PgHLANGE

A convention held in the Pittsburgh, PA area from 1969 to 1979. It was sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania SF Association.

The name is pronounced "flange" which was a regional catch-all slang term meaning something like "thingie". (Suzle Tompkins, one of the founders who shared an apartment with other founders sometimes made a dish she called "Tuna flangy" which was tuna plus whatever else they had in the refrigerator.) While they were planning the first Pghlange, they did not yet have a name and called it "the flange" or "the thingie" -- eventually, having given up on finding a really great name, someone suggested Pghlange and it stuck. The "Pgh" at the beginning is an abbreviation for "Pittsburgh."

(Linda Bushyager denies the rumor that it mean "Pittsburgh Lange". Anyway, the "e" is silent.)

(Another local word meaning the same thing as "flange" was "hitchie" -- just as well they picked Pghlange! Would anyone have gone to a Pghitche?)

Convention	Dates	GoHs
PgHLANGE 1	June 6-8, 1969	Robert Silverberg
PgHLANGE 2	1970	Harlan Ellison
PgHLANGE 3	1971	Lester del Rey
PgHLANGE 4	1972	Andy Offutt
PgHLANGE VI	September 27-29, 1974	Joanna Russ
PgHLANGE 7	September 26-28, 1975	L. Sprague de Camp
PgHLANGE VIII	September 24-26, 1976	Joe Haldeman
PgHLANGE IX	September 30-October 2, 1977	Ginjer Buchanan, Linda Bushyager, Suzle Tompkins
PgHLANGE X	September 29-October 1, 1978	Rick Sternbach, Phil Foglio
PgHLANGE XI	September 28-30, 1979	Gene Wolfe

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Convention
	1969—1979

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