# 2111

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2111^st Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3559, October 27, 2005.
Golden State Colonial Convalescent Hospital, 10830 Oxnard Street, North Hollywood, California 91606-5098.
Telephone: hospital(818) 763-8247; personal (818) 506-3159 * eMail:fredpatten@earthlink.net

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Michael Burlake brought me to last week's LASFS meeting. President Ed Green made an announcement that more or less answered the questions about what the LASFS is doing about illegally parked cars in the LASFS' lot. Starting next (this) week, LASFans are to avoid parking in the spaces of the dentist's office next door or they may be towed away, since we have given the dentist similar notice for him and his staff (and patients?) to stop parking in our spaces or they will be towed. Green did not go into detail, but he made it clear that we have been as polite as we can be with requests, and that the dentist's attitude is that we are being incredibly rude if we will not allow them to use our parking spaces whenever they want. As a result both we and the dentist have announced policies that will preclude LASFans from being able to safely park in the dentist's office's spaces even if they are empty after hours.

I had previously asked Burlake to get rid of a clipboard in my hospital room that I did not want, since my space is extremely limited, but the hospital staff refused to take it because it was *my* clipboard. I had not expected Burlake to donate it to the LASFS auction on my behalf. It brought $1.25, if I recall correctly. Burlake made the right decision; it was good to see a perfectly good clipboard avoid the trash, and bring in some financial benefit to the club.

One of the timebound announcements was for Masoncon, at the clubhouse on Saturday. Rob Powell offered to bring me if I wanted to attend, which I did. I had gotten the impression that this was to be a new annual event to honor Michael Mason, but when we got there on Saturday I learned that this was the third Masoncon. Michael himself had organized the first two, as an October relaxicon to celebrate all LASFen with October birthdays. It will be continued as an annual event, making sure that Mason in particular is honored as well as all LASFen with October birthdays; although I did not get straight whether this is an official LASFS event or an informal event hosted by his friends and other volunteers. There was a huge spread of food, some store bought and some home cooked by fans. Due to the impossibility of getting my wheelchair into the front building where all the hot food was served, I did not get outside the meeting hall; but there were more than enough cold nibblements (fruit slices, cheeses & crackers, chips & spreads, brownies & cookies) for me to pig out on all afternoon while watching the video program. Because I had not known what to expect at Masoncon, I had told the Golden State Hospital that I would be back for dinner at 5:00 p.m.; so I only got to watch two episodes of Red Dwarf and all three Wallace & Gromit shorts before having to return to the hospital, just as a lot more LASFen were arriving with more food. I barely got to sign the get-well card for Mike Thorsen that was going to be taken to him at the hospital later that evening. It was probably good for my weight that I was forced to leave when I did, so I was not able to nibble all night long while watching Dr. Who, Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies, and whatever else was on the video program. An unexpected benefit was that Kris Bauer brought me an Anime Weekend Atlanta 2005 Program Book from Glen Wooten, which Lloyd Carter had sent to Wooten for me.

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ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Blithering With Style -- (Cantor) Will the LASFS Library accept a donation of a set of your genzines? I was told that the LASFS Library does not have enough room for fanzines, so it will not accept any. I gather that my fanzines that I donated to the LASFS Library long ago were not kept by the club. The LASFS' own fanzines like Shangri l'Affaires and De Profundis are in the club's Archives, not the Library. Does the LASFS keep any fanzines besides its own publications? Anyhow, congratulations on making secure provisions to leave your fanzine collection to the Eaton Collection. ## Reading the L.A. Times online is something that I may do if I can ever again spend hours sitting in my wheelchair looking at my computer. At present the Director of Nursing at the hospital wants me to spend at least a couple of hours after breakfast and again after lunch back in bed so the sores on my thighs will heal. This limits my time at the computer to the extent that there are other things I would rather look at and do (such as writing ˇRR! each week, reading my favorite comic strips daily among the 2,901 currently on http://belfry.com/comics/, and doing volunteer proofreading for Sofawolf Press) than spend time reading the newspaper. While in bed, I read books; which reminds me that I would like to ask for someone (in Apa L or the LASFS in general) who is willing to occasionally bring me books from the Los Angeles County Public Library. Kay Shapero will bring me most of the books I want from the Los Angeles (city) Public Library, but there are some books that the County PL has that LAPL and other libraries do not. (Rob Powell will get me books from the Burbank PL.) I can look up the books on the Library's online catalogue, then notify whoever is willing to be my agent so they can reserve the books at their local County Library branch and check them out, and bring them to me at LASFS on Thursday. (I cannot reserve the books myself or my agent would need my library card to check them out.) Is anyone willing?

De Jueves #1449 - (Moffatt) Thanks for the clarification on the four birthday cakes for Scratch Galloway & Francis Hamit. ## Changing cushions on my wheelchair might help if we could be sure that the different cushions would stress different areas of my thighs. I am afraid that they would all stress the same areas, since the areas of contact when you are sitting are pretty much the same no matter what you are sitting on. So far, lying down is not causing any danger of bedsores. I can move about while in bed a fair bit. ## I do not know whether getting a keyboard with the number pad on the left side would help or not. My current keyboard has two sets of number keys; one at the top of the main keyboard (the alt key is at the bottom) and a separate number pad at the far right. ## You could ask for the live interview with Peter Sallis on the Curse of the Were-Rabbit electronic press kit to be shown after the pre-meeting serial installment and before the meeting starts. It is only about two minutes long. That raises the question of who is the possessor of the movie press kits that get shown after LASFS meetings. Are they part of the LASFS' video collection, so they can be shown again any time CLJII is willing to run them; or are they available only the week that Tadao Tomomatsu (or whoever) brings them to the club? ## I croggle that the L.A. subway system is now old enough for its startup to be considered "Way Back When". To me, it is still a newfangled addition to the city bus system that I should get around to trying out someday when I have time to kill.

