31 flavors? That's for wimps...

Let's have a new ride share board entry for 2024. One should not have to scroll down past whatever happened in 2018 to share rides.

I wish to make a couple of points:

1) By this spring, a number of us will have been vaccinated.

2) Scientists say that one is much less likely to catch COVID-19 outdoors than indoors, all other things being equal.

Look: Last summer, there were massive George Floyd protests, thousands of people gathering to protest, and these caused no discernible blip on the COVID rates. Why? Those events were outdoors. People were not idiots. People tried to keep space between themselves and people they don't live with, and 99% wore masks correctly. OTOH, many other events, events attended by people in denial, were superspreader events. Why? People gathered indoors, hugged, shook hands, and didn't wear masks.

I believe we can have a Baitcon this year. It would probably have to look a little different. I understand that not everyone will have been vaccinated by late June or whenever. Here's what I imagine we would have to modify:

1) Social distancing as the default expectation. No getting within a couple of feet of people you don't already hang out with regularly without the kind of discussion and consent-giving that you would usually require before more intimate interaction.

2) Masks. We all know how to wear masks now, yes? Yes.

3) Servers in the food line rather than everyone touches the food

4) Dishes are drop-and-go, with volunteers taking dish-washing shifts, rather than we stand elbow to elbow to do our individual dishes (yes I am willing to do dish-washing shifts)

5) Orderly ice cream service, rather than the mosh pit of ice cream grabbing (some of us might actually like this change)

6) Probably fewer flavors of ice cream, to make this feasible. Some large batches of proven known favorites.

7) Up to the last minute and beyond refund policy (before saying "that's financially infeasible", talk to me, let's discuss ideas?)

8) Only one family group at a time in a shower area

If, as the time approaches, the numbers in the news are making us feel ooky about all this, we could step up the precautions even further:

9) PCR testing beforehand for anyone not vaccinated yet?

10) Close every other toilet stall?

11) Wait outside in line for sinks?

I know, ugh, I'm sure we all wish that things could be exactly the same as they always were. Might not yet be possible for us to party like it's 2019. But I'd rather do a Baitcon with the above modifications than have yet another weekend at home, looking at the same damn four walls as the previous 375 or so days of March so far.

Discuss?

Vic is soooo excited about Baitcon, they insisted that we register last night so they could see how registration works and then they commandeered my laptop to read the entire baitcon.org website. It's good to see Vic so enthused about anything outside of Tumblr. Thank you, JB, for doing this.

Vic continues to be fired up about our, uh, weird ice cream flavor plans. "Cricket Road": kind of like Rocky Road, but with crickets instead of nuts. Yes, crickets. Roasted crickets and marshmallows are really a great combo. (We had a rice krispie treat bar with crickets in Quebec, and the crickets were the best part.)

My main anxiety is that, like with the bacon in the maple bacon ice cream, the crickets might absorb moisture between LN2 time and flavor-running time, and lose crunch. That was bad enough for the bacon but would be disastrous for the crickets, I think. With an animal protein that's so far outside the cultural norm, it has to be just absolutely perfect, or else the knee-jerk revulsion reaction comes welling back up.

So, here's a possible plan: to only put a tiny amount (about 4 oz. probably) into a yogurt container, and serve the rest of the batch immediately after LN2 mixing. (I'll ask around beforehand to see who's game to try some.) The batch in the yogurt container will not join the Running of the Flavors, but will just be an experimental sample for me and Vic to sample later to see how it holds up over time. If the concept is well-received, and if it holds up well enough over about 8 hours, a new batch can join the Running of the Flavors the next day or the next year.

Maybe for the less adventurous palate we'll make some straight-up chocolate and marshmallow ice cream. Like Rocky Road but with no crunchy ingredients. I haven't had Rocky Road in a long time, so, remind me: the marshmallow is not distinct pieces of marshmallow, but kind of continuous with the ice cream base, right? How would you do this, use marshmallow fluff and swirl it in at the last minute?