Another year has come and gone for Anthrocon's 4,400 attendees. But what did the media make of it all?

Local stations WTAE (video, slides) and WPXI (video) gave mostly superficial coverage, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (photos) went into a little more depth. [Higgs Raccoon, baracudaboy, Wild`Bill`TX]

The convention was also picked up by Reuters, who posted a short piece based on organizers' statements.

In a story likely to be repeated in 2012, furries were blamed for booking out local hotels. Conversely, Anthrocon's CEO complained of a lack of hotels, telling the Post-Gazette that "when downtown hotels became fully booked in mid-May, [registration] dropped off dramatically." This helps explain this year's growth rate of 3.8%, compared to double-digit increases in prior years. (Somehow the parade count rose over 19% to 854.)

Meanwhile, 10^th St. sub mogul Cory Robinson reported two months of business in five days:

We love furries. They're just people having fun, and they don't hurt anybody.

Anthrocon is requesting submissions for this year's conbook, and is offering a sweepstakes to attract artwork, fiction, photography, and articles for the publication. This year's theme is "The Anthropomorphic Institute Of Magic".

The lucky winner gets a supersponsor membership for 2011, or an upgrade if already a member.

All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT April 23. It is not necessary to submit material to enter the sweepstakes, and there is no limit on the number of entries.

Advertising for Alex Horne's show 'Wordwatching'

Last night I was in Darlington watching Alex Horne, who is most famous as co-host of the BBC Four comedy panel game We Need Answers. He was performing a show entitled "Wordwatching", which is about his attempts to introduce words that he and his friends have invented into the OED.

So far, while some progress has been made, none of his words (see below) have got in. However, I feel that if we can spread the word around we can get them in. I just hope I do not go on a mental safari during the attempt.

This show has resulted in me asking a question: how come so far no words relating to the furry fandom have got into the OED? After all, the fandom has been in existence for some time (at least since the 1980s).

If the term "furry" has been used to describe both the fandom and the type of characters in it, then I think it should be included. Also, it appears that I am not the only furry with such ideas. There is currently an online petition to get "yiff" in the OED as well, which has over 3,000 signatures.

As a result, I propose we start a campaign to get as many furry words into the OED as we can.

Recently I've found the time to make a few changes to Flayrah. If you're reading this on another site, you might want to drop by to see them.

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts as to how we could make Flayrah a better resource, from a technical, social, or content standpoint. The site's been up almost a decade, and I'd like it to remain relevant for the next ten years – so if you want something, speak up!