A few people were asking a couple of weeks ago if I am still planning on publishing The Best from APA L: 1967. Since I've already got about a dozen stencils typed for it, not to mention the overruns of our last photocovers and assorted pieces of Dian's artwork on the original stencils, I guess so. I haven't really made a conscious decision one way or the other, yet; it's more a case of my never imagining that I wouldn't be publishing it. I may not reach last year's total of 132 pages of material, but there's certainly enough to flesh out a tidy and solid volume.

There's some good ditto artwork appearing in the Valley Group's zines as fillos, and I hope the artists are saving their masters. Jim Schumacher and Terry Romine; I mean you in particular. Most of Jim's experimental work is quite eye-catching, and Terry's turning out fine work, now that he's abandoned those horribly-drawn comic strips. Terry, if you have the masters with the art that appeared in your zines in the 124th and 125th Dist'ns, I'd like to get them for this year's Best.

Aside from these, and with only a few exceptions, it looks as though this year's Best will be illustrated almost solely by Dian Pelz. I hadn't realized how few fan-artists have been active in Apa L over this last year until I started looking through the Dist'ns from #85 on for material worth reprinting. There's still time -- nine more Dist'ns until this year's cutoff date -- to get more artists represented in Apa L, and I hope we will get representations from more people. That goes for material in general, of course. To make my standard announcement on the subject: if any of you are planning anything special for Apa L that you'd like to see have a chance of getting into The Best, you'd better get started on it now, since the cutoff point, the last Dist'n in May, is growing ever closer. I'd like to see everyone who's been active in Apa L over the past year be represented in The Best with at least one item, though not everyone has written anything worth reprinting yet.

I'd also like to see all your suggestions as to what should go into The Best for this year. Particularly in the field of short pieces, and fillers; there are a lot of items I'm undecided about, and your opinions may help me to make up my mind. What did you particularly enjoy during this past year?

-- BEING COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK'S DISTRIBUTION

Ken Rudolph -- Has Xerox licked the problem of large dark areas yet? The most advanced models I've seen -- and I haven't the slightest idea as to how they compare to the latest improved designs -- can't handle large solid dark areas; all they can pick up are the fringes, blurring toward a white-out at the center. Has total pick-up been achieved yet?

Don Fitch -- I tend to agree with your feelings as to the proper (subjectively speaking) goals of Apa L, though I'm not as concerned as to whether the number of recipients is over 35 or not, as I am as to whether the recipients include everyone who is interested in reading it or not. I don't write "to" Apa L per se; I write to LASFS. The two groups are practically synonymous in terms of readership, of course. If Apa L should stop going to LASFS attendees as a whole, though, and go only to Apa L contributors, it would become a separate sub-group. We've already discussed all of this many times in the past -- the desirability of using Apa L to promote general LASFS intra-communication; using Apa L as a free handout to attendees to hook guests into coming back; and so forth. Dian seems to've used the lower copy requirement only to catch the mule's attention, as she put it; which I have no objection to as a circulation -- and page-count-boosting gimmick. But I would hate to see Apa L commit itself to a firm new policy of allowing Dist'ns only to contributors. I don't think this is likely to happen, though. ## Yes, I'd also like to see the Valley Group other than Dwain and Schu, who I tend to think of primarily as LASFans, since they've both been active contributors to Apa L long before now.) Will we get anything from them worth reprinting in The Best from APAL for this year, I wonder? ## As to color connotations, I recall reading at the time of Viet Nam's independence that in that part of Asia, red is a color associated with good luck, and green is associated with bad luck. Ngo Dinh Diem, who was running the election to see if South Viet Nam should remain an empire under Bao Dai, or become a republic under himself, thoughtfully colored the half of the ballot with his picture red, and the half with Bao's picture green. (He also used a smiling photo of himself and a scowling one of Bao.)

Chuck & Sally Crayne -- That was a very pleasant little gathering, and a tasteful spaghetti dinner, that you hosted last Sunday. It's getting to be about the time of year to start planning LASFS group picnics again, tough. I'm looking forward to the end of the rainy season, so I can start counting on dry weekends once more. Umm, at the gathering, Ted was making some inquiries about LaDera Park, out by Slauson and La Brea; I used to play there often when I was a boy and, assuming it hasn't been re-landscaped in the last 15 years, it'd be an ideal spot for a picnic. When do you think would be a good time for one? (And let's see if we can finally get up a group to tour the Busch Gardens, too.)

Bĵo Trimble -- When I had the 24-hour flu a couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to get it on a Sunday when I hadn't anything else planned. One of the worst consequences of getting sick, to me, is the feeling of frustration over the time you've got to waste being abed instead of being able to do something else you should be doing instead. I was spared that this time, at least.

Bruce Pelz -- The extra $40 a month I might've been making if Reagan hadn't been elected wouldn't have been at USC. A few weeks back, the fellow who had been my immediate boss when I was working at the Law Library, and who's now the head of the Catalog Dept. at San Fernando Valley State College, invited me out to look around and see how I'd like to work there? I would; besides the higher pay, the working conditions are better, the atmosphere is a lot friendlier, and I'd start in with an automatic promotion. Only, Gov. Reagan says no more hiring at state institutions, as you well know. So I figure it's all Dian's fault for voting for him.