View source for Tricon Reminiscence (Panshin)

===A MEDIAEVAL INTERLUDE===

I ducked out to eat during the mid-afternoon auction and returned near the end of a panel on comic books, just in time to hear someone passionately defending the thesis that Doc Sivana was really a ''good'' guy, apparently on the grounds that he had a beautiful daughter. After the showing of one segment of a totally losing television show, ''Time Tunnel'' (which did garner plenty of laughs, albeit all in the wrong places), the assembled mob was thrown out in order to allow for the preparation of an initiation into the [[Order of Saint Fantony]]. This [[British]] group had managed to acquire a few [[American]] members -- [[TAFF]] representatives and such -- over the last several years, and it was apparently decided at last years [[Loncon|Worldcon in London]] to form a US chapter. So with much pomp and circumstance -- not to mention cloaks, heroic [[music]], and naked swords, [[Bjo Trimble]] and [[Fritz Leiber]] (ably proxied by [[John Trimble]]) proved their fitness by drinking unflinchingly (more or less) of the waters from the well of the renowned martyr and were accepted as true Knight and Lady of the Order of Saint Fantony.

The next hour, before the [[Boston in '67|Boston]]-[[Syracuse in '67|Syracuse]] [[bidders' party]], I spent wandering around, looking for [[Leslie Turek|Leslie]], and hoping that she knew more than I did about what we were supposed to be doing to help. The eventual answer was, nothing much. But we did stand for a few hours by the door, attempting to counter Boston's lack of [[pin|buttons]] and propagandistic coasters by greeting people with our smiling faces. [[Pat O'Neil]] got his own party going just after midnight, but the chance to sit down proved fatal to me. Pat had brought [[Juanita Coulson]] and [[Elliot Shorter]] along to join him in folk-singing, but when I realized I was missing occasional verses, in half-hour chunks, I decided to give up and do the rest of my sleeping in my own room.