¡Rábanos Radiactivos! ... es no. 2157

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2157^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3605, September 14, 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 Thursday Michael Burlake e.mailed me that he was sick and could not go to the LASFS meeting that evening. Fortunately, my sister Sherrill was able to fill in for him on almost no advance notice. I think that this was Sherry's first LASFS meeting, although she has brought me to several weekend events at Freehafer Hall.

The meeting had more guests who discovered the club at the Worldcon. I reviewed Turtledove's new The Grapple as a fitting continuation of his "Settling Accounts" series, but a very bad novel to read on its own. Readers should start with his How Few Remain, ten novels earlier. I still have trouble believing in an alternate world with a Confederate States of America that is more dictatorial than the U.S., since the whole point of the Civil War was that the Southern states wanted a looser national government that would have less power than the individual states.

On Saturday, Sherry took me to the September Cinema Anime meeting. It was pretty much as usual. We finished Heat Guy J with the last two episodes, and saw the first episode of Ragnarok (the American title for Mythical Detective Loki) and the first two episodes of Eureka 7. What is more ungainly than giant robots? Giant robots flying through the skies on jet-propelled surfboards. I don't care if the Silver Surfer did it first; it still looks stupid.

Cubist reports more on Anthro's increased readership since I promoted it at the Worldcon:

The web-traffic stats I get from ANTHRO's host server are somewhat lacking in some areas, but they *do* include a figure for "Distinct hosts served in last 7 days", which is more-or-less the number of different visitors who've browsed the site in the past week (I say "more or less". Checking the traffic stats today, I find that this "hosts served" figure is 1,508, which is roughly 210 visitors per day. A couple of days back, this figure was only 140-or-so... and before Worldcon, it was around 100.

This doubling of traffic in under 10 days *could* be a coincidence (see also: "innate pessimism")... but then again, it just might be something I owe you some serious gratitude for. Thanks!

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ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Fish Out of Water #187 - (Helgesen) I would have suggested that my sister leave me alone at the bottom of the parking structure for long enough to drive her minivan down from the top, if Rob Powell had not already joined us and volunteered to watch me. This was the first time that Sherry had taken me out alone from the hospital, and I guess she was feeling overly protective of me. ## Was Durward Kirby ever known for anything besides being Garry Moore's announcer? He may have appeared in other roles during his career, but they were negligible. ## I can no longer drive at all, and I have been issued a handicapped parking placard that I give to whoever drives me around so they can get preferential parking for me. The placard specifically states, "Remove from mirror before driving vehicle". ## Please do remain picky.

Godzilla Verses #104 - (DeChancie) Ha-ha. Or are you serious? "Fumetti" is the Italian term for what is called in America "speech balloons" ("speech bubbles" in Britain); the (usually) round white spaces in comic strips into which dialogue is placed. Italy pioneered the use of comic strips and comic books featuring photographs of posed actors instead of drawn cartoons, so all comics of that type are commonly called fumetti comics. They are popular in Mexico, too. "Fumetti" literally means "little smokes" because the speech balloons look like someone blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke out of their mouths. Wikipedia says that fumetti comics sold millions of copies in Italy during the 1940s. "In the Italian language, fumetti are all comics, not just photo novels (fumetti literally means "little clouds of smoke", in reference to speech balloons). Instead, Italians call photo-illustrated comics fotoromanzi. Fumetti are also popular in Spain and Latin America, where they are called fotonovelas, and in France. Fumetti have never been widely appreciated in the United States." ## Well, if it had not been for the widespread censorship against comic books in the 1950s that resulted in the cancellation of all the EC comic books except for Mad, Gaines might have stuck with comic books. But with only one title remaining, it certainly made more sense to turn Mad into a 25¢ magazine more "obviously" for adults rather than leave it as a 10¢ comic book. ## Galaxy Press definitely provided more than raw veggies and dips for them at past Writers of the Future Awards events. There were meat-filled pastries, cream puffs, lemon cakes, cheese dips, and lots more.

Toony Loons #11 - (Zeff) S-f from the 1930s & '40s, as crude as it was (I still remember Captain Future and his Futuremen having to run for hours to stay ahead of the swiftly advancing glaciers on Pluto) , can still be enjoyable. If it can also serve as inspiration for modern s-f, that is a bonus. ## If the peacocks at the Arboretum are not restrained but are allowed to wander the neighborhood at will, I would call them feral. Feral animals can have established dens and nests. Would you describe the parrots nesting in Mike Morris' back yard as feral, or belonging to him?

Arrogant Pendantry* -- (Cantor) That is good news that the Wall of History from L.A.con IV will be preserved rather than trashed. ## So in addition to not recognizing s-f movies as s-f, you do not like s-f featuring cats?

De Jueves #1495 - (Moffatt) I asked before the Worldcon if there were good restaurants within the Hilton, since my paralysis would make it difficult to go to outside restaurants. Kim Marks Brown e.mailed me four menus, including the Hilton's Room Service. ## It was probably difficult to raise peacocks as fare for banquets in medieval times. Do the non-lethal methods used to control peacocks today include destroying their eggs, which Don Fitch said all the gardeners at the Arboretum wanted to do? ## Hummingbirds are indeed diurnal, as far as I know.

I Plead Gilty - (Gold) As of the LASFS meeting after L.A.con IV, the con committee was still tallying the attendance. ## Kay Shapero has already posted the text of my Life Achievement Award and my L.A.con IV report on my website, and suggested that I prepare a general cleanup & updating of it. My site has had a link to Anthro for months. It is not a fancy illustrated link, but it works. Anthro is the only magazine to which I am still contributing regularly since my stroke. ## Although L.A.con IV's Handicapped Services desk did not know that I had been promised admission badges for my caregiver and nurse, it only took them about five minutes to prepare the badges. ## I will presumably want the same arrangements for Loscon 33. I cannot stay at the hotel for three days without a constant companion to put me to bed at night and put me onto the toilet when I need to relieve myself. Now that I know about hotels' soft mattresses, I will check the Loscon hotel's bed carefully before getting into it. ## Raccoons are traditionally solitary animals, which would make any urban organization into packs an example of evolution in action. If true, I would expect that animal behavioral experts would be especially interested in studying this rather than in trying to break up the raccoon gangs.