#2240

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2240^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3688, April 17, 2008.
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

§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(+)§(*)§(

My sister Sherrill brought me to last week's LASFS meeting. The week's cheese samples were a bland cheese like jack cheese with mustard seeds embedded. The serial G-Men Never Forget was concluded. Martin Young gave a dramatic - histrionic would not be an exaggeration -- reading of Arthur C. Clarke's 1939 fanzine parody "At the Mountains of Murkiness", with Marc Schirmeister rapidly sketching instant illustrations for it on the whiteboard. The meeting after that was anticlimactic; there were not even any corrections to the minutes. I have a correction to ˇRR!, though: it was Arlene Satin, not Joyce Hooper, who announced the Childrens Reading Program readings at the Valley Plaza branch of the Los Angeles Public Library starting in June. Sorry about that.

Quentin Long, the editor of Anthro, has been reformatting the Internet issues of 2007 to print them as a book for those who want Anthro in hard copy form for their bookshelves. In book format, my reviews published in the six bi-monthly issues of 2007 come to 129 pages; an average of two to three pages per review. That's not too many...

My most effective review does not seem to be deliberate at all, or of s-f/fantasy. I have been reserving books online at the L.A. Public Library for Sherry to bring to me. I recently got the latest Hamish Macbeth murder mystery by M. C. Beaton, Death of a Gentle Lady. Sherry thought that it looked interesting, so she read it before she returned it to the library. She is now checking out all the Hamish Macbeth mysteries as fast as she can get them and reading them "until my eyes fall out". She has got our mother reading those in the Mission Viejo library; Mother complained that one was so interesting that it kept her up to 4:00 a.m. to finish it. Maybe I should get information about the next Bouchercon to come to Southern California for them.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Oh, All Right!!! - (Lembke) Homages are supposed to acknowledge the creations to which they are homages. The cover of Apa L #1925 looks like it is claiming to be a homage to Charlie Jackson, not that it is a homage by Charlie Jackson to someone else. At least it makes clear that it is not claiming to be an original work. ## I see so many complaints about the Norton Antivirus program that I wonder why anyone uses it.

De Jueves #1578 - (Moffatts) I have used Earthlink since I learned to use a computer, when Earthlink was brand new. I hope that it does not go away. If Earthlink is easier to use than other systems, it sounds ripe for a buyout by a rival who will close it down, which seems to be what usually happens in the business field. ## Felix the Cat seems to still be well known as a cartoon character, although some people are more familiar with the late 1950s TV cartoons by Joe Oriolo. There are umpty-dozen Felix the Cat DVDs available today, mostly of the 1920s & '30s theatrical cartoons (now public domain), but also of the 1950s-'60s TV cartoons, the 1980s movie produced in Hungary, and the 1990s movie produced in Japan. The Felix newspaper comic strip is forgotten today, true. ## Oh, if you have a life-sized cardboard cutout cat too, then the Loscon does not need to use my sister's! ## My grandmother certainly claimed that her family's household slaves stayed with the family because they were considered and treated as part of the family. ## One of my ideas for a s-f anthology that never went anywhere was of very good stories that predicted a future that did not come true. For my 1950s story, I had proposed Philip K. Dick's "Folsom, You're Dead", a bleak nuclear bomb-shelter futility tale. (Speaking of PKD, Disney has just announced it is making an animated feature of one of his stories. Let's hope that this lasts longer than the "we never announced any such movie" Silly Hillbillies from Mars, and is more faithful than their spelling of Dick's name as "Phillip".) The latest of the Blacksad funny-animal noir novels from France, Red Soul, is about the American bomb-shelter paranoia and Red Scare of the 1950s. It is more-or-less accurate, although the authors keep using supposed Southern California/Hollywood settings that look like East Coast metropolitan cityscapes. ## Francis Hamit's The Shenandoah Spy is not announced on Amazon.com yet except in its digital version. Presumably they want to sell as many copies of that as they can before they announce the book edition. More than a few people prefer to read books in easy chairs rather than on computer screens. ## Could the gunk at the bottom of reservoirs make good fertilizer when dried out?

Vanamonde #776 - (Hertz) The Wham-O company was also responsible for forcing the name-change of Mrs. Frisby to Mrs. Brisby in The Secret of NIMH. Boo, hiss.

Godzilla Verses #186 - (DeChancie) I certainly considered the Heinlein novels of my childhood and early adolescence as adventurous! Rocket Ship Galileo, Red Planet, Sixth Column, Space Cadet, The Puppet Masters, Between Planets ...

1Bedroom Apartment For Rent - (Cantor) Actually, I am happy that those two photographs of the Donald Duck Taverne and the ice cream truck with the obviously unauthorized Disney characters printed recognizably at all. They were clearly amateur photos taken in bad lighting. Thanks for making them legible. ## I continue to insist that Furry fandom is as much a part of s-f/general fandom as Star Trek or anime or gaming or comics fandoms are. Considering that I was in Furry fandom from its beginning, my reports of it in Apa L probably do make Apa L as much of a fanzine of record as it has.

Filler: the Disney PKD press release, and the covers of some books that I read recently.

KING OF THE ELVES (Domestic Release Date: Christmas 2012, Disney
Digital 3-D(TM))


Walt Disney Animation Studios
Directors: Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker
Producer: Chuck Williams
Legendary storyteller Phillip K. Dick's short story (his only experiment in the fantasy genre) becomes the basis for this fantastic and imaginative tale about an average man living in the Mississippi Delta, whose reluctant actions to help a desperate band of elves leads them to name him their new king. Joining the innocent and endangered elves as they attempt to escape from an evil and menacing troll, their unlikely new leader finds himself caught on a journey filled with unimaginable dangers and a chance to bring real meaning back to his own life.

For press materials log on to http://www.wdsfilmpr.com

Dream-Carver
An Ironclaw Novel
by Erin van Hlet

Victory Conditions
by Elizabeth Moon

Death of a Gentle Lady
A Hamish Macbeth Mystery
by M.C. Beaton

Warriors: Firestar's Quest
by Erin Hunter