And Now I Have a Bird Head
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtYWJPfw4UB2p9Kh_Q7fhv58Hf9iRDGWt6h-C6hk5bVgye9mBqL3Mnk_5J8bH13vpGHJaE5WN1VuPvitO6gqtq2ehLvw-k9VUBwguUqTPF8Qvmyi8HWDvj0CcjsL8Sfr1sgGN/s320/The_Infamous_Drinking_Bird_image1999.jpg)
When I found out I was nominated for the Last Drink Bird Head award, I thought the other folks in my category were so immensely talented and deserving that it was inconceivable -- INCONCEIVABLE! -- that I could win. Jeff VanderMeer asked me to appoint someone to accept the award in my absence should I win, and also to write an acceptance speech in case I happened to need one. I got busy and forgot about this request, and remembered a couple days ago and thought, "No, there's no way." And then I won . So here I am, like the occasional Oscar winner who doesn't write a speech because there's just no way in heckapalooza they could win, and then they do, and they speak extemporaneously and bizarrely, and everyone then thinks, "Wow, that person is a bird brain!" Here, after the fact, is my extemporaneous acceptance speech upon winning the Last Drink Bird Head award in the category of "Expanding Our Vocabulary": Oh wow. Gosh. Wow. Okay.