# 2122

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2122^nd Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3570, January 5, 2006.
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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Last Tuesday (the 3^rd), Michael Burlake took me to the January meeting of the Comic Art Professional Society. This was my first CAPS meeting at its new regular meeting place, the Sherman Oaks Women's Club, which I have attended since my stroke. Fortunately for me, CAPS moved from its meeting place of about twenty years, which was on a wheelchair-inaccessible second floor, to this new ground-floor wheelchair-accessible venue around last August, although I just found out about it. (Last month's Holiday Dinner meeting at the Montrose bowling alley was at a special location.)

It was great to be back to CAPS. John Ott gave me his new how-to-draw book, Let's Draw Manga: Using Color. The evening's program was a slide show of the early art of Dan DeCarlo by Bill Morrison, who has just finished a book on DeCarlo. Morrison was working closely with DeCarlo on the book for a couple of years before DeCarlo's death, so he had access to all of DeCarlo's juvenile art, his World War II cartoons in letters to his fiancée, and his first professional cartoons after the war. DeCarlo is so well known as the Archie Comics artist today after establishing the modern Archie art style over forty years that his pre-Archie comics during the 1950s (especially his adult cartoons for Playboy imitators) is quite a revelation. I met DeCarlo only once, just a few months before his death in December 2001, and I found it difficult to reconcile my memories of the white-haired elderly man with the photos and self-caricatures of him as a vigorous cartoonist in his thirties. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the presentation was finished to get me back to the hospital.

On Wednesday, Marty Cantor & Bob Null came to the hospital to get my wheelchair and take it to Continental Home Care, the company in Glendale that was supposed to put on the missing parts which should have been built into it when it was made during May - July. They did get the left full armrest put on, so I can now rest my whole left arm. I am confused as to why the company could not provide the right brake extender, so I can lock and unlock the right-hand brake with my good left hand instead of needing to call a nurse since my right hand is paralyzed. I was told both that such a part will not fit onto my wheelchair (why not?), and that the company still needs to get the part; so I do not know whether this brake extender is still coming in the future or not. At least, 50% of the work got done. As for my wheelchair cushion, the hospital now feels that my abscesses are the result of the infection for which I am being given antibiotics, not my cushion rubbing sores on me; so presumably the current cushion does not need to be replaced, after all. In any case, thanks, Marty & Bob.

On Thursday Michael Burlake took me to the LASFS meeting. We were happily amazed to find the handicapped parking space still open, and quickly filled it. The main event of the meeting was the bad news that L.A.con IV Fan Guest of Honor Howard DeVore had died on the last day of 2005. It was confirmed that DeVore will remain the FGoH, and that the Worldcon will honor his memory. This is fitting and in the Worldcon's tradition, although it is an unfortunate evolution of that tradition that each year's Guests of Honor are coming more frequently to be honored in absentia due to either having died or being virtually on their deathbeds. Len Moffatt loaned me two more murder mysteries to read in the hospital. Kay Shapero brought me UCRiverside's Fiat Lux magazine v. XV #4, Fall 2005, with a two-page color article about my donation; "They Will Be Assimilated", by Laurie Williams (pgs. 14-15), subtitled "Eaton Collection will absorb two more large hoards of science fiction". The article mentions Bruce Pelz's earlier donation of his fanzine collection as having inspired my donation, but all the quotes and color photographs are of my "900 boxes" of donation; a Japanese anime cel, a video & a jigsaw puzzle, a Dutch s-f comic book, an issue of Weird Tales, etc. It was announced that Saturday's Estrogen Zone program would be devoted to the Firefly TV series and its very recent Serenity theatrical feature. Since I had just seen both within the past couple of months, I decided to skip the EZ meeting this month.

On Friday, Karl Lembke came to the hospital to deliver the first of the L.A. County Library books that I had asked him to check out for me; Bio Rescue, by S. L. Viehl. Thanks, Karl.

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ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Oh, All Right!!! - (Lembke) There seems to be quite a backlash against the generic "holidayification" of the, er, Holiday Season. I wonder whether this will carry through to next year (er, this coming December) as well? ## Okay, so you celebrated last month's Holiday Season in style. But what are you planning to do for National Gorilla Suit Day, coming up at the end of January!? Remember National Gorilla Suit Day, especially with the new King Kong so recent! Dawk! ## This tells me more about blood clotting than I wanted to know. Thanks, I guess.

De Jueves #1460 - (Moffatt) I wonder how many of the personalized license-plate frames seen on cars today are recent rather than years old? ## Do any thieves ever think about whether their victims might need what they are stealing? ## I no longer remember what the illustration of the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe looked like, but I do not think that the Stone Table shown in either the BBC version of the book or the new motion picture looks anything like the Ten Commandments tablets. ## "Too much manga comics"? A rare Bill Holbrook goof; it should be either "too many manga comics" or "too much manga", period. The Japanese themselves did the best satire on "manga eyes" back in the 1980s, in an episode of Urusei Yatsura which postulated that those Giant Eyes with three dozen highlights were the result of outer-space measles which everyone was suddenly catching. They looked much better on the high school girls than on the boys.

Godzillla Verses #70 - (DeChancie) You make me wish that I had taken the trouble to go back and drive around the neighborhood of L.A. where I grew up, on Chesley Avenue around 52^nd Street & Crenshaw. I spent my first 24 years there, but I never bothered to go back after I moved out in 1965. It has presumably changed in the last forty years. Now that I am paralyzed, it seems unlikely that I will be able to. ## May I offer you a hopefully-not-premature WELCOME BACK!?

An Innate Enjoyment of Quibbling - (Cantor) I can understand Wikipedia's change of policy to make the submitters of new articles register, but it does seem that the potential for abuse will not be lessened much if "correctors" can make any changes they want without having to identify themselves. Thank you for returning Apa L to Los Angeles. I wonder who put it in San Francisco in the first place?

Vanamonde #660 - (Hertz) Different Loscons have set different policies as to whether both &/or either the Green Room and the Con Suite should be well-stocked with comestibles(!) to please the most critical attendees, or barely stocked at all to keep fans from using them as substitutes for complete meals.

I Zap Phenomena - (Gold) My continued thanks for your continued work on my behalf. The details of my standing within the Medi-Cal/Medicare bureaucracy leave me confused, so I am glad that you understand them. I may need a Medi-Gap insurance policy more for the need to spend down an additional $100 a month than for the need to consult another doctor. As far as I can tell, the medical staff at Golden State Convalescent Hospital is meeting all my medical needs. ## LAX may be open for business 24 hours a day, but many of its services (or its individual airlines' or support companies such as transport vans) are not. I can personally confirm that if you arrive at 1:00 a.m., it may take almost an hour to get a taxi. Good luck on finding an airline baggage agent between about midnight and 6:00 a.m.

Long Time, No C #47 - (Zeff) Remove commas!? No, no - more commas, more commas! ## Early Scooby-Doo may have always come down on the side of rationalism, but I believe that some of the more recent movies (theatrical or direct to video) have featured "real monsters". Just like Jonny Quest used to boast that its adventures were in the style of Terry and the Pirates and James Bond; melodramatic but always possible instead of comic-book superhero sci-fi. The publicity continued to claim this after Jonny began fighting outer-space evil giant cockroaches with death rays.

Luny Tunes #7 - (Castora) I don't think that my Medi-Cal notices have been in any languages besides English. I feel left out. ## Don Martin! Suits, white shirts & ties! Gorilla suits! Fester Bestertester and Karbuncle! Dawk!

Fish Out of Water #152 - (Helgesen) Kitzmiller & Dover - are they anything like Bestertester & Karbunkle? No dawk?