Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, January 5, 1966. Intended for Apa L, Sixty-Fourth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1482, January 6, 1966. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

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The "Hugo" is continuing to get good publicity; it's mentioned prominently on the reissue by Ballantine of Blish's A Case of Conscience, and Stranger in a Strange Land has just come out in its fifth printing with the "Hugo Award Winner Robert A. Heinlein" notice. The more publicity, the better -- and the more it becomes an award with some real meaning, the more I agree with Harlan that some sort of formal rules of continuity should be affixed to it, so that the Awards are no longer at the whim of individual WorldCon Committees year after year. Hopefully, this will be one bit of good that'll come out of the LonCon's arbitrary dropping of the "Best Dramatic Production" Award, and their retaining of the "Best Publisher" Award in spite of the PacifiCon's promise that the category would not be continued -- a regulatory board of some sort, distinct from the yearly Con Committees, will now be approved by Fandom. (Though the Awards will continue to be presented at the WorldCons, I hope.)

And speaking of the WorldCons, I'd like to say a few words on the idea some fans are currently expressing that the term "WorldCon" should be abandoned as being untruthfully grandiose, and some term such as "American" or "National" Convention used in its place. I'm in favor of retaining WorldCon. It may be true that today's World Convention is usually in fact little more than a national American convention. However, the mechanics do exist to turn it into a genuine WorldCon, as has been done twice already now (discounting Toronto). If there isn't any wild clamoring to take the Con out of the United States today, it's because there aren't that many foreign cities that are eager or able to host it. America is, to all practical purposes, the center of world science fiction, so I don't feel that we're being hoggish in keeping the term WorldCon for our big convention. (The British Isles, no. 2 in s-f production, have been able to get the WorldCon when they've wanted it.) To be frank, if our con isn't the WorldCon, what is? There is no other s-f convention in the world that isn't similarly insular; if we don't qualify for the use of the term, there's no other just choice than to drop the concept of a World Science Fiction Convention altogether -- and I doubt that anyone wants to do that. My suggestion is to keep things as they're now being handled; as new foreign cities bid for and get the WorldCon in the future, as they inevitably will, the term will come to have a true meaning. (I fully expect West Germany to put in a WorldCon bid within the next ten years, and I'm rather surprised that it hasn't already.)

I made an interesting discovery at the laundromat this week: somebody left behind the October 1965 issue of BOYS' LIFE, and it has an s-f story by Asimov in it, his first piece of fiction that I can recall in several years. ("The Man Who Made the 21st Century") I wonder how much I may've been missing by not keeping up with BOYS' LIFE over the years; I also note that the "new" Arthur C. Clarke novelette in the current AMAZING is a reprint from a fairly recent BOYS' LIFE. Whatever happened to those rumors of a Robert A. Heinlein serial in that magazine about ten years ago that's never been reprinted? (I mean besides Tenderfoot in Space; I know that exists, because I've seen the second installment.)

--BEING COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK'S DISTRIBUTION

Fred Hollander (also Felice Rolfe) -- I've never been overly style-conscious; I remember how once, when I was back in grammar school, I found a pair of buckle shoes which I happily persuaded my mother to buy me, and which I insisted on wearing long past their wearing out. (I've always had trouble with shoelaces, and would prefer to do without them today.) I remember being very disappointed at not being able to find another pair, and my mother trying to persuade me that lace shoes were really better for me anyhow because buckle shoes weren't in style. I didn't care; they were more comfortable (by which I mean much easier to fasten & unfasten). I still prefer utility to style, and I've made my mother angry more than once because I ignore her advice on how to assemble a well-laid-out wardrobe. I agree with you, Fred, on long hair; I have enough trouble with mine when I just let an extra week pass without going to the barber. How many non-functional relics are there on men's clothing today? Buttons on coatsleeves, even though nobody wears button-on gloves anymore? When I decided to wear my grandfather's old pocket watch as part of my Halloween costume last year, I could only find one pair of pants in my wardrobe of five or six that had a watch pocket.

Apropos of starting another useless list, what are your candidates in the field of "sequels that never should've been written"? By this, I mean sequels that tend to run a good series into the ground, or otherwise spoil the memory of a fine first novel. Items that come immediately to mind are Hubbard's Masters of Sleep, the abominable sequel to the enjoyable Slaves of Sleep; Hope's Rupert of Hentzau, the unnecessarily sad ending to which overshadows The Prisoner of Zenda; or Pratt & de Camp's last Harold Shea book, The Wall of Serpents. Your recommendations?

Gregg Wolford -- I wouldn't know about this year's "Man from U.N.C.L.E."; I don't have access to a television set. Now that Tom's moving into Greenfield, we're considering renting a color TV (if not, Tom'll buy a black-&-white portable for himself), in which case I may start watching it again, on those Fridays when I'm not at the Booby Hatch's movies. I notice that "Batman" is starting next week, with what appears to be a schedule of two-part adventures, beginning on Wednesday and ending on Thursday. As the program's from 7:30 to 8:00, I predict that a lot of people are gonna be arriving at the Meetings about a half hour late into the near future.

