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Spaceways, v. 3, issue 4, May 1941
Page 6
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6 SPACEWAYS L'APRES-MIDI D'UN FAN 7 by DEBUSSY WIDNER JR. After several ill-fated attempts, yhos finally arrived at the handsome brick house on the hill, in the neat, spic-and-span residential section of Winchester, Mass., with thoughts in mind of at last getting the material for that article Warner wanted on the fabulous files of that demon indexer, Robert D. Swisher, Ph. D. Throwing out the anchor, yhos brought the famed Skylark of WooWoo to a thundering stop a scant inch from the Swishers' garage door, eased himself out like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube, was admitted by Mrs. Swisher and promptly swished upstairs to Bob's den. He greeted Bob, cast a fond eye on 6,000 card files, upon which he was to base an article, rolled up his sleeves and prepared for the task of extracting information from the massive indices and the less communicative Doc. Bob had been busy indexing the lastest fanmags, and a pile of them lay scattered about, some of which yhos hadn't see, so of course such an intolerable situation had to be remedied at once. Swisher was also licking his lips and eyeing the latest copies of Pluto and Eclipse, which yhos had brought. Silence ensued for approximately one-half hour; then was broken by the entrance of Bob's wife and 7-month-old daughter, who were curious to see what kind of fans weren't gabbing a blue streak. All four of us promptly started gabbing a blue streak, including Frances Nevada II, who is a marvelous conversationalist for her age. I was honored by hearing her speak her first words, and further honoured by being the cause of this auspicious speech. FN2 was merrily waving a colored rubber toy in the general direction of her face with intentions of teething, but with not too marked success, and yohs remarked, "Careful, you'll give yourself a black eye!" Efenta immediately stopped gurgling and looked yhos squarely in the eye for several seconds, then--so plainly that we all gasped in amazement and then howled with laughter--she slowly enunciated: "Oh, yeah?" Our verbal jam session finally tired itself out, and yhos turned again to the files but remembered someone had told him he had a letter in one of the pro-mags recently, which was news, for he hasn't read one in the past six months. Inasmuch as Swisher buys all the stf mags regularly, the letter was easily located, and oddly enough, turned out to be somewhat interesting. At least, enough to talk about for a little while, and to lead into the picking apart of several leading fans. Once more yhos turned to take notes on the files, dusk having fallen by now. "Hmmm," he remarked, "I ought to call this article Afternoon of a Fan instead of something about files." Bob approved this idea muchly, and forthwith dug up a record catalogue, and provided yhos with the French for Debussy's well known piece. On a nice clean sheet of paper, yhos put down: L'Apres-Midi d'un Fan. "Now, Bob. About these files of yours--" From downstairs came a not-t0-be-denied voice and the siren smell of country sausages frying in butter.... But after supper, yhos' persistence finally won ascendancy, and here is the information on the superfiles of R. D. Swisher, Ph. D.: In spite of the ark of information contained in these files they occupy a space not more than twice as large as Old Faithful, the Underwood which is assisting in the production of this article. The six thousand individual cards contain information on some 3,000 stf stories, their authors, 5,000 "fans" (including the most obscure individual who everhad a letter published in a pro-mag and was never heard from again), and a miscellaneous section which coers all fact science articles in stf mags, fan articles, other indexes, scientifilms and book reviews, convention accounts, fanmags (from which the famous Check-List is compiled) and poetry. Due to the avalance of new promags during the past year, Bob has fallen
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6 SPACEWAYS L'APRES-MIDI D'UN FAN 7 by DEBUSSY WIDNER JR. After several ill-fated attempts, yhos finally arrived at the handsome brick house on the hill, in the neat, spic-and-span residential section of Winchester, Mass., with thoughts in mind of at last getting the material for that article Warner wanted on the fabulous files of that demon indexer, Robert D. Swisher, Ph. D. Throwing out the anchor, yhos brought the famed Skylark of WooWoo to a thundering stop a scant inch from the Swishers' garage door, eased himself out like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube, was admitted by Mrs. Swisher and promptly swished upstairs to Bob's den. He greeted Bob, cast a fond eye on 6,000 card files, upon which he was to base an article, rolled up his sleeves and prepared for the task of extracting information from the massive indices and the less communicative Doc. Bob had been busy indexing the lastest fanmags, and a pile of them lay scattered about, some of which yhos hadn't see, so of course such an intolerable situation had to be remedied at once. Swisher was also licking his lips and eyeing the latest copies of Pluto and Eclipse, which yhos had brought. Silence ensued for approximately one-half hour; then was broken by the entrance of Bob's wife and 7-month-old daughter, who were curious to see what kind of fans weren't gabbing a blue streak. All four of us promptly started gabbing a blue streak, including Frances Nevada II, who is a marvelous conversationalist for her age. I was honored by hearing her speak her first words, and further honoured by being the cause of this auspicious speech. FN2 was merrily waving a colored rubber toy in the general direction of her face with intentions of teething, but with not too marked success, and yohs remarked, "Careful, you'll give yourself a black eye!" Efenta immediately stopped gurgling and looked yhos squarely in the eye for several seconds, then--so plainly that we all gasped in amazement and then howled with laughter--she slowly enunciated: "Oh, yeah?" Our verbal jam session finally tired itself out, and yhos turned again to the files but remembered someone had told him he had a letter in one of the pro-mags recently, which was news, for he hasn't read one in the past six months. Inasmuch as Swisher buys all the stf mags regularly, the letter was easily located, and oddly enough, turned out to be somewhat interesting. At least, enough to talk about for a little while, and to lead into the picking apart of several leading fans. Once more yhos turned to take notes on the files, dusk having fallen by now. "Hmmm," he remarked, "I ought to call this article Afternoon of a Fan instead of something about files." Bob approved this idea muchly, and forthwith dug up a record catalogue, and provided yhos with the French for Debussy's well known piece. On a nice clean sheet of paper, yhos put down: L'Apres-Midi d'un Fan. "Now, Bob. About these files of yours--" From downstairs came a not-t0-be-denied voice and the siren smell of country sausages frying in butter.... But after supper, yhos' persistence finally won ascendancy, and here is the information on the superfiles of R. D. Swisher, Ph. D.: In spite of the ark of information contained in these files they occupy a space not more than twice as large as Old Faithful, the Underwood which is assisting in the production of this article. The six thousand individual cards contain information on some 3,000 stf stories, their authors, 5,000 "fans" (including the most obscure individual who everhad a letter published in a pro-mag and was never heard from again), and a miscellaneous section which coers all fact science articles in stf mags, fan articles, other indexes, scientifilms and book reviews, convention accounts, fanmags (from which the famous Check-List is compiled) and poetry. Due to the avalance of new promags during the past year, Bob has fallen
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