# 2247

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2247^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3695, June 5, 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

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I got my 2007 semi-annual royalty payment from Stone Bridge Press for Watching Anime, Reading Manga last week. The cheque was for $228.11 for 253 copies sold from July through December 2007. Since this was about the size of last year's cheque, sales have presumably remained constant, which is very good for a book on anime and manga history three years old in 2007. It is nice that the book continues to sell at all. Copies sold, 2004 - 2007: 3,230.

Last Thursday my sister Sherrill took me from the hospital in the afternoon to a doctor's office to get the first of four weekly injections of something - not cortisone - in my knee to help make my leg stronger. After that we went to Sherry's apartment for dinner, and then to the LASFS meeting. It was good to see John DeChancie back from Pittsburgh. It was a good, or bad, week for Special Orders of Business; at least five people related to s-f had died during the previous week, including a confirmation with details of Robert Asprin's death. June Moffatt gave Sherry information about the next Left Coast Crime convention in Los Angeles. Kay Shapero said that so many attendees of CaliFur IV had complaints about the hotel that the Committee is considering moving to a different hotel next year. Karen Anderson gave a spirited defense of the portrayal of the LASFS in American Nerd, as approving of the spirit of s-f fandom even though the physical appearance of Freehafer Hall and many of the fans might be shabby and unimpressive. Len Moffatt expanded on the tribute to DeeDee Lavender the previous week, and several people remembered this week's Patron Saint Ed Baker. Arlene Satin whipped up more enthusiasm for the Reading Rocketeers' presentation at the local LAPL, less than two weeks away now. Rick Foss, who had sold another story to Analog, gave two excellent s-f book reviews. A bid for Pasadena for the 2010 Westercon was announced, which would be the first L.A.-area Westercon in eight years. The meeting ended early enough that I got to see about five minutes of the program, a JPL film on Explorer 1: The Beginning of the Space Age, before I had to leave.

On Friday morning I got ASIFA-Hollywood's e.mailed invitation to its screening this Tuesday at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater of Kung Fu Panda, but by the time I RSVP'ed to the hot line the seats were already filled. I guess I will have to wait and hope that DreamWorks will send all members a DVD screener later this year - or I could ask my sister to take me to a regular movie theater to see it when it comes out tomorrow.

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¡ZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Cover - (Rotsler/Moffatts) This looks like a really early Rotsler, around the 1940s.

They Didn't Know They Were Dead!!! - (Cantor) To have a good argument, one must agree upon the terms beforehand. It seems as though we cannot do this. I, and Furry fans, regard such s-f stories as Anderson's & Dickson's Hoka stories, Piper's Fuzzy novels, and others that I have listed as being part of Furry fiction. There is a review, not by me, of Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur in the current Anthro, by the way. You say that the Hoka stories, and by extension the others featuring animallike intelligent aliens, are science fiction and therefore they cannot be considered as Furry fiction. I think that what the Furry fans consider to be Furry fiction is more defining than what you consider it to be. Incidentally, the moderator of a panel on Furry literature at Anthrocon later this month has published an invitation for fans that will be at Anthrocon in Pittsburgh to attend. "I figured to review the latest UMA winners and recommended list, give an overview of how it all works, ask for audience recommendations, etc. but we could also delve into things like how to get better furry stories in mainstream media, and such. It's Friday 6/27 at 3:30 pm. Please let me know if you'd like to participate. Thanks!" The latest UMA Best Novel winner, Life's Dream by Bernard Doove, is s-f, not fantasy. Maybe not good s-f, but s-f nevertheless. ## Your comment to June Moffatt refusing to acknowledge that Florence Ambrose is a bioengineered wolf and insisting that talking, bipedal wolves must be pure fantasy is further evidence of your ignoring the terms of argument, amounting to little more than insisting that you are right just because you are right.

Vanamonde #783 - (Hertz) Was there any culture shock when the Pontian Greeks migrated to Greece after being outside it for centuries? ## I must agree with you that many Internet-only comic strips are static, visually monotoned (and badly drawn), talky, preachy. But as Sturgeon said, 90% of everything is crud.

Wonderlust - (Frame-Gray) The small book covers in ¡RR! are from Amazon.com. Vanessa van Wagner cuts and pastes them into my last page to fill up blank space. I am not computer-literate enough, or dexterous enough since my stroke, to do it myself. ## The comic book adaptation of the government's 9/11 report is The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colón; Hill & Wang, August 2006, 128 pages, $16.95. It has been getting good reviews:

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-At only 15 percent the size of The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (St. Martin's, 2004) and more than four times the price, is this adaptation worth purchasing? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Jacobson and Colón intend this adaptation to bring to the commission's report readers who would not or could not digest its nearly 800 pages, and they have the blessing, acknowledged in this book's foreword, of the commission's chair and vice-chair to do so. Neither lurid nor simplistic, it presents the essence of the commission's work in a manner that, especially in the opening section, is able to surpass aspects of any text-only publication: the four stories of the doomed flights are given on the same foldout pages so that readers can truly grasp the significance of how simultaneous events can and did overwhelm our national information and defense systems. The analysis that follows in the subsequent 11 chapters cuts cleanly to the kernels of important history, politics, economics, and procedural issues that both created and exacerbated the effects of the day's events. Colón's full-color artwork provides personality for the named players-U.S. presidents and Al-Qaeda operatives alike-as well as the airline passengers, office workers, fire fighters, and bureaucrats essential to the report. This graphic novel has the power and accessibility to become a high school text; in the meantime, no library should be without it.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

De Jueves #1585 - (Moffatts) Actually, I hear nurses conversing in Tagalog almost every day at Golden State Colonial Convalescent Hospital. Or conversing in Spanish. Or Filipino and Hispanic nurses conversing in broken English as their common language. We have also had Hindi and Vietnamese nurses from time to time. ## Most Furry conventions on the West Coast have been at hotels that allowed caged (or terrariumized) reptiles to be brought in. Conifur Northwest specialized in caged ferrets and sometimes had almost a dozen. I gather that CaliFur attendees are complaining about both the hotel and the Committee for not making sure beforehand that reptiles would be allowed in. ## Michael Burlake's e.mail address, so you can tell him "hi" directly, is . ## No, I do not think the hotel's food was good enough to justify the high prices. I also criticize hotel restaurants/coffee shops that open late and close early, and that have room service that takes over an hour to be delivered. (I had to order an omelet from room service for dinner on Friday night because the hotel restaurant and snack bar were both closed by 9:00 p.m. It cost over $20.00, and it arrived cold.)

Godzilla Verses #193 - (DeChancie) I have been wondering how long I will be able to continue contributing to Apa L. Will Apa L last much longer than my departure? Après moi, le deluge. ## You wanted to draw and paint like Kelly Freas before you started reading s-f? Where did you see Freas' work before the s-f magazines? Mad Magazine, maybe? ## Would Hugo Gernsback recognize modern s-f?

Oh, All Right!!! - (Lembke) Wouldn't scientists want to create breeding pairs of dinosaurs instead of a single dinosaur?

S.F.F.A.M. #503 - (Merrigan) Please thank Rita for a couple of really good cat cartoons. ## Turkmenistan recently had unique months named for President Saparmurdat Niyazov as Turkmenbashi, the Father of his Country, his mother, and his book of spiritual guidance. When he died in December 2006, his successor Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov renamed the months after those used in the rest of the world. I never heard of different month names used in Catholic and Protestant calendars. The French Revolutionary calendar had unique months named after the seasons, but that has not been used in over a century.