I was wrong. In my last post, I pondered the meaning of the frequent calls for ‘TOAST” at the Hugo awards ceremony. Ever in pursuit to the answers of of life’s mysteries, I went to the source and asked Hugo Master of Ceremonies himself, award-winning author Jay Lake, the meaning of the word. This is his reply:
“Toast’ comes from when I was Toastmaster at Westercon a few years ago. Kevin Roche and Andy Tremblay made a giant toast costume that I got different people to wear all weekend. Whoever wore the costume was the Toastmaster’s Toast Bitch. Every time I had an appearance or a panel or some other official duty, I’d get the audience to chant ‘Toast!’ very loudly. So it’s an extension of that joke, one enough people at Worldcon remember in order to keep it going”
Mystery solved. Thank you Mr. Lake.
