¡Rábanos Radiactivos! #2225

Written by Fred Patten, and intended for Apa L, 2225^th Distribution, LASFS Meeting No. 3673, January 3, 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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Last Thursday was like a belated Christmas. In addition to late Christmas cards (including one with a Canadian Post Office cancellation of Santa HO HO HO Pčre Noël), I got a DVD screener of Bee Movie with a cover letter listing the five Annie Awards it is nominated for. This was actually a special screener because the commercial DVD of Bee Movie is not out yet, from the Paramount Awards Office in Valencia rather than DreamWorks Animation itself. Paramount's cover letters are not nearly as friendly as DreamWorks': "Warning: Records have been kept of the shipment to you of this copy-protected screener. If you copy or allow this screener to be copied, it will be considered a violation of federal and international copyright law, and may result in civil and criminal charges." Well, I will try to enjoy Bee Movie anyway.

Also in the mail was File 770 #151 from Mike Glyer, and a furry s-f novel from Bernard Doove in Melbourne, Life's Dream: The Journey of Pandora & Karl, about a 24th-century human and his big-breasted foxtaur lover. "Two hurting souls. Two different species. Two very different cultures. When their paths cross, can they find common ground and achieve Life's Dream?" Didn't we recently go through this with a spaceshipful of oversexed alien cat-taurs who all love the human hero? Life's Dream was already serialized on Doove's fan fiction website over the last two years, so I know that it is more tastefully written than Joined in Mind and Body even if it is as erotic. (Karl and Pandora are devoted monogamous lovers, though exhibitionistic.) The book was published by Amazon.com's CreateSpace division as an attractive trade paperback only two weeks ago with a nice cover by Heather Bruton, and is available on Amazon.com for $17.95. Doove is also the editor-publisher of the long-running furry fanzine South Fur Lands; #47 just came out.

My sister Sherrill took me to last week's LASFS meeting that evening. We had three popular Patron Saints to praise; Elayne Pelz, Robbie Bourget, and Marty Cantor. Rob Powell demonstrated one of the new green "$100" XO-1 laptop computers that are a big hit in Peru under the "One Laptop Per Child" program; Jerry Pournelle predicted that it meant the end of the children's book industry. Rick Foss reviewed John Scalzi's The Android's Dream as a very witty s-f comedy, prompting me to review the first few pages of Harry Turtledove's Every Inch a King (which I had just started reading) as fitting the same description, as soon as I saw all the ingroup references on the first two pages alone. ("Dooger and Cark's" Traveling Emporium of Marvels indeed!) I also made two Fannish Committee Reports, which I do not often do; one on France's edict banning e.mail (the English word; from now on French computer users ("computernauts") are supposed to call it "courriel" instead - whether the government can enforce this against anyone besides French bureaucrats is doubtful), and the other on Egypt's announcement that it has copyrighted the pyramids, the Sphinx, and other antiquities, and anyone using pictures or making models of them has to pay royalties to the Egyptian government from now on - how they expect to enforce this outside Egypt also remains to be seen). After the meeting, Sherry drove me back to the hospital via several side streets for a last look at some of North Hollywood's lighted lawn Christmas decorations before they got taken down.

Anthro #15, Jan.- Feb. 2008, should be online by now with my Furry book reviews.

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ˇZANAHORIAS ELECTRóNICAS!

-- Comments on Last Week's Distribution:

De Jueves #1563 - (Moffatts) No, kangaroos do not naturally box with their paws. They rear back onto their tails and kick with their feet which have claws. ## Wikipedia has a long entry on auto rickshaws (their spelling) with lots of photographs. They do seem to be the same as three-wheeled mini-taxis. ## In retrospect, my stroke did begin while I was working on my computer close to midnight, but I did not realize it was a stroke. I felt strangely dizzy and thought I had better go to bed and get a good night's sleep. It was about an hour later that I woke up feeling so horrible that I realized I better call 911 immediately. If I had turned off the lights when I went to bed, I might never have been able to stagger to the telephone without crashing into furniture in the dark before I collapsed.

ˇRábanos Radiactivos! #2224 - (Patten) Oops! Did I say that the red saltire on a white field was the cross of St. Peter? I meant St. Patrick, of course.

Vanamonde #761 - (Hertz) "Mandarin" is Pidgin English rather than Chinese? The Japanese word for president, daitorio, literally means Big Leader. ## Have you heard Beethoven's 7^th & 8^th Symphonies rescored for Japanese teenyboppers to dance to? "You can have the octopus; I don't like the way it looks. Ooh, eggs, eggs!" ## That is why I am taking charge of the LASFS and Loscon histories that I write. If I am to have the public reputation for making sure they are accurate, I will make sure that everyone knows when they are published with errors that others add to them.

Hopscotch Butterscotch and Single Malt - (Cantor) Oh, we should subject you to Beethoven's 7^th & 8^th Symphonies rescored for Japanese teenyboppers! ## Science Fiction (I am interrupted by a cat staring at me through my window) fans read Science Fiction Books. Furry Fans read Furry Books, or publish their own. I have no trouble finding eight books to review every two months for Anthro. ## "all trees are green all year in Los Angeles." Not the jacarandas, which shed lavender leaves twice a year so heavily that a car parked beneath a jacaranda looks like a lavender Rose Bowl Parade float.

Fish Out of Water #255 - (Helgesen) Galco's and other soft drink specialty stores in Los Angeles make a point of carrying Coca-Cola bottled in Mexico with the sugar syrup. It costs extra, of course.

Godzilla Verses #171 -- (DeChancie) The Eaton Collection would doubtlessly like one each of whatever mint-condition Pittcon paraphernalia you have. It should have my used membership card. (I was a member but did not attend. I was sent the card and Program Book but not the badge.) ## One reason that I lost interest in American comic books was the art which became extremely Arty and looked more designed to sell the original page for Big Bucks to fans than to tell a coherent story.