Happy, Happy Birthday...

...to benveniste, fringefaan, and brotherguy!

My mother's birthday was September 19th, too. I send thanks in her memory, thanks for bringing me into the world so I could grow up and know so many wonderful people, including these three who share her birthday.

A small birthday prezzie...

...for fringefaan

A 50th birthday, the half-century mark, calls for something more than your standard LJ birthday greeting. With that in mind, I offer up this dusted-off piece of fanwriting from our past:

What it’s all about
by Geri Sullivan

Thanks to Emma Bull, Fred Levy Haskell, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Walter Willis, Don Fitch, the sensibilities of Bruce Pelz and Robbie Cantor, and countless magical moments along the way, I wound up running the fan lounge at L.A. con III in 1996.

On Saturday afternoon of that Worldcon, Doug Faunt and I went on an astonishing shopping trip. We spent nearly $500 donated by Tor Books and another couple of hundred from the fan lounge budget stocking up for the rest of the weekend – specifically, we were shopping for alien food to serve at the James White book release party scheduled for the next afternoon. (Tor, NESFA, and L.A.con III were the party hosts. The sushi intermixed with gummi worms was…memorable, as were the many other platters of alien foodstuffs Claire Eddy, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Ulrika O’Brien created.)

Doug and I had most of three carts full by the time we finished in the beer aisle, but a stand-alone display caught my eye, and I found room for hazelnut-flavored beer. Now, I don’t usually care for flavored beers, and nut brown ales don’t do a thing for me. But the concept caught my fancy, and I was short enough on sleep that I picked up not one 6-pack, but two.

That night in the fan lounge, Randy Byers found the hazelnut brew. I remember the smile of happy astonishment on his face, and him searching through the filled and iced serving tureens for another bottle. I snagged one myself. Damn, that hazelnut beer was good.

Later in the weekend, I tagged along with a group heading back to Frank Lunney’s room for a break from the party downstairs. My voice was gone, exhaustion was but a state I aspired to. But I remember Randy sitting over on the other bed. He added to the good company there.

Months later, Randy sent me a copy of Travels with the Wild Child. It knocked my socks off. Travels with the Wild Child inspired me; it intimidated me. Randy’s standalone fanzine bore witness and tribute to his friendship with Tami Vining and an intense journey they shared. I’d wanted to write a similar tale of a different trip I’d taken with Jack Targonski the previous summer, and I’d been uncertain it could even be done, or if I could do it justice. Randy’s fanzine both showed me how and set the achievement bar incredibly high. ( Thus it began.... )

Wow! Another one!

Happy, happy birthday to chasophonic!

Wow. A bunch of phenomenal guys were born on September 19th!