1.37

1.37 seems to be something of a (very minor) magic number in fandom. While its origin is not completely clear, one major outbreak of 1.37ness is well-documented.

In response to an earlier version of the article below, Chip Hitchcock reports that “1.37” was a common in-joke/notion in fandom since the mid-70s and cites Guy Harris's apazine in Apaloosa, named after the Fine Structure Constant, which is approximately 1/137.

SCIFI, George Flynn and 1.37

George Flynn had a widely-respected reputation in fandom for taking a careful analytical look at things most smofs just guessed at: convention growth, convention demographics, budgets, sizes of fandoms, voting patters, etc.

At Chicon IV in 1982 there was an issue of the hoax newsletter (reportedly edited by Mike Glyer, among others) which repeatedly quoted George Flynn (a NESFA member who had a fannish reputation of keeping accurate track of things numerical -- voting numbers, attendance numbers and the like -- and reporting on trends) as commenting on any number they m/a/d/e/ u/p/ reported. For example, if the hoax newsletter reported that the Chicon IV Board of Directors had paid for 27 dinner meetings for itself, they'd then make up a quote from George that this was 1.37 times greater than any previous Board's expenditure. And so on -- everything was 1.37 times greater or smaller.

A few years later, when SCIFI made a temporary loan of $20,000 to the NESFA Lunar Realty Trust #1, it made it in the form of 100 checks for $137 -- each delivered by a different route (by hand at conventions, by mail, etc.) and one check for the balance.

This jest was repeated during the Connie Bailout when the SCIFI donation consisted of 100 checks for $13.70 plus a single check for the remaining balance.

---

Publication

1982

This is a publication page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was published, how many issues it has had, (including adding a partial or complete checklist), its contents (including perhaps a ToC listing), its size and repro method, regular columnists, its impact on fandom, or by adding scans or links to scans. See Standards for Publications.