I have never lived in a christened house. Most fan residences have names, but the only home of my own I've had before this was 1825 Greenfield Avenue, and Al Lewis was so vehement about not calling that anything that it went unnamed even after he moved out. In fact, some people even referred to it as "the nameless place", but that was never a real title. I'm in a new house now, though, without any previous fannish engrams on it, so I can do what I want with it, and I've decided to pick a name for it. Borrow a name, rather. Since it's on South Flower Street, if Don Simpson doesn't mind, it is now officially the Sour Flower Tower! (No relation to any other Towers in fandom or elsewhere.) And the next time I have any housecleaning to do, I'll ask Don if he'll loan me the Power to Scour the Sour Flower Tower in an Hour, which should come in very handy.

I understand that the term "Sour Flower Tower" may derive from a hippie origin, and I'm about as much a hippie as is Gen. Eisenhower, but I don't mind if they don't mind.

Not everybody knows that there's another convention in the Los Angeles area between the WesterCon and the WorldCon, but there is. This is the West Coast Wizard of Oz Convention, generally called the Winkie OzCon, for all Baum &/or Oz fans. These are held every year on Ozma's birthday, or on the weekend closest to it. You'll find writeups of the previous Winkie OzCons in back issues of RR. They're generally of interest if you like children's fantasy at all, and a lot of fun. There were around ten LASFS members at last year's, and we all enjoyed it very much.

The Winkie OzCons have been getting bigger every year, and last year's had about the maximum number of attendees that can be fit comfortably into one private home. This year's, therefore. will be the first to be held in a public area. The 4th Winkie OzCon will be held in the Auditorium of the Van Nuys - Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park, at 5040 Van Nuys Blvd, in Sherman Oaks -- right by Al Lewis' place. It'll be on Saturday, August 19th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The admission (which usually covers a luncheon) is 43.00, payable to Catherine W. Phillips, 1620 1/2 South Wilton Place, Los Angeles, 90019, preferably by August 5th. According to the notice, this year's OzCon will emphasize Oz crafts, to get away from the bibliophily and historical exhibits that marked the first 3 OzCons. (Also, I suspect the Organizing Committee doesn't want to have to be responsible for valuable rare books and memorabilia brought to a public park.) Home-made games, toys, costumes, and the like will be the order of the day, with some lectures and the usual business. If you were at last year's, I don't have to tell you what these are like. See you there?

Dian Pelz -- Sorry to see you quit as OC, but I can certainly understand how you feel about being cut off from the club. Even when I used to make a point of asking that I be notified when a vote or something of special interest was about to begin, when I was OC, I was often ignored in the back room. I resigned partly for the reason you're resigning, and partly because I no longer wanted to be obligated to have to come to LASFS every week. In fact, now that I'm living way out here in Santa Ana, there's all the more reason for Apa L not to be dependent on me; if I should get sick, or my car should break down suddenly, there's no other LASFS attendee I could get a ride in with or expect to stop by to pick up the Apa L paraphernalia. Actually, the LASFS' new quarters will probably prove very advantageous to Apa L, as we were discussing last week; with a permanent Meeting p;lace again, so that the collating rack and stapler can be left on the premises, and a mimeo always on hand, so the Table of Contents is no longer dependent on the OC to bring his means of publication to the club with him each week, we no longer even have to have a permanent OC. We can let somebody else handle the job each week, if we can't find another volunteer to take on the post permanently. I understand that Len Bailes and Owen Hannifen are willing to take the post on an alternating bi-weekly basis, but it needn't be even that formal. In fact, I'd be willing to serve again for some of the time, under those circumstances, so that if I can't make it to the club for some reason, I can easily be replaced with little or no advance warning. (I guess you now have more ties to Apa L than I do, aside from the fact that you're OC, because you and Bruce are still agenting for out-of-towners, which I no longer am except for an occasional contribution from Bĵo, or Margaret Gemignani; and Bĵo says that she's dropping.)

Chuck Crayne -- I usually agree with you, but not this time. Not, at least, about the tabling of the business at the end of the WesterCon being a bad thing. It was the only desirable solution. It was brought up before the wrong group at the wrong time. For one thing, the Business Session was almost deserted; most fans were under the impression that it had been cancelled after Brandon awarded next year's WesterCon to the Bay Area by proclamation earlier. (Brandon may have thought he was just cutting some unnecessary red tape, since the Bay Area was sure to get the bid anyhow, but he killed a protest bid that was going to be made for the record, that the WesterCon be officially merged with the WorldCon.) I only heard that there was going to be a Business Session anyway, to vote on something else, a couple of hours before it met. This meant that the decision, a very serious one affecting all future WesterCons, would've been made by a majority of not over 30 fans, if that many. For another thing, debate there would've been pointless; that was the most close-minded group of fans I've seen since a meeting of the Ban-Breen bunch. Most of the people who were there came because they had violent opinions on the matter, one way or the other; and their only aim was to bring it up for a vote as fast as possible to either ram it through or to kill it. You saw what happened when they did try to discuss it. Of the lot, it was the fans who were in favor of tabling it who were the moderates, not the extremists! This way, it can be brought before all fandom, and we've got a whole year to look at it carefully and consider all the suggestions and objections, before voting on it next year. To say that those who voted to table the motion did so because "they were fighting desperately against allowing any more people into their tight little group" is ridiculous; that faction wanted to vote the motion decisively down and kill the idea, not let everybody talk about it for the next year. I voted to table it, and I doubt you can find anybody who wants bigger conventions more than I do. ## As to the basic idea, I'm for it, but I'm against the motion. If WesterCons are big business today, the WorldCons are even bigger business. Why not require that WorldCon bidding committees be formed two years in advance? It's not necessary, because they are already, unofficially. Except for the TriCon, which was cobbled together hastily out of the abortive Detention II and Clevention II bids, I can't think of a serious WorldCon bidder since I joined Fandom that wasn't active well in advance of the last minute. I'd like to see WesterCon bidders do the same, too; but to require that their bids be in finished shape two years early is putting too much strain on the realities of the situation.