George Martin and the Big One

For those who were not at Torcon 3's Hugo Ceremony, a bit of background: Torcon 3 Guest of Honor George R.R. Martin made much ado about the Best Novel Hugo Award being "the big one," and he bemoaned the fact that he didn't have a "big one," but that Connie Willis did...

This led N4 Committee member Ruth Sachter to utter the really dangerous (and hysterically funny) suggestion that we take one of the 7' tall inflated rockets we had been using as party decorations at Torcon 3, and present it to George so he could have his own "big one." We presented it to him with great panache (thanks to Pam Fremon's having smuggled it into the theater) at the Torcon 3 Closing Ceremonies.

His posing with the "Big One" added to the joyous amusement (although perhaps not the sophisticated elan) of closing ceremonies.

SF Canada has a picture on their web site of George triumphant, "Big One" raised high, and Cheryl Morgan's Emerald City shows another view.