Corflu on the Fly, Part II

By 7 p.m. people were back from dinner (Marty Cantor extolling the virtues of his favorite LV restaurant, where he and Rob Jackson ate) and Opening Ceremonies began. Bill Mills, Arnie and Joyce Katz made a few alarming (which is to say, humorous) announcements of the meeting they were convening before admitting this was really Corflu — it wasn’t an N3F meeting after all.

The one bit of formal business to be taken care of was drawing the name of the Guest of Honor. This has furnished some lively conversation all afternoon, Hope Leibowitz asking if I’d slipped $20 to the right person and had my name taken out of the hat, and Murray Moore pointing out that when the name of a previous GoH is picked, they pick again, and plenty of former GoH’s were on hand, so there weren’t too many prospective GoHs in the room. The general idea was that any sensible person should be nervous about his chances.

Joyce Katz held the sack with the names and Teresa Cochran picked. Teresa apparently grabbed two names the first go-round, so they were put back unexamined. She came up with one slip of paper on the second attempt. And so, Andy Hooper was named GoH of Corflu. He stood and doffed his red cap while we all applauded.

While people were getting prepared for Opening Ceremonies a mishap was narrowly averted. Visualize that the meeting room carpet runs from the floor right up over the podium, which is about 18 inches tall, without a border or break, and the busy yellow-and-brown pattern has been making it tough on some of the people moving on and off. There was an anxious moment when Arnie Katz tripped on to the podium, went one step and took a header down to the floor. Fortunately he was unhurt. For the rest of the evening, several fans made sure to offer assistance when people left the podium.

Once the business was done, Bill Mills sang “Corflu Blues” to great applause, and a second tune was also well received. Teresa Cochran joined him for another number. Art Widner volunteered an amazingly good rendition of a blues tune, “Rock City.” And he also sang a set of lyrics written long ago by Jack Speer, who was present. The music continued into the evening….