Conventional Wisdom

(Historical Notes: …and this was back in the BEFORE time, as I write this in July 2021, I don’t even know what Otakon’s first year back will be like.  But yeah, even before this, Otakon had easily the strictest door security of any convention I’ve ever been to, including the other DC ones.  That last part is really worth stressing, because while I totally get the “It’s the nation’s capitol, of course there’s security” mindset, this was absolutely above and beyond the norm.  You also have to remember that it wasn’t OTAKON staff doing all the checks as people came in, it was the CONVENTION CENTER staff rooting through everyone’s bags.  I seem to recall hearing this was the first big fan event in the facility, which is why they were so much stricter about everything.  Less out of a genuine concern over people’s security, and more because they were afraid of somebody making a mess of all their fancy art.  And look, you know me.  I’ll gladly support anybody who thinks a building full of nerds can’t clean up after themselves… which is why it’s saying something when even I’M suggesting the convention center was being a little over-zealous.  Or, at the very least, that they didn’t have enough bag check spots to be this strict and NOT have things back up like crazy.)