User:Orangemike

I am Michael James Lowrey, called "Orange Mike" because I like the color a lot and tend to wear at least one or two items of that color on most days which are not Saint Patrick's Day.

I am a Wikipedia administrator, with a tendency to spend a fair amount of time on new-page patrol and general clean-up. I have no tolerance for people who commit marketing (spamming, public relations, spindoctoring, pimping, advertising, shilling, huckstering: call it what you will) within the confines of Wikipedia. You may practice your trade elsewhere, if it is lawful there; but do not attempt to do so in Wikipedia.

I was born in 1953 in Jackson, Tennessee. In 1977, disgusted by the corruption and stupidity of Southern politics, I moved to Milwaukee . I am a free-lance writer (book reviews, muckraking, and whatever suits me); I've been a member of the National Writers Union since 1985. I have worked part-time or full for Renaissance Books]] in Milwaukee, formerly one of the largest used-book stores in North America (which doesn't have a website, alas!) since 1978. For most of the time since 1984, I have also worked for one agency or another of the State of Wisconsin, and been represented by (and active in) AFSCME Wisconsin Council 32. I am a graduate magna cum laude of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a B.A. in History. (I have also attended Jackson State Community College, Tennessee State University (a historically black university, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and the University of Chicago.)

Science fiction fandom, which I discovered in the 1970s, is my primary social outlet. I was a member of the unofficial science fiction club and the SCA at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s, then when I left Chicago I joined the N3F, of which I've been a member on and off since 1975. My first SF convention was the 1975 Midwestcon; my first Worldcon was MidAmeriCon. My wife Cicatrice du Veritas and I were married at X-Con 5 in Milwaukee in 1981. I have been Fan Guest of Honor at a couple of science fiction conventions.

I am the 2020 North America-Europe delegate for the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, and was set for a Spring 2020 visit scheduled to include Sweden (the Swecon), Finland, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom (Eastercon). Due to COVID-19, that trip has been postponed to a point indefinite, possibly as late as 2022! I appear in the feature-length film Finding the Future: A Science Fiction Conversation, and our child Kelly appears in the "Bonus" section of the DVD thereof. My belovéd wife Cicatrice and I were briefly interviewed on the BBC World Service programme Outlook; the broadcast may be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017cq6l with us nearer the end than the beginning, discussing our 1971 wedding at an SF convention.

For those of you interested in the Society for Creative Anachronism, in such circles I am y-clept Lord Inali of Tanasi, GDH. I was on an episode of the game show Win Ben Stein's Money. I won $2,000, and am told that I acquitted myself well enough. Ben accused me of resembling "Z.Z. Top on acid" but said I had a good singing voice!

I have occasionally been told that I "look Jewish". I will quote the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, "I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people."