Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, September 14, 1966. Intended for Apa L, One Hundredth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1518, Sept. 15, 1966. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

Anybody who expects me to dash off a full-scale TriCon report by tonight is being a bit more than exceedingly optimistic. In fact, I'll be rather surprised if anybody does a full-scale report for Apa L; I expect to see them all in larger fanzines. However, there will doubtlessly be a large number of sketches, and I'd be interested in seeing what various people considered as their individual most memorable events. Some of mine include:

Getting two Freas covers at the auctions.
Being present when the copies of Ron's Doc Smith index arrived, the day after the Convention ended.
Being infested with chipmunks in Utah, and raccoons in Indiana.
Judging the Costume Ball.
Being present at almost any activity with which Harlan Ellison was involved.
Watching Sprague de Camp light up when I handed him a stack of those Mexican Conan comic books.
Meeting Tom Schlück, and having a week of his company while returning to L.A.
Seeing Gene Roddenberry and "Star Trek" become the surprise stars of the Con.
Visiting Barbi Johnson and her husband.

These weren't the only things about the Con or the trip that I enjoyed, of course, but I think they'll always identify "TriCon" to me. As to the rest -- the parties, the banquet and "Hugo" awards, some of the trip experiences, many of the people I've met -- over the years, they tend to blend together in my mind, and they'll probably join all the other delightful memories I've got of events at past World- and WesterCons (but which event happened at which con, I couldn't say).

Going back over the projected itinerary of our trip, as I guessed at in RR #98, things weren't too much different from our plans. The most important change was that Luise Petti wasn't able to accompany us, dropping out at the last minute due to illness. Our route was more or less as planned, except that from Salt Lake City, we continued North to Wyoming, then drove directly East through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana to the Con, not getting to Chicago at all. At the time that issue of RR came out, we were all at the first of several excellently wild and crowded parties at the con; the rump LASFS Meeting that Bruce called to order at 11:00 p.m. (local Cleveland time) lasted about 3 minutes, then we all went back to partying. Coming back, we lost Fred Hollander to the Pelzes, and gained Tom Schlück, to our advantage. (No offense, Flieg, but we can see you anytime.) We didn't spend any great time in Hannibal, Mo., and unfortunately the Trimbles weren't able to accompany the rest of us up to the Grand Canyon, due to having to ferry a sick Volkswagen that wouldn't make the climb. (The rest of us enjoyed the Canyon very much, even if we did get rained upon at 3:00 a.m.) On the whole, though, the trip was quite successful; t he sort of thing that has left us all exhausted at the moment, but that we'll have fun remembering after another couple of months. Next year, I think I may fly to New York, then rent a car there and spend the part of my vacation not at the Con in driving leisurely around New England and Southern Canada, taking in the World's Fair in Montreal. However, it's too early to plan yet, really.

As of right now, it looks as though I definitely will be moving within the next month, and 1825 Greenfield Avenue will become a dead address to fandom. Jerry is moving to San Francisco this weekend, and I have no prospects of replacing him with another roommate to share the $140-a-month rent, which I don't feel I can afford by myself. Moving into the Labyrinth or the Booby Hatch doesn't appeal to me very much; I don't like either building very much, and frankly, I wouldn't care to become a part of such a fannish social center as both of them are. I'll probably get an apartment closer in to USC than I'm currently located, hopefully somewhere between the price range of this neighborhood and the rather run-down atmosphere of the Booby Hatch area. Actually, wherever I move will just about have to be as large as Greenfield, to accommodate my s-f collection and the LASFS Rex (I definitely want to keep that with me, if at all possible), so I'll have to come to some sort of decision as to whether I'm more interested in saving money, getting a smaller home, and having my collection packed away where I can't get at it, or in possibly spending more money than I should just for enough room for all my bookcases. Again, I'll just have to see how it works out. The rest of this weekend will be spent in attending the various events planned for Tom Schlück (Disneyland on Friday, a party at the Trimbles' on Saturday), but following that, I'll probably have to give up several other plans for outings to the Pomona Fair, to Gilbert & Sullivan, etc., and start househunting -- the rent here at Greenfield runs out on October 15th, if I don't renew. If any of you know of anything that you think might be in my line -- reasonably close to USC, fairly large, a nice neighborhood, and hopefully not much over $100 a month (ha, ha!) -- I'd appreciate it very much if you'll let me know about it.

