blog: i.e., to “add new material to or regularly update a blog” or to “write about (an event, situation, topic, etc.) in a blog” (again, definition courtesy of dictionary.com). But in my day, there was “blog.”
In Minneapolis SF convention parlance at that time, however, “blog” was a combination of liquors, juices and other comestibles (like ice cream, fruit, and spices) similar to the wopatooli college students often made when they hosted parties in the 1970s and 1980s.
Convention staff at the time served blog to any fan willing to drink the substance. (And, no, legal drinking age did not matter as much at the time as it does now: I was 15 when I had my first drink — an Amaretto Sour — when I was 15, at the original River City Palace then on Main Street in La Crosse, Wisconsin.) I was 15 when I attended my first Minicon (Minicon 11 at the Hotel Leamington in downtown Minneapolis) and made the acquaintance of this nectar of the. . . well, certainly not gods, and likewise not nectar, but most assuredly favored liquor of science fiction fans in 1970s Midwestern America.
That is where my introduction to the term “blog” came from. And if you try to search the term “blog” as it originated in the 1970s, using the obvious search string that includes the words “liquor,” “drink,” “Minicon,” “Minneapolis,” “science fiction,” etc., you will be taken either to a blog that describes how to make drinks or a blog about the upcoming Minicon SF convention. So much for the internet of everything.
So, considering my drunken introduction to blog in the 1970s, it’s no surprise that I find myself blogging nearly 50 years later.
And with that, I bid you “welcome” to THE NORCAL PECKERWOOD. Tighten your seatbelts; you may experience some turbulence from here on in.
The NorCal Peckerwood 
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