[meteorite-list] Newbie Tucson report, part 2 of ?

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:21 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86904EE59A5_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi List,

Continuing my report from yesterday, it's Friday night at La Fuente,
and the back room is packed with a Who's Who of meteorite hunters,
collectors, dealers and writers. If a bolide had chosen that moment
to impact 1749 North Oracle, the damage to the private meteorite
collecting world would have been inestimable!

My first order of business was to track down Geoff Notkin, which took
about 15 seconds. I've been a great fan of Geoff's from afar, as we
share a lot of interests aside from meteorites, and have similar
senses of humo(u)r. (It is no exaggeration to say that one of my
main reasons for going to Tucson this year was to finally meet him
in the flesh.) I only wish we had had more time to shoot the shinola.
Geoff: if you're ever in southern California, you're welcome at my
"flat".

I met so many people for the first time at La Fuente, that's it's
hard to know where to begin. Jim Kreigh (Mr. Gold Basin) has long
been a hero and inspiration to me, so it was an honor to shake his
hand and introduce myself. Speaking of Gold Basin, I looked for
Larry and Twink, and still don't know how I missed them. ??? I'm
sure they were at the party, so it's a mystery to me. Guess I'll
have to meet them "in the field" instead.

Richard and Dorothy Norton were naturally very high on my "must
meet" list, and a more friendly couple you'd be hard-pressed to
find. At one point I joked to Dorothy that her husband reminded
me of Hugh Hefner, and she replied that I wasn't the first to
notice the resemblance. All he needed was a silk robe, slippers
and a pipe. ;-)

I don't feel like I sat much at dinner, as I was always up and
about saying hello to someone, but I believe my dinner table
partners were all west coast timezone and beyond. Tracy Latimer
sat across from me, and among other things we discussed strategies
for meteorite hunting in her island state. (I had thought that
the Hawaiian islands were too young to have much hope of finding
meteorites, but evidently many of the craters have been dormant
for thousands of years -- plenty of time!) Our very own Art
Jones was a couple seats down -- my personal good luck charm.
Last time Art and I got together was meteorite hunting in Nevada,
where I made a small, but nicely oriented meteorite find. As
hard as it was for me to decide to cut this little guy, I'm very
glad that I did. I broke the news to Art that it turned out to
be my first (and to date only) meteorite find that isn't an
ordinary chondrite.

Also at my table were old friends Peter and his son Jason Utas,
and Nick Gessler. Terrific meteorite hunters all of them. Dr.
Nick and I first met by accident 4 1/2 years ago on Lucerne Dry
Lake; he was the first meteorite hunter I ever met, and to this
day is still one of the most successful. Peter and Jason are
relative newcomers, but have quickly become movers and shakers,
both as hunters and collectors. Many of you may recall that
Jason was the surprise bidder on the gigantic Taza main mass
at Michael Blood's auction in Tucson 2003. Perhaps no one was
more surprised than Michael, immortalized by his question "Is
that a serious bid?!" Well, the duo reprised their performance
this year at a different venue, acquiring another impressive
specimen too large to return with them on the plane. Jason has
an early start on everyone as a very successful meteorite hunter,
and in time could prove to be the greatest meteorite hunter ever.
Remember his name...

Well, back to the Birthday Bash. You've all seen the pictures
by now of Steve Arnold (IMB), resplendent (perhaps to the point
of irreverence <grin>) in full Native American headdress. The
moustache and goatee were a bit out of place, but otherwise
Steve would make a great Chief Hassayampa. I still need to
download the images from my camera, but once I have perhaps
someone would like to host them. I know there's a good one of
Steve in there. And speaking of Steves, contrary to Steve
Arnold of Chicago's report of disappointment that we didn't
meet, we did actually! Shook your hand at La Fuente, big guy!
The room was pretty crazy at the time, and I'm now recalling
that you wrote something weeks ago about being deaf in one
ear -- could well be that I introduced myself from the wrong
side of you, and you didn't catch my name. My apologies.

About the same time I was up at the front at Steve's table,
I briefly said hi to Mark Bostick, who as you've all heard was
not feeling at all well. He was as white as a sheet, and it
was only later that I learned that it wasn't due to margaritas
or oatmeal cookies. Glad to hear you're feeling better, Mark.
You looked much improved at Blood's auction Saturday night.

It was a pleasure to meet Anne Black -- probably one of the
few people who drove further than I did to come to Tucson.
Love that accent, and as others have already mentioned Anne
comes in very handy when it comes to pronouncing meteorites
like L'Aigle, D'Orbigny, Chassigny and Orgueil. I only wish
I had remembered to bring my copy of Meteorites A-Z to Blood's
auction on Saturday so I could have you (and Mike and Bill)
sign it. Next time -- Denver in the fall perhaps? I also owe
you some info on Bluewing Flat.

Other people I chatted with over the course of the evening included
John Divelbiss, Mike Farmer, the Hupes and friend Zann, Eric Olsen,
David Weir (thanks for introducing yourself David!), Howard Wu,
Kim Cathcart and Gregory Wilson. While I haven't mentioned Bob
Holmes or John Gwilliam much, it isn't for lack of time spent
clowning around with these two characters. It's good you guys
don't live too close -- we'd get into way too much trouble!

I'll leave it to others to report on the Harvey Awards and
other festivities that occurred at La Fuente, but suffice to
say that there were a lot of laughs, and a thorough photographic
record from dozens of cameras, so some fun pictures should
start to turn up soon.

To be continued in part 3... --Rob
Received on Wed 11 Feb 2004 04:35:18 PM PST