OTHER ITEMS:


Have you ever heard of that fannish legend, The Eye of Argon? View or download the loathsome thing here. According to SF writer Steve Goldin, "The author is a person named Jim Theis, who lived (at one time) in the Midwest. The late, lamented Mike Hodel (original host of the "Hour 25" radio show on Pacifica radio) actually tracked him down and spoke with him over the phone in the early 80s. Theis had long-since gafiated, and had no idea of the uses to which his story was put. Mike didn't have the heart to tell him, either, but he did learn that, somewhere, there are more adventures of Grignr the Barbarian floating around.

"At a Westercon several years ago, I met a woman who said she had actually turned the crank on the mimeo for the Ozark-area fanzine in which that story was published. She insists the story was not a put-on, that the author was terribly sincere about it. (This confirms my suspicions that it was written by a teenage boy who'd read too much ER Burroughs (and maybe a smattering of Lin Carter), and used 3 thesaureses and no dictionary. Or perhaps he used a Dejah Thesaurus.)

"By the way, for people interested in the history, the late Thomas Scortia saw it in the fanzine, thought it was hysterical and sent a copy to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. (He neglected to copy the last page, though, which is why the story seems endless. Well, one reason.) Quinn went around doing readings with other Northern California writers. I came up from LA and heard it and insisted on a copy for myself, which I then proceeded to spread around Southern California. From there, it oozed its way out into the rest of the world.

"The Rutgers university version here was lovingly transcribed electronically by Quinn's ex-husband, Don Simpson. (The editorial notes at the beginning of that version are his, unascribed.) The original fanzine, by the way, also had illustrations of the story, possibly by the Author Himself. They are truly worthy of the text."

Are you too young to remember the roadside Burma-Shave signs? Here's a collection taken off the Net and reformatted for better readability.