P3D Thanks Bill and Harry

[Tom Deering <tmd@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Seeing the photo of my workshop in Stereo World reminds me that I 
should publicly thank a couple of people who made my presentations 
possible.  Here's the vaguely interesting story:

A few days before the Green Bay NSA, a small section of Manhattan 
completely blacked out.  No juice whatsoever.  This was a big deal in 
the record heat of July, and people were sleeping on the sidewalks to 
escape the heat.  Very eerie. And my office was in the center of the 
dead zone.

In the basement was the video projector, which I required for both of 
my NSA presentations.  No projector, no show.  Guards would allow no 
one to enter the building.  When I explained to the ten maintenance 
men standing around that I just needed to slip into the basement for 
my equipment, one idiot said, "common sense would tell you that the 
building is unsafe."  I responded, "Common sense would tell you that 
I don't need an elevator to get to the basement, and I know how to 
use a flashlight."  My charm didn't work.

Later a security captain said he would try to sneak me in at 5pm, 
when the power would partially return.  With no (electric) subways 
running, the usual 45 minute trip home took three hours.  I walked 40 
blocks in the 100 degree heat.  I made the return trip at 5pm, and I 
was secretly admitted to the still-dark building through the back 
door.  But after an hour, three guards, and three rings of keys, the 
door would not open.  After waiting all day to get my projector, I 
left empty-handed.

We seriously considered _not_ going.  I spent every free minute of 
the past three months on those slides, and I would not be able to 
show them.  Dejected, I drove over 1000 miles to get to the 
convention, with several hundred pounds of equipment, but no 
projector.

When I explained the situation to the workshop coordinator Bill Moll, 
he jumped right on it.  He involved convention chairman Harry 
Richards, who eventually got the Fisher-Price people to rent one.  It 
would be available for my workshops, then moved to the banquet for 
the View-master keynote presentation.  Things went off without a 
hitch.

Without the creative thinking and quick work of Bill Moll and Harry 
Richards, my presentations would have both been ruined.  There would 
be no way to show the dozens of slides I had prepared on my laptop, 
hundreds of hours of work.  I will always be grateful to these two 
men for saving my bacon.

Tom Deering

P.S.  And I'd like to thank Greg Dinkins for sending me a xerox 
copies of the Stereo World article.  Greg spends tons of time running 
the New York Stereoscopic Society, and he's a nice guy.
--
Y2K warning:  The Y2K "bug" has been a hoax from the start, but the 
only people who can expose the lie are the programmers who stand to 
profit from it.

Ignore the hype.  Don't hoard food, leave your money in the bank, and 
put the gun back in the attic. The big story on January 1 will be 
that nothing happened.