MY TERM 
Winfred P. Lehmann 
Department of Linguistics 
The University of Texas 
Austin, Texas 78712 
My term came at the time of the New York 
World Fair. The Association, still of MT as well 
as CL, was trying to crash the club that shared 
profits from the annual meetings of AFIFS. These 
were producing something over $20,000, a sum which 
in those days would do more than pay a fraction of 
one's annual overhead on an NSF grant. ACM of 
course was grabbing the bulk of this, but ÁEEE 
wasn't doing badly, to Judge by the magnificence 
of its Journal. I attended the powwows of the 
powers national and international. In spite of 
our run-down heels, they treated me courteously. 
Among other actlvltfes we Journeyed out for a 
preview of the World Fair exhibits. 
IBM's massive show, with a que~tlon-answer 
demonstration as its highlight, didn't absorb all 
that much attention from a group, all of whom may 
have shaken the hand of Seymour Czay and pondered 
at his hilltop. Convention memories fade aftez so 
long a time. I remember best a conversation from 
a representative from Japan. He expressed great 
wonder at all things and beings American. The 
head of our computation center was a tall tennis- 
buff. When I gave my new friend the name his 
response was: "Oh the great ...?" I still haven't 
reconciled the possible interpretations on his use 
of the adjective. 
A couple of the more prominent members of the 
hardware crowd offered me a ride back to town 
after our group had paid its respects to a few 
more pavilions of the Fair. When we located their 
car it turned out to be an old four-door Buick, 
barely hanging together. The back seat was 
clogged with computer parts, an overflow from the 
trunk; I made a bit of zoom for myself among the 
pirated splendors and llstened to the hopeful 
chatter on the wonders of the new wo~id, hoping 
both the Buick and the absorbed drlvez would 
preserve me for it. 
Thanks to a successful outcome of the zlde no 
doubt, I received issues of the elegant IEEE 
Journal for a few years. The Association did get 
a cut out of the AFIPS pot, as I recall, but since 
it was distributed i~ accordance with membership, 
our 600 didn't stack up too well against the 
20,000 of ACM. 
The rest of my year was more routine. 
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