Written by J. Furr Extracted from the alt.fan.lemurs FAQ Part 7 (18) What was Lemurcon '94? Lemurcon '94 was the first big alt.fan.lemurs gathering, once again being held in Durham, North Carolina. Its success had a lot to do with the fact that, for the first time, someone from the newsgroup was actually IN DURHAM and there- fore could coordinate events with the Duke University Primate Center, set up a hotel, get the barbecue stuff, and so forth without having to do a lot of long distance calls. Lemurcon '94 took place on a scorcher of a day, Saturday, July 9, 1994. Quite a few of the out-of-towners had met the night before for dinner at Ole NC Barbecue in north Durham. The day's program consisted of a lengthy tour of the Primate Center guided by Scientific Director and internationally known paleontologist and primatologist, Dr. Elwyn Simons... including a lengthy foray to visit with the black and white ruffed lemurs and ringtailed lemurs in one of the large Natural Habitat Enclosures and a very up close and personal nuzzling by Canopus the black and white ruffed lemur, and a lecture on the history of the Prehistoric Sloth Lemur. The people who'd adopted lemurs were taken off into the depths of the woods to find their adopted animals while others went off to tour the Nocturnal Building, and Joel Furr and David Witzel singed all the hair off their hands cooking hamburgers. During lunch, the adopters returned and ate and then did the Nocturnal Building thang while others spent a lot of money in the DUPC gift shop. After 4 pm arrived, some people went home and others went to their hotel rooms to shower and change for dinner, which was held at the Olive Garden restaurant in south Durham. Memorable moments included: * Canopus nuzzling all of us, apparently out of affection but actually looking for food * Chiggers, chiggers, chiggers! * Finding the slimy thing in the box of Twinkies * Rollande Krandall playing her ocarina to a troop of ringtails while they mewed in time to the music * Joel Furr's look of absolute dejection when he didn't make it onto the evening news (Paula Filseth did instead) * Trying to explain "USENET" to a reporter from the Durham Herald-Sun, who, despite spending all day looking at Joel Furr's nametag, still managed to refer to him as "Jeff Furr" in the next day's paper. * Dr. Simons imitating the calls of prehistoric Sloth Lemurs in the crowded Fossil Lab * Explaining the concept of North Carolina barbecue to Tom Esch * Punch-drunk, exhausted, hysterical laughter at the Olive Garden * "Yeeeeeow" as David Witzel and Joel Furr burned themselves yet again * Learning first-hand about the precise aim and remarkable distance the average lemur can achieve with a stream of urine It was a long, exhausting day, but virtually everyone seemed to have a good time and clamored for Lemurcon '95 to be held next year. 'Con participants were: Paul and Paula Filseth (San Jose, CA), David and Kira Smith (Tampa, FL), Chris Brann (Atlanta, GA), Mary Ann Neel (Lafayette, IN), Vance Kochenderfer (Havre de Grace, MD), Dolly Paul and Rollande Krandall (Dearborn, MI), Joao de Souza and Maria Drago (New York City or thereabouts), John, Margret, and Liz Rylko (Tulsa, OK), Lisa Ruthig and Tom Esch (Landsdowne, PA), Dave Sisson and Todd Perry (Blacksburg, Virginia), and a whole slew of North Carolinians: KG Anderson, Richard Barnette, Lara Benton, Amy Conklin, Beth Davis, Joel Furr, Judy Gehrig, Steve Gehrig, Judah Greenblatt, Brian Little, Andrea Raddock, Lorrie Tomek, Alyson Wilson, Greg Wilson, David Witzel, and Doreen Yen.