Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, March 3, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Twentieth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1438, March 4, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

When I saw Walter Breen at the club last week, I knew the yearly coin convention in Los Angeles must be going on. And so it was. I took it in, in the course of the weekend, which was another fannish one.

Friday evening, Mike Hillen arrived to spend the weekend. Mike is the President of the newly formed South San Diego Science Fiction Society, which is rapidly reestablishing Fandom in the city to the South, and he was paying a visit u p here to make contact with LA Fandom and to get some hints as to the likelihood of putting in a serious bid for San Diego for the Westercon in '66. Friday evenings are usually pretty dead around here so we decided to pay a visit to the Hollywood bookstores -- Mike had never taken the tour, and it'd been a couple of weeks since I'd seen what was new. Deciding to make a party of it, we phoned the Labyrinth to see if anybody there was also interested in bookhunting. Hank Stine was; he was looking for a copy of the last issue of FFM -- the one with Ayn Rand's Anthem in it. So we agreed to stop by the Lab to pick him up and set out; Al Lewis stayed home to nurse his persistent cold.

Stine had stepped out for a minute when we got to the Lab, so Mike and I watched Hannifen and Baker fencing up and down the hall while we waited. Hank returned in short order, and we set out Hollywoodward, discussing Apa L, Objectivism, and George Barr McCutcheon along the way. In Hank's favor, I might mention that he comes on much better in person than he does in print, and the discussion of Objectivism was quite interesting even though I don't care reading about it in Apa L.

Once in Hollywood, we spent a pleasant few hours wandering around, even though none of us found anything interesting. Hank enjoys an active few minutes arguing with the proprietor of the Ne Plus Ultra and Sui Generis Bookshoppe .. (they shelve s-f under P for "Phantasy"), which invariably charges over twice as much as anything is worth. For example, Fritz Leiber's Night's Black Agents is marked "First Edition - $6.50", not mentioning that it's still in print and selling for the jacket price ($3.00) at Pickwick's, two blocks down the street. At any rate, Mr. Ne Plus Ultra didn't have what Hank wanted, but he'd be glad to get this rare old material for only $10.00, in advance, and if Hank didn't like the price, he could always "mount upon his ass and journey elsewhere" to find another copy. Hank decided to take this advice, and we left. Small wonder that this guy's stock changes little from year to year. It's always a fascinating place to visit, however.

Saturday, the Trimbles came over to put out the 2nd Westercon Progress Report. But before getting started, we drove out to Van Nuys, where the Trimbles examined television sets. And on our way back, passing a printing shop, what should we discover among a display of personalized stationery but an envelope and letterhead in gold-on-buff bearing the legend: HARLAN ELLISON 2313 Bushrod Lane. The influence of Fandom is omnipresent. (Speaking of which, I ran into Walt Liebscher downtown today; he says he's taking an investment class Thursday nights, which is why he hasn't been to LASFS lately. He also asked if I'd read Larry Janifer's You Sane Men, which he described as "the God-damnedist book". Whether this meant he liked it or disliked it, I couldn't tell.)

Saturday evening, I went down to the Tenth Annual Convention of the Numismatic Association of Southern California, where I blew $10 on odds & ends I don't really need, since I'm not actively collecting coins any more. I also ran into Walter Breen, and invited him home for dinner. Besides an evening of fannish chatter, this also provided us with a free coin exhibition of our own, because Walter had about $7500 worth of rare coins he showed around.

Sunday was Westercon Progress Report day, and it took all day, all right. In fact, when Walter came back over later to invite us out to dinner, we had to turn him down to get the Report finished and out of our hair. We finally did get through about 11:30 that night, which finished off the weekend. And I drove Mike down to the Greyhound Bus station as I went to work next morning.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"... it [the snail] always manages to find its way home from an unfamiliar spot."
Maurice Burton, D.Sc., Curiosities of animal life, 1959, plate c.

Hasn't awfully far to go, has it?

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I was going to get into the Distribution comments at this point, but Al insists that I reprint this note from the Feb. 15 PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY. Okay by me; it kills that many more lines:

AN "I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER CONTEST" will highlight Doubleday's promotion campaign for its new "I Love Peanut Butter Cookbook" (March 12) by William I. Kaufman. The special "We-Supply-Everything" package promotions offers participating booksellers the opportunity to award a year's supply of peanut butter (twelve 12-ounce jars) to the winner of a drawing which should take place before July 1. Booksellers, who must order a minimum of 15 copies to be eligible, will receive free from Doubleday complete promotion plans, including a letter and entry blank to be sent to customers to announce the Peanut Butter Sweepstakes, an entry-box, one case of Skippy Peanut Butter to the winner, counter-window display cards, "I Love Peanut Butter Club" buttons, publicity releases and an additional case of peanut butter to keep or use in the promotion.

The appearance of the "Peanut Princess" on Jimmy Dean's ABC-TV show, making Jimmy national president of the "I Love Peanut Butter Club", will kick off the promotion.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE 19th DISTRIBUTION

Ted White -- Certainly we'd like a cover from you. The reappearance of THE BNF OF IZ reminded us that you are an artist as well as an author, and it's been a long time since any of us have seen any of your art. We'd like to see more. Since you didn't refuse Tom outright here, can we assume there's a chance that you'll send us a cover illustration someday?