Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, April 14, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Twenty-Sixth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1444, April 15, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

I get letters. I may not always answer 'em, but I still get them on occasion. At times, they touch on subjects applicable to Apa L. For instance, referring to that combination prayer/chain-letter ("General Thurman lost his wife!", as Dian reported it), Greg Shaw reports:

I too received a prayer from the Netherlands. Just thot you might like to know. I have not received my good luck in the mail yet, but then I broke the chain, so I guess my wife is doomed. Mine came from Shadwell, Va. [Wife or prayer?] I figure that either a fan is doing it, or some fan turned an N3F roster over to a crackpot to use as a mailing list, because altho I am on thousands of mailing lists, only fandom knows me as "Greg Shaw" which the letter was addressed to. I suspect that either Fred Lerner or Seth Johnson is doing it. I hope this information has been of help to you.

Seth doesn't play tricks like this, and I think he's got enough sense not to turn the N3F mailing list over to a crackpot of this sort (especially after we all jumped on him for turning the roster over to THE NATIONAL GUARDIAN for their mailing list). Lerner is a distinct possibility; it's just the sort of thing that would appeal to his pixie mind. I think Dian suspected Gary Deindorfer; possibly, but he's been out of the fannish scene for a while now. Well, I won't stay awake worrying about it. And Mark Irwin wonders:

Just for curiosity's sake, what do you do when you're not running N'APA?

What I do is mostly publish Apa L zines these days. In fact, to hear John Kusske talk, I'm spending so much time with Apa L that I'm no longer running N'APA any more. That's a matter of opinion; I'll admit I may not be as N'APA-oriented as I was when I was first elected Official Editor of that group back in 1962, but I'm in a lot more fannish groups now than I was three years ago, and Apa L's not the sole cause of my interest spreading to other apas. Still, these are personal reasons, and Kusske has a right to hold another viewpoint. Let's face it; if Kusske didn't have something to gripe about, he'd invent it. Who am I to spoil his fun?

I see that Bantam's latest three Doc Savage reprints are out, including Brand of the Werewolf, the cover of which shows Doc struggling with a Lon Chaney Jr.-type Wolfman. I haven't read the story yet, but I'll bet there's nothing like that in there; I don't think the Hollywood Wolfman had been invented when this was written, in 1934. Now that I've stuck my neck out, I'll read it and see.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE PREVIOUS DISTRIBUTION

Jack Harness -- Glad to see The Labyrinth of Valeron back again, and with a complete-in-one-part episode, at that. Let's have more of these. Who'll be featured next time? ## Assuming that J.C. is the Son of God, He was/is conversant with all languages (though naturally he would be speaking Aramaic or whatever the local language was at the time). ## Money collected for Apa L goes to reimburse those who spend money on such things as staples, paper for the Table of Contents (and sometimes the covers), the hekto carbons, and stencils for the covers when such are solicited by the Official Collator (such as the Bĵo-Simpson collaborations) instead of being donated. In other words, Gilbert and I get most of it; Don Fitch is eligible to collect for the use of his hekto, but so far he's refused payment. We're only looking for enough to pay us back for these expenditures (which don't build up very fast), not to build up a cash reserve to buy special equipment; and the passing of the bag last time netted so much that we shouldn't have to pass it again for another month or so. As long as we can collect our expenses on a voluntary basis, I'm against an outright charge to anybody.

Before I forget to mention it again, I'd like to notify you all that the Pickwick Book Shop in Hollywood is once again remaindering mint s-f books for $1 each. Titles include Van Vogt's The Mind Cage, Roshwald's Level 7, Sheckley's Untouched by Human Hands, and Sturgeon's Thunder and Roses (these last two are the British editions from Michael Joseph). All are regular trade editions, not Book Club. There's about 20 copies of each, only half of which have the dust jackets in the case of the British books. They're on the mezzanine along the left hand wall as you come up the stairs. Let's hope this is just the prelude to another big push of s-f. (Remember 4 years ago when they were remaindering mint stacks of dozens of Gnome Press titles for 59¢ each? Sigh.)

Ed Baker -- A very nice beastie. Ellsworth Toohey as played by Edward G. Robinson?

John Boardman -- Yes, Los Angeles was originally El Pueblo de etc.; it was raised to Ciudad status in 1935 or '36 when it was made the state capital, replacing Monterey. Monterey objected, seceded the province from Mexico, and set up the first República de California, which lasted about two years until the Federal Government agreed to move the capital back to Monterey and recognize the rebel leader as the Governor if he'd stop futzing around and start sending tax money back down to Mexico City again. Monterey-Los Angeles friction kept things stirred up for the next decade, though, depending on whether José Castro (Monterey) or Pio Pico (LA) was on top at the moment, until the Gringos took over the province and moved the capital elsewhere completely. So El Pueblo is the original name, but either can be counted as the authentic full Spanish name. And I don't know why they didn't abbreviate it to "Nuestra Senora" or "La Reina" instead of "Los Angeles", considering what the name really means. ## Me as a Cuban Exile? I suppose I could consider myself as a Spanish Exile as well, considering that Cuba was still a Spanish colony when my ancestors hurriedly left. How popular would I be parading around the U.N. with a sign reading "Vivan los Bourbons", or "Abajo Castro; arriba Don Jaime"?

Bruce Pelz -- N'APA was started by the N3F because they felt that the club ought to have its own apa. As such, it's worked out pretty well, both in introducing Neff neofen to pubbing fandom, and in drawing pubbing BNFs (omniapan types) into the N3F. Without the N3F tie-in, N'APA would be, as you say, "just another APA, and not very good at that." So I think the N3F hookup is desirable. We'll soon see what N'APA thinks of it; Lerner has submitted a motion for voting next mailing to remove the first sentence of Article Seven, maintaining the unalterability of the Preamble, from the Bylaws. As it's the Preamble that legalized N'APA's existence as a committee of the N3F, I think we can guess what'll come next if Lerner's motion is passed.