¡Rábanos Radiactivos! # 2249

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2249^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3697, June 19, 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

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

For the last two weeks, my sister Sherrill has had to go to the LASFS to get Apa L for me, because I have not been able to leave the hospital to attend the meetings. This is because of the medical tests that I am still undergoing. If I understand properly, which I may not, I am covered by both Medicare and Medi-Cal. Medicare is my usual insurer, and I can leave the hospital for personal outings. But when I am undergoing doctor-prescribed tests, I am switched to Medi-Cal, which will not allow me to leave the hospital except for medical related trips. I have no idea how long this situation may last because I still have at least a week of tests to go.

Yarst! I was looking forward to hearing the report on how the first Reading Rocketeers reading on the 9^th went, too. Too bad these LASFS projects are no longer written up for Apa L.

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

ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Cover - (Moffatt) This reminds me of a story titled "The Money Tree", by Clifford D. Simak, fifty years old next month.

Life During Wartime - (Moffet) Is this photograph color-accurate? I have never seen so many California poppies that were scarlet instead of golden.

De Jueves #1587 - (Moffatts) I was always cleaning out dirty typewriter keys with a pin. I have a hard time believing in a special font with deliberately dirty letters. I too used the lower-case L for 1 until I got a computer with a special key for it. ## Dian Crayne's Murder at the Worldcon is still too heavy and unwieldy for me to read with only my left hand. Sherry is trying to get a special book stand that I can use in my hospital bed to hold large books and turn their pages without dropping them. ## Form-fitting costumes are the most practical for costumed heroes. They were originally disguises more than flamboyant costumes. Spy Smasher had a long flowing cape that looked great in the comic books but ridiculous in the live-action movie serial. Superman's cape was short enough that it did not look awkward, and as the Superman mythos was added to over the years, the cape was "revealed" to have secret pockets and other practical uses that were never convincing. The Pixar movie The Incredibles gives the best argument against capes on costumes; they can too easily get caught on something at the worst possible moment. ## 1950; so I was right that that was an early Rotsler illustration, though not as early as I had guessed. ## I am not sure why Michael Burlake's e.mail is mostly numbers. He also has a work-assigned address by Union Pacific. ## The kitchen was not the only poorly-organized part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine. I hope that CaliFur is at a different hotel next year. The Atrium in Irvine, where some of the most successful ConFurences were, reportedly would be happy to have a CaliFur there. The ConFurences outgrew the Atrium when they grew above 800 fans; the CaliFur at about 600 fans is just the right size for it. ## Making all the dinosaurs non-breeding, and some turning out to be breeding pairs after all, was one of the shocking plot points in Jurassic Park.

I Zombify Quirinus - (Gold) The clinic nurse who was shocked at the idea of some woman other than a wife helping a man dress would not last long at Golden State Convalescent Hospital. I have become used to women nurses helping me to dress, give me showers, go to the toilet, empty my urinals, etc. My sister Sherry also has had to perform some of these tasks. ## Again, thanks to Barry & you for all the work that you are putting into the LASFS website, and all that still needs to be done. I just looked at the Member List and was surprised to see Bob Lichtman listed three times, but apparently no listings for Kris or Lil Neville. Weren't they LASFS members? Or Bĵo Trimble. Yes, she is under Betty Jo McCarthy, but a cross-reference would be useful. I hope that we can eventually fill in more when-they-joined dates for members who joined before 1960. WikiLASFS is a wonderful idea. ## Do naked mole rats have any hair or fur? Oh, Wikipedia says that they do. ## I saw the first two Indiana Jones movies, but ran out of interest for them at that point. I am not much of a movie person except for animation. ## Philip Wylie's Gladiator, the original inspiration for Superman, is a hero who dies at the end of the novel in a literal deus ex machina, which is an awfully unsatisfying ending if not a copout. ## I suspect there are more than two St. Faiths by now, if both that you cite were martyred during Roman persecutions of early Christians. ## There seems to be about as little overt Christian theology in Pullman's The Golden Compass as there is in Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. You can tell that Pullman is hostile to his manufactured organized religion and Lewis is sympathetic to something like it, but both are being so allegorical in these first novels that it is hard to tell what the further books will be like. Pullman is not the first writer to have a negative organized religion as his novel's antagonist; look at Heinlein's Revolt in 2100. You cannot really tell from The Golden Compass that Pullman's hostility to all religion will grow stronger in the later volumes.

Vanamonde #785 - (Hertz) Reportedly during the 1950s and 1960s when there seemed to be a new color of kryptonite almost every month, Mort Weisinger's stable of writers at DC Comics who were responsible for all the Superman comics (Superman, Superboy, Action, Adventure, Jimmy Olsen, etc.) had an office game to think of the most obscene things that Superman could be changed into. The introduction of magic into Superman stories predates the multicolored kryptonites by about a decade. The first Mr. Mxyzptlk story was in 1944; kryptonite was only available in green until the 1950s. ## Thanks for the descriptions of the differences between regular Greeks and Pontian Greeks. It looks like several Turkish influences crept among the latter.

Summer Is (Almost) Here - (Cantor) If you consider Corflu to be a Specialized Fandom Convention, do you consider it to be within or outside of science fiction fandom? Furry fandom conventions are certainly Specialized Fandom Conventions, not totally alien to s-f conventions. It is interesting if somewhat disappointing to read the livejournal comments on CaliFur IV and see all the fans for whom it was their first convention who think that it was close to perfect. ## I feel sorry for you if you think that Furry fans are hijacking s-f stories by enjoying them too and considering them to be Furry s-f when they contain undeniable Furry elements. I got more compliments from Furry fans for my article about Piper's Fuzzy stories in Anthro #14, "The Fuzzy Story", than for anything else that I have written for Anthro. ## Thanks for your corrections to Wikipedia. It may not be perfect, but with every correction it comes closer to respectable reliability.

Godzilla Verses #195 - (DeChancie) I first encountered Frank Kelly Freas' art in the s-f magazines. It was quite a shock when I discovered that he also drew for Mad. If you encountered his Mad art first, how did you react when you later saw his s-f art? Wallace Wood is an artist I first saw in Mad and EC's s-f comic books before I saw his art in Galaxy. I always wished that he had done more art for Galaxy and other s-f magazines.