Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, February 3, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Sixteenth Distribution, LASFS Meeting #1434, February 4, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: 213 GR 3-6321.

I see that GAMMA is still with us. The fourth issue of LA's own prozine appeared on the newsstands, with a Roscoeawful cover by someone named John Healy. (Castora, am I nuts, or does the art style look to you like that in THE FLY and THE JAGUAR?) What happened to Dollens' series of astronomical scenes? They were very good Dollens art, and certainly much better than this. GAMMA has gone downhill in several other respects too -- "cute" ads ("RINGO STARR ... will probably not appear in future issues of GAMMA"); a blownup CHEX PRESS melodrama by Ron Goulart posing as sf satire; "Hans Off in Free Pfall to the Moon", by E.A. Poe, a "new GAMMA discovery" (you tell me what this one is about); and other material of less than "Hugo" calibre. I don't know what Fritch and Matcha are trying out, but as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't work.

The second issue of MINOTAUR, the Argentinean reprint edition of F&SF, also hit the La newsstands this Tuesday. Considering all the foreign-language reprints of that magazine that there've been, I don't know why all of a sudden this one should start getting a big local distribution, but here it is. It's worth picking up an issue as a curio, even if you don't speak Spanish. The newsdealer didn't seem to know what to do about it, either. I dropped it on the counter and said, "How much is this?" He looked it over until he found what he thought was the price, and said, "$1.00". "Check again," I advised him; "that says $100, and an Argentinean peso's only worth 2¢." "Okay, 50¢", he shrugged. Don't you take any guff about the price either.

And I see that Pyramid really is publishing a novel titled Space Opera, about the adventures of an interplanetary showboat. I'll be looking forward to reading it.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE FIFTEENTH DISTRIBUTION

Dwain Kaiser -- You've finally put out something worth reading; congratulations. ## 40 copies of THofTG will still be welcome. As you can see from looking over the Handout Record, we run to 35 complete copies, and usually about 10 incompletes (well, 5 incompletes now, at least). So if you want to make sure we get about a half dozen extras of THofTG for those incompletes, it'd be appreciated. ## Yeah, the first two issues of your zine had no left-hand margin, which made it murder to read after being stapled into the Distribution. This makes for the biggest headache in collating the Distribution; trying to get the staples as far to the left as possible so as not to obscure any of the text, without running them so far to the left that the pages pull loose. ## Right; black ditto masters are good for artwork, but not for text.

Len Bailes -- A very enjoyable contribution this time. I'm still not well-enough versed in Randism to join in the conversation, but your comments here are among the very few I've found worth reading. ## I agree it's a bad idea to overuse the "No Award" vote in a "Hugo" category. While I didn't exactly turn handsprings for joy over any of the Short Fiction this year, there were several pieces I consider more worthwhile than a "No Award" vote. I notice that last year's winner, Poul Anderson's "No Truce With Kings", is getting almost unanimously lousy reviews in the prozine review columns, by the way. I wonder what the reviewers would think of "Code 3", which was my choice. Incidentally, I've just sent in my "Hugo" nomination ballot to the LonCon this week; has everybody else done likewise? With a note formally requesting the restoration of the "Best Dramatic Production" category, of course.

Lyn Stier -- Read The Worm Ouroboros for color references. And I'd imagine you'ld en- (sic) C.L. Moore's Judgment Night for references as to both color and costume: "Presently a flash of scarlet seen through the leaves of a passing platform caught her eye. She remembered then that she had noticed that same shocking cloak upon a young man on the stairs. It was a garment so startling that she felt more than a passing wonder about the personality of the man who would wear it. The garment had been deliberately designed to look like a waterfall of gushing blood, bright arterial scarlet that rippled from the shoulders in a cascading deluge, its colors constantly moving and changing so that one instinctively looked downward to see the scarlet stream go pouring away behind its wearer down the stairs." (p. 20-21)

Bill Blackbeard -- I'm glad to hear that C.L. Moore's attitude towards sf & fandom has taken an upswing. I don't believe I've ever met her. Back when FANTASTIC was running its series of "Fantasy Classic Reprints", I suggested to Moskowitz that he try to get "Werewoman", a Northeast Smith story that had never been published in a prozine. Moskowitz replied that he'd already tried, but Mrs. Moore didn't want it reprinted because she felt that it did not represent her current writing style. I hope she'll reconsider; I'd like to read it, even if it is "old-fashioned". ## I still cannot find that much difference between the Baum and Thompson Oz books. ## Wollheim seems to be pushing sword-&sorcery lately, even in collections (Swordsmen In the Sky); maybe he'd be interested in reprinting "Werewoman" in a collection.

Don Fitch -- I'm glad I said empty snail shells. ## The more members/variety there is in Apa L, the more choice of m.c. material you have. And, theoretically, one of the added advantages of the apa which is run through the local club is that, if you are unable for some reason to comment on the subject in print, or if you really want to discuss it, you can just get together with the publisher in person at next week's Meeting, with anyone else who really wants to join in.

Betty Knight -- Welcome to publishing fandom, at long last. ## I'd like to meet your rabbit sometime. I hope he's not still eating the spines off your issues of UNKNOWN? ## There was a Mimi O. Graph in a mythical comic strip in Wilmar H. Shiras' Children of the Atom; is that where you got the name, or did you invent it on your own?

Creath Thorne -- If you can get to LA next summer, you'll be the first of our long-distance contributors to make it to the LASFS in person (after you got into Apa L, I mean). Is there any chance of getting anybody else out here for the Westercon this year? Rich Mann? John Boardman? The Lupoffs? Len? ## While I'm not psychiatrist, I can't help wondering what effect these almost-unanimously depressing, "realistic, slice-of-life" novels have on our culture? As an exposition of reality, they are worthwhile, and should not be ignored -- Salinger's The Catcher In the Rye is good as a moral warning, even if it isn't pleasant reading. But what can you say for all the sex-in-suburbia best-sellers, which seem to revel in "reality" more than they expose it? I refuse to consider this as a model of what my life should be like, which is one reason I reject this school of writing -- I find it distasteful and impossible to identify with any of the characters or setting. Are these the "actual masses", rather than a select group of psychotics? I should sincerely hope not.