Speaking of the idiot box and suchall, I notice from the local theatre bills that Disney's "Winnie-the-Pooh" is not playing with "That Darn Cat", so maybe W-t-P is a full-length feature after all, and I was misinformed about the 26 minute length. It'll be fine with me if I don't have to sit through "Darn Cat".

Bruce Pelz -- As to mailing out the Dist'ns to the out-of-town contributors, Wolford and McFarland are the only two I agent for who get theirs at under 1st class postal rates anyway, so theoretically there shouldn't be much danger about opened envelopes. I haven't censored anything on the grounds of mailability yet, and I hope I won't feel compelled to. The main thing that makes me shudder about the talked-about plans for the 69th Dist'n is the promise of so much o f what I consider absolute crud. Unfortunately, as you say, we'll probably get such material if for no other reason than to Prove that its publisher is so Mature that he doesn't have to worry about Censorship. ## But shouldn't St. Melvil's lines have been written in modern reformed spelling?

Bill Glass -- Okay, amateur comics are a waste -- except that I don't feel that way; as I said, I liked your story line quite well, and I'm sorry if you won't accept anything less than 100% praise. Amateur comics are always at least good practice for their producers, and I've seen several excellent ones -- tho few good satire strips.

Bĵo Trimble -- I suppose I might as well go on record as being another of those who won't eat at Carolina Pines. Jayne asked me if I had one good reason for preferring Kal's, and I came up with five right off the top of my head. (Admittedly, some are personal, such as finding it handy to shop at the market across the street from Kal's before heading home.) But Kal's is closer, the service is better, the food as good and cheaper, and the lighting is sufficient so you can see where you are (I've never liked candlelit dining places). Frankly, I can't see why the club changed in the first place, but if enough fans have decided that Carolina Pines is now In, I won't argue with 'em. I've noticed that I haven't lost any of the fans I usually enjoy talking with to Carolina Pines. ## I checked with the Playground Director two weeks ago, and we would not be able to get the Playground at this time on every Friday evening. So, unless we want to leave Silverlake Playground, I guess we're stuck with Thursday nights for the present. ## I know what you mean about keeping our Treasury under cover. The LASFS has to sign a lease every year to get the continued use of the Playground, and I signed the lease twice when I was on the Executive Committee. Once, in filling out the information about our type of club, I checked the box that said we were a dues-collecting group rather than the one that said we collected no dues or fees. Fortunately, this was during the type we had that extremely helpful Playground Director serving, and he called me aside and pointed out that, as I'd checked the box, the City would want to collect rent from us; and he gave us a fresh form to fill out. But the City does rotate its Playground Directors, and all it'll take is one officious one to hear our Treasury Report, and we'll have had it. ## I'm sorry I missed the Pelzes' half of the Christmas Party, but after one solid day of fan party at your house, I felt more in the mood for the Disneyland jaunt than for another solid day of fan party.

Ruth Berman -- A very good song by Ted; does it have music? ## Now that Ted failed to get himself elected LASFS Secretary, he could use the time he'd have spent in writing up the Minutes to get active in Apa L. Ted?

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We've got a Cyrillic (Russian) typewriter at work, and I've been having fun doodling around and learning the keyboard. Below are the names of 16 Apa L contributors, in the Russian alphabet; can you pick out yours? (Bruce, you want to check me on these? My knowledge of Cyrillic is still hit-and-miss so far.)

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Terry Romine -- I'd prefer one continuous adventure strip to the series of short humor and broken-off adventure strips you've been putting out. ## I wonder what'd happen if all the apa L'ers who're interested in comic books got together to play a jointly-produced comic page?

Helen Smith -- A good first issue, but how about putting your name on it in the future?

Gregg Wolford again -- You can continue the fractional Apa L Dist'ns as a postdist'n, which is in effect what they were; a good one-shot ploy that we had enough sense to call off before it became a bad habit. No set of Apa L is complete without 'em. ## No, you've got it wrong. SINA won't arrest animals for indecent exposure; it'll have the owners arrested, both for contributing to indecent exposure, and for holding their animals up for public embarrassment by forcing them to go around unclothed. Have you ever seen any official SINA literature?

Don Fitch -- It would seem to me that the adolescent fan who insists on putting the ...salty sort of things into a Dist'n, even after everyone else has made it clear far in advance that they consider this a sign of immaturity rather than maturity, is deliberately holding himself up to ridicule or tolerant amusement. On his own head be it. (Then he wonders if the rest of us are trying to freeze him out of our in-group, when we ignore his zine or have nothing but criticism for it.)