The Kansas City Worldcon is fast receding in the rearview mirror, but one more backward-looking post is called for before we let it all go, I think, especially because it concerns not only 2016—but 1992. As I was packing last month for MidAmeriCon II, where Pat Cadigan was scheduled to be our Hugo Awards ceremony Toastmaster, I remembered an artifact from long ago and far away which I thought would amuse her.

Luckily, I was able to find it deep within the Edelman Vault, and so some of you on site might have seen me wearing this.

What’s it all about? Why was Pat a Woman of Destiny at MagicCon, the 1992 Worldcon? What was ClariNet? What was the Library of Tomorrow? And why was there a button about all that? Ah, come closer, padawan, and I shall tell you …

To make a long story short, back in 1989, Brad Templeton (who would go on to become Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2000 through 2010), founded an electronic news publishing company called ClariNet. In 1992, he also launched the Library of Tomorrow, a buffet-style, all-you-can-read fiction site which would cost users $5.00 per month. And to promote that at MagicCon, the 50th World Science Fiction Convention (in Orlando, Florida), he threw parties which included a make-your-own button machine as part of the fun.

(To make a short story longer, click on any of the links in the paragraph above,)

By the time the convention was over, I’d printed three different buttons tied to the weekend’s events and catchphrases.

I’d forgotten exactly why I’d made that first button, which gave a shout-out to Pat, all those years ago until she saw me wearing it in Kansas City, laughed, and refreshed my memory.

It turns out that one of the jokes of the con was that people were mocking the figure of speech some use to indicate they’re on a first-name basis with the famous. Something like:

“I was having breakfast with Bob … ” — and then they’d lean in conspiratorially and add — ” … you know, Silverberg … ”

And someone thought that after saying “Pat,” one should do more than merely add, “you know, Cadigan” … and she became PAT CADIGAN, WOMAN OF DESTINY!

I have no idea how many others printed similar buttons that year, but there were a number of us.

The next two buttons were based on things which occurred during the MagicCon Hugo Awards ceremony.

The first of those was born out of something said by Nancy Kress as she accepted her Best Novella award for “Beggars in Spain.” She harkened back to something said by George R. R. Martin (if I’m remembering correctly) the night he won two Hugos in 1980, for “Sandkings” and “The Way of Cross and Dragon.” She’d been sitting in the back row that earlier night, was encouraged to keep at it by whatever it was he said in his speech, and wanted those of us in a similar situation to do the same.

And so some of us wore the following button to say we’d heard her.

As for the last of the three buttons, I’m afraid it will have to be up to someone with a better memory for fannish history to fill in the blanks. This phrase—

—was printed either because there had been an unusually long wait for one of the envelopes to be opened and the winner revealed, or because there was some kind of mix-up and the wrong winner was announced. I’m hoping someone with a longer memory than mine will jump in with the answer.

If you own a similar piece of MagiCon memorabilia—especially a button printed with a completely different phrase—let me know!