There was this long piece at this point about the Minneapolis Corflu. I think I will chop it severely. I'll leave in at least part of it since that is the point in time when the last Skug came out. Let's forget the belabored airline misery story, the 30 degree weather and the forgotten coat.

Cut to the part where we're walking toward the hotel door, I look up and see Garth Danielson waving from the second floor. He struggles with the window. Seems it's a little difficult to open. I'm looking up with the rain falling in my face and finally decide to just wave and walk in. When I get to the door I hear Garth's triumphant yell. He did get the window open and I did walk back into the rain.

From the rain we proceed to the registration counter and encounter Luke McGuff heading in the opposite direction. I quickly ferret out SKUG 10 and the DITTO II Progress Report I and hand both to him. Although I was sure I sent him Skug 9(?) in a timely fashion, he swears he never got it and it was a number of months before I finally got him another copy. Obviously I must hand him the first copy distributed and he seems moderately appeased. Our reservation seems fine and we actually get a room on the floor directly above the party suite. This I like and it's a nice room. (Plus later that weekend I got to see the last half of "Nightmare on Elm Street, Part III". Now if I could just get to see the first half.) Also as we were registering, or around that time, a number of the con attendees went out to the Twins and the Indians baseball games. Fanzine baseball fanatics at it again. Cleveland won. I'm not going to go minute by minute through the entire weekend. The convention committee had arranged for smoking and non-smoking con suites and the smoking con suite led directly to the pool area so on both Friday and Saturday night the party spilled out, particularly early in the evening when we learned that the hotel's happy hour included not just free potato chips but also free drinks. I was amazed. Patty indicated that hotels that she had been to on business trips had had this also and that it was not that unusual. Well, unusual or not I was going to take advantage of it. (Within reason, of course). I was fortunate enough to even obtain a couple of illustrations from Alexis Gilliland (which you may have seen gracing a Ditto II Progress Report II) as we sat around the pool.

On both nights the party suites were well stocked with soft drinks, beer, and other liquid and solid refreshments. I even arose early enough Sunday to find muffins and blue tortilla chips. Over the weekend I saw chocolate, cheesecake, cheese curls, and much more. My oh my, no wonder fandom is gaining so much weight. There was also a room with fanzines for display and sale, t-shirts, sweatshirts(why do conventions never stock enough small and medium sizes of these, not that I could fit into a small, but there are a few), etc (An intervention from 1995, I can even forget the medium at thie point.). I think Ken Fletcher stayed there almost the entire time the room was open and it was open most of the time. Reminds me of John Benson in the artshow room for Autoclave 1 or 2. John even slept in that room if I remember correctly. Back to Corflu. Even though Geri Sullivan didn't speak that much at panels and at the banquet, she was often seen running here and there helping make sure things were running properly. Uh, Fred was doing the same thing too. He's just a bit more vocal.

There were about 120 or 130 attendees at the convention. Even Jim Young showed up. He hadn't gained an ounce of weight. I hadn't seen him for years. He gave a reading on Saturday with great enthusiasm and relish. I talked a while with Don Fitch who I also hadn't seen for quite some time and Linda and Bill Bowers who I'd seen at Ditto I. (It's bizarre reading this now, November, 1995, and thinking about the Linda and Bill saga well documented in Bill Bowers fmz.) Hope Leibowitz said she forgave me for incorrectly putting Fran Leibowitz's name on her (Hope's) letter of comment. I was relieved. I'm tempted to write down all the names of all the people I spoke to but the list of interesting and entertaining people would just go on and on. Talked a lot to Garth and Karen Trego. (Sadly it was the last time we would see Karen.) Sat around with John Bartelt. I think we had exhausted most of our conversational repertoire in seeing each other in the Bay Area. Finally met John Purcell. Saturday morning he went on a Volksmarch (is that right?) and walked about ten miles in that marvelous Minneapolis spring weather (remember the cold and the rain?). Jeff Schalles and I tried to remember if we'd met many years earlier but neither of our memories brought forth any tangible evidence to that effect. Talked to Ted White a while about stereos and music and listened to him and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Lenny Bailes, Moshe Feder, and a great clump of people talk about the Fanoclasts and Puerto Rico and similar entertaining subjects. Back to the talking in clumps, Fred Haskell, Susan Levy and Patty were talking about computers and programming at the same time the others were smoffing away (Just a different type of smoffing I guess). I primarily just sat and took it in. Rob Hansen looked more tired than I as the hours progressed toward 2 AM and then 3 AM and ...

The programming covered only about five or six hours on Saturday and the banquet and auctioning on Sunday. Saturday's programming started with an opening by Fred Haskell and an Invocation by Jon Singer. The Toastermaster Jeanne Gomoll introduced various and sundry people and gave a number of good readings and speeches. One of the programming events was old vs. new reproduction (Celibacy?). The audience was advised to move to the left or the right side of the room depending upon their particular real or feigned prejudices and various points and counterpoints were made about things with or without chips, silkscreens, or whatever. Ted White, on the side of "old" reproduction methods maintained that mimeography and such time honored methods were less expensive and not as difficult as the new computer methods. Avedon Carol responded that she had always known that Ted was a "cheap and easy kind of guy". Several people were seen walking back and forth between the two opposing camps. I happened to be in the back in the middle along with all the other wishy-washy people. Luke McGuff, also in the back, made some comment about the people walking to and fro and something about spies in the house of mimeo.

Immediately preceding the banquet Garth gave Stu Shiffman, the "randomly" chosen Guest of Honor a special piece of Smurfs artwork he had created. (I'm not sure exactly what you call it.) We also learned from Karen that Dana Siegel's water had broken and would not, therefore, be able to attend the banquet. Pat Mueller looked like she would follow suit in the not too distant future. After eating a not unpalatable brunch a number of speeches were given and the auction followed shortly thereafter. During the speeches a strange salute, with which I was not totally familiar, was given to Chuck Harris. Stu was honored by a human pyramid (both stationary and mobile) which fell apart after a rather limited mobility. A roast of sorts of Stu followed, with various and sundry pieces by Andi Schechter, Avedon Carol, Andy Hooper(the past lives of Stu), Mary Ann Mueller, and others. Ted White, with the unanimous approval of those gathered, named Terry Carr the past president for 1988 of FWA. A brief and unanimous voting for Corflu 7 followed a short speech by Moshe Feder and Lise Eisenberg. After which Fred gave them jointly his symbol of authority, a whistle he blew several times over the weekend. Please hide this whistle someone. There was some mention of the possibility of the Brighton Metropole for Corflu 7 but Avedon quickly indicated that this was not a real bid. Later Richard Brandt passed out flyers for El Paso for Corflu 8 (which turned out to be another enjoyable convention).

The auction was officiated primarily by Joe D. Siclari and Jerry Kaufman. Furious bidding between Richard Brandt and Anna Vargo over a run of Terry Carr's fanzine was very entertaining, although quite possibly not so for the participants. Anna, in trying to determine if she would continue to bid above Richard, would throw a coin several times before deciding to do so. Richard finally took the coin away. (Something like that, my memory becomes hazy after a day or two.) Unfortunately we had a plane to catch so what the rest of the auction and that night's Dead Dog party were like I do not know.

This was an excellent convention. Each year Corflu seems to get better and better, which is pretty amazing since I thought the first one was great. I'm sorry we didn't make this year's (1993) Corflu in Madison.

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