# 2250

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2250^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3698, June 26, 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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My doctor says I must spend more time sitting in my wheelchair and socializing with other patients, and several other changes, instead of lying in bed all day and working alone on my computer. This may make it difficult to continue with Apa L in the future, since it takes time to type with only one finger of my left hand. We will see.

I have notified the ALAA Committee and the editors for whom I have been reviewing books that I probably will not be able to continue writing for them. I will give staying in Apa L my top priority, with the help of Vanessa Van Wagner in preparing ¡RR! each week and my sister Sherrill in bringing me my dist'n each week.

At least I am in an air-conditioned hospital during this heat wave. Sherry told me about everyone sending me their best wishes at last week's meeting and wanting to visit me. Many thanks.

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¡ZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

Cover - (DeChancie) Have you considered submitting some of your Apa L cover cartoons to F&SF or any of the other s-f magazines that print cartoons? I don't imagine that they would consider a circulation of 29 being a prior publication.

Godzilla Verses #196 - (DeChancie) I do not consider El Zorro or the Batman to be superheros, just highly trained athletes. There is a difference between superheroes and costumed heroes without super powers. Come to think of it, the Scarlet Pimpernel predates El Zorro, but he did not wear a costume, just many disguises. ## Which Superman's death in the comics? He has been killed so many times and always brought back to life that I have lost track. ## Many somebodies have suggested that costumed heroes' costumes come from circus performers' costumes. The Batman's swinging on a rope suggests an aerialist as well. ## Were the poppies in person as scarlet instead of golden as they looked in that photograph? ## Did you see Ratatouille? That movie was rather unique in its substance. ## I think I vaguely remember a comic book Existentialman, although I do not recall where he was published. National Lampoon, maybe. ## I am glad that Wikipedia has developed respectability and a reputation for reliability. Being bedridden, I look at it almost every day to see its featured article, its latest entries and its "on this day" articles. What do you think of the Wikipedia article on yourself? ## The lawsuit by the man whose manuscripts were deleted from his computer had them accidentally deleted by a service technician of the computer service he was suing. The jury found that the negligence was partly his fault for not saving his files, and that he had not proven he could have sold the stories for the $2.7 million that he claimed. He was awarded the expenses he claimed for his research, but he was ordered by an appeals court to pay the computer company's legal expenses, which were higher. ## If I had been at that LASFS meeting, I would also have been shocked by the omission of Algis Budrys from the Special Order of Business announcements. I still remember his stories in the magazines of the 1950s, like "The Falling Torch". He was most visible at the Hubbard Writers of the Future events for the past decade or so.

De Jueves #1588 - (Moffatts) Define witches. I always felt that Baum's good and evil witches were the same as good and evil fairies. Probably his books would not have been criticized if he had called his witches fairies, although he had separate fairies. Compare with the good and evil fairies in Jules Verne's Adventures of the Rat Family, which also implies that the terms wizard, magician, and sorcerer are interchangeable. From my review in Yarf! #32, September 1994:

"The tale demonstrates Verne's passions for intellectual concepts and for the theater. It mixes magic with the scientific theory of evolution and with Oriental philosophies of reincarnation, which were then in vogue; and it is constructed like a traditional stage extravaganza. The members of the Rat family are the familiar exaggerated character stereotypes of Commedia dell' arte; the exotic locales (such as "Ratopolis, a very pretty city ... [its] boulevards, squares, and streets, are lined with magnificent cheeses in the form of houses", seem suspiciously like stage sets; and at the climax, when the wicked magician Gardafour loses and vanishes toward the Nether Regions, the illustrator literally shows him dropping through a trap door which has opened beneath his feet.

...

"In this "age of fairies and magicians", evolution has been simplified into five broad categories: mollusks, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and humanity. Theoretically, one moves up or down this "ladder of creation" depending upon whether one has been good or evil. This transmigration of souls is carried out by the various good fairies who monitor our deeds. Unfortunately, there are also wicked fairies and greedy magicians who do not hesitate to manipulate this evolution for their own profit.

"The Rat family is a household of pleasant and industrious rodents who have earned their right to humanity; as has daughter Ratine's loyal fiancé, Ratin. However, Ratine's beauty has been noticed by haughty, spoiled Prince Kissador, who demands that she submit to his pleasures. When she refuses, Kissador orders his unscrupulous hired magician, Gardafour, to regress her and her family back to mollusks. Meanwhile, Ratin has achieved his transformation into a man, and he hurries to the good fairy Firmenta to plead for justice. Firmenta is an old rival of Gardafour, and she speedily recommences the Rats' advancement towards manhood. But Gardafour and Kissador are too spiteful to accept defeat gracefully. They keep sneaking up every time Firmenta's back is turned, and trying anew to capture Ratine."

## I wonder if Marty Cantor considers Eric Frank Russell's Wasp to be science fiction. Russell admitted it was just one of the World War II British anti-Japanese espionage operations set in outer space. Marty? ## Yes, the Freefall strips on the Internet that started in 1998 begin with Florence joining the Freefall's crew, whereas the Freefall strips in Yarf! beginning in 1990 had her already in the crew. I think the Yarf! strips are among the funniest, and most of them are not repeated in the Internet strips. The LASFS Library used to have the first forty issues or so of Yarf!; you should be able to photocopy the Freefall strips from it. ## My thanks to Milt Stevens for printing & stapling Dian's story for me, if I have not acknowledged him previously.

Wonderlust - (Frame-Gray) I am glad that you found my information about the comic book adaptation of The 9/11 Report useful. You might also read the Wikipedia entry on the event, "September 11, 2001 attacks".

Effervescence über Alles - (Cantor) Most bookstores today like Barnes & Noble and Borders intermix their science-fiction and their fantasy, but do have a separate section for their horror. What bookstores do you visit where the s-f and the fantasy are separated?

Vanamonde #786 - (Hertz) Allison Hershey reported on the Inherit the Earth website that her strip would be delayed due to her oft-postponed marriage. Thanks for presenting this report on the marriage itself, which sounds really memorable in the best way.

I Abjugate Romulus & Remus - (Gold) It sounds as though Edward Champion, reviewer of The Real Stuff, was not aware that Campbell's "Who Goes There?" was written in the 1930s if he criticized it for being quaint and talky. ## My mind is turned off by all these website setup instructions. I am glad that you understand them & can make them work.