As for Gilbert & Sullivan, the local Savoy-Artes have just sent out their first newsletter for this season. The three operettas that they'll perform this year are "The Mikado", "The Gondoliers", and "The Sorcerer". First on the list is "The Mikado", with performances on Sept 30, Oct. 1, 7, and 8; at 8:30 p.m. at the Robert Lee Frost Auditorium at 4401 Elenda Street, Culver City. From the cast lineup, it looks like it should be a very good performance; the company has apparently dropped several of the bombs of their previous performances (including Miss Stone Face, who played Zara in "Utopia, Ltd." and Ida in "Princess Ida"), and the new lineup includes such performers as Joe Kaye as the Mikado, and both Len and I will vouch for him -- and you know what a G&S perfectionist Len is. I'm agreeable to a Theatre Party, if I can work one in while househunting; is anyone else interested? (Tickets are $2.50, incidentally.)

-- BEING COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK'S DISTRIBUTION

Thanks, Don, for taking such good care of Apa L while I was gone. In fact, you took such good care of it that I'm tempted to turn the post of OC over to you permanently so that we can continue getting such beautiful Tables of Contents. I am looking forward to getting back into the routine, though.

Dave Van Arnam -- As the happy possessor of a copy of THE READER'S GUIDE TO BARSOOM AND AMTOR, I would very much like to obtain your proposed complete Burroughs index. You can definitely put me down for a copy. Who is this other indexer, by the way? ## How's The Black Magician doing?

June Konigsberg -- I enjoyed the bagpipe-and-drum corps. I enjoyed the music, I should say; unfortunately we had to take the Legionnaires along with it. I like bagpipe music very much (the music, not the tuning up), and I also like looking at spectacular costumes -- and some of those kilted uniforms were quite nice. Out of uniform, though, and not playing the pipes, the Canadians caused a bit too much static with our group for real comfort. I will be very happy if the New York crew can live up to its promise of no other conventions in the hotel while we're there. We'll always have Andy Porter and his tape recorder for any bagpipe music we might need. ## Golly, have you got The Magical Land of Noom, too? Bill Blackbeard's the only other fan that I know of who'd ever heard of it. I've always thought that more fans should be aware of this rousing adventure of mystery and interspatial magic ("It was in the year 339,700 that I talked to the Queer Horse and the Strange Man put me in the jar!"). Do you know if there were ever any sequels? Gruelle never did clear up the matter of how or why King David had been transformed into the wicked sorcerer. I came across my copy of Noom in an old run-down used book store several years ago, and that's all I know about it; if you know anything about any companion volumes, I'd like to know about them.

Tom Digby -- A Batman-U.N.C.L.E. teamup is a wild thing to contemplate. There was something to that effect in one of those collections of cute kid letters to Batman: "Dear Batman, How come you don't use a machine gun or rifle or hand grenade or tear gas? If you ever came up against a real tough criminal like Dillinger you would be out of luck with the kid stuff you use now." ## Your story idea of a revived corpse that can only live while a chant is being played on a record, reminds me of the old stories about ancient gods that could only live as long as they had worshippers, and their efforts to keep True Believers despite the spread of Christianity. And, contrariwise, remember Fredric Brown's Tibetan prayer wheels that had to be kept whirling to keep the Devil from claiming Earth?

Jack Harness -- I hope your post-graduate Scientological work will teach you how to spell, or at least to corflu out your typing mistakes and correct them.

Sally Crayne -- Yes, that's about the way we traveled cross-country; camping in state or county parks at night, and eating lunch in city parks. My favorite areas of the country are in the Rockies, particularly Utah and Western Colorado (despite the poor condition of the roads there). East of the Rockies, and particularly East of the Mississippi, it gets a bit too humid, buggy, and lush for my tastes. This is why I'm planning on spending next year's vacation exploring the more Northern area of the East Coast, around New England and Southern Canada, rather than heading South of New York. Incidentally, out in Arizona, the Dinosaur Caverns have metamorphosed into the Grand Canyon Caverns; presumably the Grand Canyon is a more plausible tourist drawer than the dinosaurs.

Chuck Crayne -- Well, of course your stfnal classification system doesn't have to be too involved as to the call number. Since most of your works will be fiction of varying length, it would be just as easy to shelve them alphabetically by author as to divide them by subject -- space opera, time travel, ESP, etc. The only place you have to get involved is in your catalog of subject headings. There's no problem in having 6 or 8 subject headings referring to one work, so that if you're looking for a story having something to do with teleportation booths, you just look in your card file under "Teleportation - Machines", and check those entries, rather than having a section of shelves specifically for teleportation booth stories and then risk having the story shelved under interplanetary stories or far future stories or something else again. This does necessitate a separate entry for each item, but I have yet to be convinced that this is a Bad Thing.

Since it does look as though I'll be moving quite soon, and probably with very little advance notice to the out-of-towners for whom I'm agenting, Bruce has agreed to take on anybody who'd rather play safe and send their material to him, rather than risk crossing a CoA in the mail and possibly missing a Dist'n, until I can become settled again. There's no immediate danger, though, for another couple of weeks at least.