Jonathan Ross & Hugo Stuff

Monday, Mar. 17, 2014 - 3:07 a.m.

Let me see if I have this right: Jonathan Ross had been announced as the host for the next Hugo Awards ceremony and this immediately caused consternation among folks because he is perceived by some to be "raunchy and sexist." So he declined to host.

Okay -- since people are suddenly now all concerned and righteously indignant enough to be vetting people associated with the Hugo Awards, let me share this little tidbit with you all.

In 1988 in one of his multitudinous fits of rage, [REDACTED] abused me so severely that he injured my neck and shoulders, and put a pair of hand-shaped bruises on my upper arms that took nearly three weeks to fade.

If memory serves me correctly, [REDACTED]'s even been a Fan GoH somewhere.

Nobody who calls themself a friend of mine with any genuine sense of ethics could *possibly* object to Jonathan Ross and still give [REDACTED] the time of day.

And yet somehow, it's happening. You know, because it was such a long time ago, it didn't happen to *them* after all, and somebody as competent as [REDACTED] is in a business meeting is a handy person to have around.

Ah, well. Hardly anybody in fandom gave a rat's patootie back then and I don't particularly anticipate or expect fandom to bestir themselves about this now, honest I don't. And I'll own the sad fact that back then, I was too stupid and beat down -- literally as well as figuratively -- to know I should have involved the authorities. In fact, I should have called the police on [REDACTED] more than once, but I didn't.

But there it is because I finally feel like saying it.

Either we vet everybody associated with the Hugos, or we vet nobody.

In my opinion, this picking and choosing who is 'appropriate' enough to be associated with the Hugo Awards is nothing but a bunch of meaningless, pearl-clutching rhetoric.

Jonathan Ross is fantastic. He would have made an awesome Hugo Awards host.

I wish he'd change his mind and come on back.

I'll take somebody with a smart mouth over somebody with an iron grip any moment of any day.

PS -- [REDACTED] never said anything improper to me about any Hugo stuff, not even when he was inflicting physical pain on me, so at least there's that.

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