He tended to think that if somebody was attacking him, it served no public purpose to respond in kind. Privately, I heard my share of opinions…
On one of our many flights together, there was a family of four or five kids right behind us. The littler children spent the entire flight kicking the back of our seats. At one point, Bill did turn around and ask the mother to restrain the child. When that failed, he simply sat and took it…until I turned to him and said, “You know, there’s a reason they invented laudunum…” To which he replied, “And BBQ sauce…” We spent the rest of the flight debating the relative merits of those two cures, and it eventually devolved into an old Miller Light commercial. (Tastes great! Less filling! became Laudunum! BBQ Sauce!). The mention of one or the other never failed to bust him up whenever we were confronted with unacceptable behavior.
I remember the Pop Culture conference in San Antonio, especially the restaurant where he discovered the chicken-fried steak and the berry cobbler. It was so good, we all went back a second night! We had such a great time sharing meals and talking about Heinlein, life, the universe, and everything! And he was in his element at the Centennial, running from panel to panel.
I’ll never forget him missing Toronto worldcon (2003) because it never occurred to him to check if he’d need a passport to get into Canada (or more accurately, to get back into the US). He needed a keeper sometimes (said one of his informal keepers, of which there were several over the years).
Yeah, he was plenty furious about that one, because that had never been necessary before 9/11
One of his favorite rants was about the uselessness of the security theater we erected after 9/11
Yes, like how to this day public schools are miniature police state models, which only started after 9-11, and to this day the socialist thugs running them will say “well, yes, but since 9-11 things have changed”, when there is ZERO actual relationship in any sane way. No terrorist has even vaguely considered some attack that forcing children to walk quietly in lines without touching or locking all doors and making you buzz in will prevent.
Or stopping fracking for natural gas.
D’oh, best example of all.
Those weren’t rants I heard from Bill
Heehee. What’s a Heinleiner without his personalized list of rants?
The death of the service industry in America, on the other hand…that was the one I heard the most.
I usually give that one as “the death of competence” in general.
Bill was a dedicated lover of classical music, which made the following all the more surprising when I swung by to get him one morning. This was his song to get ready in the morning by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtsGDkB6ESM
FTR: high schools became police states first in the mid 70s, with forced busing…. and probably even back into the 60s, for the first roung of integration ..
As one who went to high school in the early 70s and started teaching in them in the 80s, and pulled her kids out of them in the oughts, no. The 60s and 70s were pretty free. We got rid of dress codes, we had a say in what we were taught, we had electives as well as mandatory classes, we could leave the campus for lunch, we could come in late if we had first period study hall and leave early if we had last period study hall. I know most of my teachers treated me as if I had half a brain and would grow into being a human any minute now.
Most of that stuff was true in the late 70’s. Clearwater high school stopped being an open campus in 1980… Admittedly Boston in the 70’s and Alabama in the 60’s were special cases, but I think police state to describe your complaints is a little bit strong.
Actually, at least in California, it’s illegal to deny a child the right to go to the bathroom.
Are we gonna talk about Bill or what? Heinleiners (God – or whoever – love us every one) are the worst in the MultiVerse for getting off-topic. Let’s talk about Bill.
Man, did he love food! Crab cakes and lobster ettouffe were particular favorites.
Actually, he was a working chef at one point in his life.
It was obvious Bill loved food. He was a man after my own heart with crab cakes and lobster.
He used to love to talk about going blackberrying as a boy in Missouri — the Huck Finn aspects of his childhood.
There was a Chinese place near his work where we used to go to have lunch — popcorn lobster salad.
That’s awesome! Last summer, I spent an entire day in Butler, absorbing the “feeling” of Heinlein’s early youth. I would have loved to have listened in on that conversation with Bill.
He also loved chicken nuggets at Chic-Filet — said it was the only place that did it right.
Thank you, Geo! I can’t say I agree with Bill’s opinion of the flavor of Chc Filet – but I realize my opinion is in the minority. Let’s keep it coming and on topic, folks.
That pick above is at a Bubba Gump’s in Denver (with Herb Gilliland and Deb Houdek Rule that meal). Bill the epicure ordered the “Bucket of Boat Trash”.
When he was doing the research, his utter joy at finding and sharing new information was the most infectiously happy thing about him. I still recall when he found the contract between Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard to rewrite For Us, the Living. Also, there’s supposed to be a full letter from Cat Sang in the 2nd volume, where she describes at great length the conversation she had with Heinlein about why he and Leslyn broke up.
