Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, June 30, 1966. Intended for Apa L, Eighty-Ninth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1507, June 30, 1966. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

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The WesterCon is already furiously upon me, as far as I'm concerned. I've been typing stencils for The Best from APA L all week, getting fitted out for a costume for the Costume Ball, and getting phonecalls. (I say getting phonecalls; I mean people have been phoning my house -- invariably when I've just stepped out for a minute.) Ruth Berman got into town yesterday (without Jean, unfortunately), and Johnny Chambers is arriving this evening; just in time to get to tonight's meeting. Sadly, the New York fans phoned from Roy Tackett's home in Albuquerque last night and said that they won't be able to make it to L.A. in time for LASFS, after all, so they're heading directly for San Diego.

This is a disappointment, as I'd looked forward to seeing them a little early, and seeing them together before they disperse all over the Con hotel. On the other hand, their nonarrival is a mixed blessing, because, frankly, if they had come through here, the delay they would've caused in my fanac would probably have meant that The Best from APA L wouldn't be coming out on time after all -- I'm running that close to the deadline. It's completion is still a manner of question, in fact -- I've got about five more pages to stencil after I finish this RR, and most of the zine to run off yet. Fortunately, I'm getting a lot of help; Len Bailes is out in the garage running off pages right now (and he'll come in to do IPZIK! as soon as I'm finished with this), and Al Lewis got a lot done for me last night. So, if we can keep the mimeo rolling steadily while I finish the last few pages, we should get through in time, after all -- not in time for tonight's Meeting, but by mid-day tomorrow. If not, I might not get down to the Convention before Saturday sometime, though I certainly hope I can get away earlier than that.

A lot of people have been saying that this year's worth of Apa L was poor in comparison to the first 32 Dist'ns, and we wouldn't be able to fill up another anthology this year -- Tom Gilbert didn't think we could get more than about 75 pages (as compared to 124 last year), and he felt we'd probably have to delve back into the period already covered in last year's The Best to get that many. Well, as things stand now, this year's volume looks as though it's going to run about 128 pages, and there's all sorts of material I'm going to have to leave out due to lack of time and space that I'd planned on including. So much for this year not being as good as the first thirty-two Dist'ns! I'm sorry to leave out such things as Bill Glass' mystery, some of Bruce's travel reports, selections from "Labyrinth DuQuesne", and other material. It looks, Dwain Kaiser, as though you're going to have quite a bit from last year's Apa L that will be available for you BEST OF FANDOM, after all.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK'S DISTRIBUTION

Bĵo Trimble -- I sure wish I could've seen "The Sorcerer", since it is so seldom performed. But if I had gone, The Best never would've been ready in time for the WesterCon. Too bad there wasn't time enough to do both. Of course, you can say that for so many things in life... ## Don't worry about Bruce's comic strip; there are references there that I don't get, and I like to think that I'm up on all the ingroupisms. Being able to understand all Bruce's references is usually the exception, rather than the rule. As for the strip being mean, I understand that a large percentage of the people caricatured in it are planning to go to the WesterCon Costume Ball disguised as those characters, so I guess that most of them like it.

Fred Hollander -- It sounds as though Babieca is about ready to be put out to pasture for the last time. Gee, I remember when you had just joined the club, and you and Babieca and Fuzzy Britches were inseparable. ## Banning bulky nonsense inclusions in Apa L isn't exactly a new policy. We've had the problem ever since Don Fitch brought 30 gardenia corsages to the club, followed by 30 snail shells a few weeks later. Of course, those weren't mounted on paper. But card stock is always a problem, for the reader at least, if it's included anywhere except at the ends of the Dist'n. This is especially true if it's got something attached to it -- if you think that storing a Dist'n with a hypodermic syringe or a bag of potato chips is hard, just try collating it, as well. I offered to use J.G.'s zine with the hypodermic as a future Apa L cover, so that it would file on top of the Dist'n, if he wanted; but he declined and handed it out in person -- which is probably for the best, all the way around. Those that want to bring 50 empty beer cans or white mice and have them as part of Apa L can continue to bring them to the LASFS Meetings and hand them out in person. That way, those who want to keep them can file them with their Dist'ns, and those who don't won't have to. Apa L is for the enjoyment of LASFS, and most of the recipients of Apa L don't enjoy having to care for fragile inclusions in their Dist'ns. In fact, at least ¾ of these bulky inclusions that are brought are done so for the specific sadistic purpose of causing problems for the Apa L collectors, and this sort of thing doesn't help matters at all. ## Remind me in another week or so, when I've got time to check through my collection, and I'll try to look up that story of the Analogue-outlaw-traveler for you. I'm pretty sure it's by Sheckley.

Andy Porter -- If my comments on Dracula as a comic-book super-hero -- a shining paragon of Right and Good and Brotherly Love -- raised questions in your mind, you can imagine how I felt when I saw the thing itself. ## Hey, I wonder if Don Wollheim would let a reference to "Ted Johnstone" get through Dave McDaniel's next U.N.C.L.E. novel? He's not likely to get sued for that one. Hey, Ted, maybe you could even write yourself into the series as a regular character -- THRUSH doesn't have any regular continuing characters yet, does it? ## Say, if all you New Yorkers aren't going to be here for this Meeting, we probably won't be needing those extra ten copies of the Dist'n I called for. Oh, well.

Johnny Chambers -- If you can remember to: (a.) put enough postage on ANDVARI each week, so the postman will deliver it to me instead of making me go in to the Post Office on Saturday to bail it out, and (b.) enclose a stamped, self-addressed return envelope with each of your zines so I can send the Dist'n back to you, we'll get along fine. Otherwise... well, your zines aren't gonna get into the Dist'ns sitting in the P.O.; and while I can drop your copy of the Dist'n into a mailbox without any envelope, address, or stamps, it's not very likely to get to you.

Bruce Pelz -- Running Apa L zines at the Playground doesn't really take up much time, provided the stencils are cut ahead of time, rather than at the Meeting. And I have given up soliciting on-the-spot contributions.