Vanamonde #649 - (Hertz) I suppose that "The Reverend Howard Johnson, a young curate at St. John's Church, whom Mrs. Roosevelt had met ... in February 1944", was no relation to the founder of the hotel chain of that name? ## Speaking of curates, Michael Burlake & I were discussing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit last week and we wondered whether the Reverend who has the gold bullets in it was a curate or a vicar or neither. A curate is technically a rural vicar, but the town where Wallace & Gromit live is so vaguely defined that it is hard to say whether it is large enough for its priest to rank as a vicar.

Long Time, No C #41 - (Zeff) Lawrence Watt-Evans' "The Lords of Dus" tetralogy (there should be a ^ over the 'u' in Dus, but I have already explained why I cannot use the ^ over any letters on my computer) has gods who draft their own holy warriors, whether the warrior wants that honor or not. ## I assume that Sofawolf Press pays royalties or it would not be getting new authors, but I do not really know. As I have said, my only personal experience has been with my Best in Show anthology, which was a special case. That was deliberately published to be a Furry showpiece, with a cover price close enough to the production cost that I and the authors knew we would not get any royalties, and Sofawolf does not make enough on each copy sold for it to be considered commercially profitable. I do not get paid for my proofreading for Sofawolf's forthcoming books, either; my only "pay" is the pleasure of getting to read them in advance of publication. Come to think of it, I do know that Sofawolf pays what its professional cover artists consider professional rates for its cover paintings. As I have also said, Sofawolf pays all its production expenses itself and will not publish books its editors consider of poor quality even if their authors are willing to subsidize them. There are a couple of Furry specialty bookshops that carry Sofawolf's books like Rabbit Valley Comic Shop, but in general Sofawolf's books are only available through its own website, so it has never been faced with accepting returns from dealers.

Fish Out of Water #141 - (Helgesen) I knew about Turkey mandating the European hat as a replacement for the fez in 1925, but I had not known that the fez was a mandatory replacement for the turban 99 years earlier. Thanks for educating me.

Godzillla Verses #59 - (DeChancie) Wildside Press seems to be considered one of the most successful of the small presses. If your back list is just sitting around out of print, you should at least investigate Wildside's website and see whether it looks worth contacting. ## For what it is worth, Sofawolf Press gives its books ISBN numbers. ## Does hearing the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas count as hearing operas in English? ## Does Witchblade: Talons also have holy warriors? The distinction in this fragment between a holy warrior and a goddess seems vague.

Pantomime & The Art Of Garrick (as Harlequin)* -- (Gold) I do not know about undead butterflies, but what about the deadly butterflies in Attack of the Killer Butterflies, a Hong Kong movie I only dimly remember from seeing it at a Filmex around 1980? (At least, that is how I remember the title, but according to the International Movie Database it is The Butterfly Murders, 1979, directed by Tsui Hark.) I do not remember the butterflies as much as the antimatter crows, that lit on people's shoulders and blew their heads off. Anyhow, the movie is full of supernatural murderous butterflies. They should make a legitimate menace in a roleplaying game. ## Thanks for printing the photograph of JFKennedy wearing a top hat, and for your forthcoming reporting to the IRS of the $10,000+ valuation of my collection donation to the UCRiverside Library. ## No, I do not think I need the belt loops, at least as long as I am always sitting down while wearing the pants. They will not fall down while I am seated. ## I will pass on the L.A. Times, too. I read the Daily News in the hospital's communal dining room because it is available, while waiting there for lunch. If the Times was brought especially for me to read in my room, I would rather spend the time reading a book if in bed or on my computer if in my wheelchair.

Oh, All Right!!! - (Lembke) I seriously considered trying to attend Conjecture 4 as my first post-stroke convention, since I enjoyed the previous Conjectures and San Diego is so close to home. But since it would have required finding someone to take me to & from San Diego, get a hotel room for us, and spend three days pushing me in my wheelchair, I finally decided to play safe and make the even closer Loscon 32 my first convention. I hope to commute to Loscon from my hospital daily, so I will not have to handle staying in a hotel room in my wheelchair yet. But I do regret missing Conjecture 4. Kris Bauer told me at Masoncon that the Conjecture Committee has given me a free membership in next year's con, since I had bought my membership to this year's con before my stroke but was unable to use it. ## It is good that you sold lots of Loscon 32 memberships there, and even better news that you will put Loscon flyers in libraries and bookstores. Too many s-f/comics/anime conventions in the last decade have not bothered to publicize themselves except on the Internet. By "bookstores" I hope you include the comic book specialty shops like Golden Apple Comics and Meltdown Comics. You might also include the anime specialty shops if the flyers mention the Loscon's anime program.

Merrie Maladies #31 - (Castora) Were you in the Coventry games with Jayne Gallion during the early 1960s? I assume you were not, or you would not have any trouble believing that she could believe anything. She drew up an elaborate diagram of a gigantic palace that was something like a mile square (including in height; I forget how many thousand floors tall it was) that was the capital of her tribe of nomadic raiders. When some other player (Bruce Pelz?) pointed out that her huge palace did not include any restrooms, and it did have lots of staircases but no elevators ("How long will it take anyone to walk up all those stairs?"), she left the game session in a huff. ## Aside from Major Hoople, I associate the wearing of fezzes in America with the Mardi Gras and with fraternal organizations like the Shriners. I am pretty sure that I remember Albert Alligator wearing a fez in one Pogo story where he was being a Gentleman of Leisure. ## I am sure that you remember the 1942-'45 comic book fantasy superhero The Gay Ghost in Sensation Comics, before "gay" obtained its homosexual meaning.