Those Bubba Gump pics are some of the happiest of Bill I’ve ever seen – with the exception of him and his sister in the parade. Does anyone have those?
I know and love all those guys, including David Silver (God rest his soul). Look how young Bill looked!
Bill has his priorities straight! I have a bunch of Heinlein stuff that I purchased from Charlie Brown before his death.
Bill rockin’ the ‘stache at 2005 NASFIC, and giving the paparazzi the evil eye for interrupting supper:
OMG, I LOVE the expression on Bill’s face! Keep it coming.
Let’s talk about Bill, folks. You (collectively) know much more than I do, and I want to hear it all.
Ahh, could be, Robert. I’ve never met Davidoff in person, but I have corresponded with him (not recently, however) enough that I would have googled him and might have a “vaguely familiar” reaction to a pic of him.
He was the director of academic programming at that world con in Boston.
Monday, April 28 at 2:58pm
Geo, who’s the seated agent in the pix from UCSC that you and Deb are in?
Robert, thanks for starting this, and Jack Kelly, thanks for bringing it back to point – for those of us who only had minimal contact with Bill but greatly admire his work, it’s very special to get a feel for him from your memories.
And that’s Beatrice‘s dad with Bill and Amy.
Bill would always elevate any conversation to a stimulating intellectual level. You could ask him if he wanted to go for pizza and get a lecture on the chemical response of cheese to broiling.
What were Bill’s jobs/careers (prior to Heinlein Scholar-dom)? Also, have there been any obits published that might have that info–no need to repeat when a link may do. Enjoying this thread.
I got to sit in Robert’s desk chair when I was at UCSC.
His main job for years has been as a legal assistant. I do know he worked as a chef at one point.
Ah, these pictures are reminding me that I did meet Bill, more than once. Certainly at Noreascon 4. And was that when he publicly revealed Elinor’s identity?
It seems to me I recall him saying he’d worked in Melvin Belli’s office in San Francisco for years. And if you don’t know who that is, well, he was quite a character himself.
Supposedly, some years ago, he was working on an AI (artificial intelligence) project, that was intended to be a commercial project, not just a scholarly/academic one. Dunno what happened to that.
During The Great Silver-Patterson Wars of 2004-2005, Bill once threatened to sue Deb and I. Ah yes, those were fun times. It passed.
I had thought Melvin Belli was on Batman, but it was “Star Trek”. Before my time anyway so I get a pass.
Yeah, Star Trek. The evil angel leading the children. . .
Yes, he worked for Belli. The AI project was ongoing with Andy Thornton.
Facebook does not do permanence well. We should see about putting these reminscences somewhere more persistent.
Transplant it into an Event? The Bill Patterson Memory Memorial?
2 Responses
I knew Bill for 40 years (!), first meeting him in 1974 as part of Phoenix SF “Phandom.”
He made the perfect cup of coffee. *Perfect.* He was an incredible cook. This might not have anything to do with Heinlein scholarship but I tell you three times: a Patterson-prepared meal was a treat.
He used to smoke. He stopped in late 1975.
He was in the hospital with pneumonia from his smoking. I went to visit him one day in that fall of 1975 with a copy of a “newszine” of the time; an SF fan magazine devoted to reporting the news of what was happening throughout science fiction fandom. It was a newzine named “Karass”published by Linda Bushayger. At that time we in Phoenix were bidding to be allowed to hold the 1978 “Westercon,” a convention help once a year somewhere in the West. Linda had gotten it wrong and written that we were bidding for the WorldCon for 1978; this is the annual World Science Fiction Convention. This year’s, number 75, is being held in London. The 1978 WorldCon would be the 36th. I showed Bill the zine, pointing out the error, and both of us laughed at how Linda had gotten it wrong and how silly that was.
There was a beat of time.
We both looked at each other and said, ah, what the hell, let’s do it.
And we did. And we won the bid, in 1976, at MidAmeriCon, where Heinlein was the Guest of Honor. And we organized and held the 36thAnnual World Science Fiction Convention, IguanaCon II, in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1978. And it was a success.
Bill had the excuse of nicotine withdrawal to explain things. Me? I’ve no excuse whatsoever.
The Heinlein Centennial was his way of getting even with me.
Ghod how I miss him.
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