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the time the crowd really wasn't noticeable, until people started queuing up for masquerade tickets. The programming was generally uninspired, and bedevilled by technical hitches. Some of it was held outside the hotel, at the Music Hall just down the road. We visited this twice, once for the Hugos and Guest of Honour Speech, and on another evening (after John Millard had taken the Aussies out to dinner at the hotel's posh restaurant) for the Dramatic Presentation. This was up, or rather down, to the usual standard of such performances at conventions, and Carey and I left at intermission. a carnation at us. Would we like to buy it for a dollar, to help raise funds for a "God Bless America" Rally. After a moment's thought I replied that we would have to see a bit more of America before we could decide whether we should ask God to bless it. "Well," she whined, "you could at least give a quarter...". Back at the hotel we attended a Cincinnati Fantasy Group party, and then attended the midnight surprise item, one of the highlights of the convention, the indescribable Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre performing "Gonad the Barbarian". the masquerade intermission. After a couple of people had given a delightful rendition of "Have Some Madeira My Dear" they brought on a stripper, She was a fan who had volunteered her services and she was a very capable acrobat, Her performance however was absolutely lewd. She had this feather and...and then at one stage she borrowed some poor lad's glasses... on, at which point the fellow with the microphone launched into a lot of bullshit about burlesque being an art form and "absolutely no photographs" being allowed (but she was videotaped). So here were these 2000 people with their kiddies and everything, frightened in any case of losing their seats, to say nothing of the feminists who were already displeased with the committee because of the bellydancers...Oh, the faces of the audience were priceless. in Kansas – appeared to have been merely walked past the oven, and the cheese soup, a speciality of the hotel, was lukewarm and unpleasant. Various people made pleasant little speeches, the tone of which may be imagined by Fred Pohl's little witticism – "They said: We're having Heinlein at the banquet. I said: Is there enought of him to go around?" For reasons which were not clear to me the Heinleins were made honorary citizens of the State of Texas, something of a mixed blessing considering what many other Americans appear to think of Texans. fact his photographs hadn't come out and slides were by courtesy of Ben Yalow and Alan Frisbie. The slide show was followed by a very successful DUFF auction, at which one enthusiastic person paid $US20 for an Australian $2 note, admittedly autographed by Tucker and myself! "Say, does Harlan have any of those T-shirts left?” "Don't think so – he only had 100 or so run off for his close friends."
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