Rábanos Radiactivos number 4
Written & published by Fred Patten on the LASFS Rex Rotary, November 11, 1964. Intended for Apa L, 4th Distribution, LASFS meeting #1422, November 12, 1964. Address: 5156 Chesley Ave., Los Angeles, Calif., 90043. Phone: 213 AXminster 1-1310.
LONCON II in 1965! Jock Root for TAFF! Salamander Press #55

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I ran out of stencils again over the weekend -- an intolerable situation to any trupubbing fan -- so I drove out to Duplication Supply Co. today on my lunch hour to get a fresh supply. I'd been in just last week, too; local fandom seems to spend a large portion of its time & money flowing in and out of our city's friendliest mimeo supply house. Anyway, in I strolled, and "Hi!" I said to Diana, DupSupply's loyal office girl and Friend in Need to the publishing fan.

"Oh, hello again! Say, what is your name, anyway? Another fellow from your club came in just after you left -- I think his name was Redd -- and I mentioned you'd been in, but I didn't know your name, and he couldn't recognize who you were from my description of you."

"I'm Fred Patten. Yeah, that'd be Redd Boggs. I can understand his not guessing who I was if you told him I was wearing a suit & tie -- I never go to meetings this formally dressed."

"Yes, he was Redd Boggs", she confirmed. "Say, he's cute. We got to talking and I asked him what he did for a living. He said he writes sex stories. 'Oh, you mean like in SEXOLOGY?' I asked him. 'Well, sorta like that', he sort of mumbled. Then I said, 'Gee, how do you become an expert in a field like that?' And guess what happened?"

"Like a two-cent stamp?" I hazarded.

"Yes; he turned the brightest red I've ever seen. Does he always do that? I think he's a darling; you're just going to have to send him in here more often."

I move we give Redd an egobuck for his work in furthering friendly relations between the club and the outside world, and appoint him our Ambassador At Large in all future business between the LASFS and mundane members of the fairer sex. He certainly seems to have a way with the women. Have you considered giving lessons, Redd?

- o0o - - o0o - - o0o -

And today's mail just brought me some APA45 zines from Richie Benyo, the apa's OE. APA45, you may remember, is the apa with a membership limited to fans born during or after 1945. Because of a high activity requirement, I predicted that APA45 would have a short life, assuming it ever got off the ground at all. Richie has sent me the apa's By-laws, the official organ to the first mailing, and his own APA45 zine, to prove to me that APA45 is indeed a reality. This first mailing consists of 222 pages from among 13 members, with promised postmailings that would bring the total past the 400-page mark. Truly an auspicious beginning!

APA45 seems to be set up as more of a training course for neofans than I s any other apa, N'APA included. I quote from the By-laws: "ARTICLE II: Purpose. Section 1: The main purpose of APA45 shall be to improve, among its Membership, the quality of their respective publications." What? This is beginning to sound like the Neofan's Course in Self-Confidence.

For APA45's own sake, I hope it isn't going to take itself this seriously. 222 pages already proves the members have what it takes; if they want their reputations improved -- among genfandom, I presume this means -- they're going to have to make sure their fanzines go out to a larger group than just APA45 itself. This is also taken care of in the By-laws; each Active Member must publish "a minimum of 20 pages of general fanzine" every six months. If he's doing this anyhow, he doesn't need APA45 to improve his reputation. The Section also has a transitional sound to it, implying that after the member's reputation has been improved, he'll no longer need APA45. Forget the stuffy-sounding rules, gang, and have fun; you'll last a lot longer that way.

I notice that of the 13 members so far, all but 5 are already in N'APA. I'd suggest that the other 5 join N'APA and then disband APA45 as superfluous, if N'APA weren't already full -- which shows that APA45 does have a useful purpose after all; it's the only apa currently around that a neofan can immediately join, without having to go thru a long period on a waiting list. Of course, a neo can't get into APA45 unless he already knows a lot about pubbing a fanzine anyhow; there's that 20 pages of genzine every six months. Well, it all sounds kind of confusing to me; I hope it all works out okay in practice. Good luck again. LASFS members Kusske and Mann are both APA45er's; how about keeping us posted on how things go, fellows?

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE THIRD DISTRIBUTION

Nhoj Ekssuk -- You mailed your zine on Wednesday and it got here the next day? What rates did you send it at? ## Another good reason not to miss a distribution of Apa L is that, if you do, there won't be any comments addressed at/to you in the following distribution. To keep in the limelight, you must indeed remain active. Remember, Apa L, with its weekly distributions, will bring you more comments and egoboo than any other apa (except Apa F). So stand tall and face front. ## In this election, my vote was more for Humphrey and against Goldwater & Miller than for Johnson. And in the California senatorial race, it's being said that one of the strongest factors contributing to Pierre Salinger's defeat was in his taking a definite stand on an issue (against Prop. 14, the anti-Rumford amendment), while his opponent remained vague and stuck to personalities. So much for politics this year. ## This month's Marvel Comics went on sale in Los Angeles just last week, and we promptly sent in our application for a Los Angeles local chapter of the MMMS. Charter members: Patten, Gilbert, Stine, Bruce Pelz, Castora, Baker, Gail Thompson, and Harness. Later members: Hannifen and Ted Johnstone. Why don't you write Stan Lee and ask him to add your individual membership to the roster of his ever-lovin' Los Angeles Chapter of the MMMS (Fred Patten, local president, in case there're any other Los Angeles local chapters)? The more, the merrier, which is the way he likes 'em. Hey, Len, you interested in getting in on our bandwagon?

Knah Enits -- More Ayn Rand? I was hoping that would go out with the elections last week. ## And if you think I'm going to waste my time reading those two paperbacks you franked through to do mailing comments on them, your gourd must be filled (about 1/3 full, I'd say) with little shiny pebbles. ## As long as you don't imply that I'll be sleeping with the LASFS mimeo, as a certain other member was hinting, we're still friends. ## Let's see more of your musical version of Atlas, and I may read the book.

Dder Sggob -- We were wondering why you hadn't been wandering around unshaven for the last few days; we're glad to know you haven't gone completely to seed. Your costume was quite effective. I hope somebody got a photo of it, too (even if it wasn't in the same class as Katya's). By the way, Diana also expressed relief on hearing that you'd shaved off the whiskers. You seem to have made quite a conquest there. ## Good picture of you by Gretchen; I didn't know she could drive that well.

Llib Draebkcalb -- Oh, Oscar! If we've got to have long, serious, intellectual-philosophical lectures, let's bring back Technocracy. That at least had the virtue of sounding futurific and stfnal.

Ecurb Zlep -- I suppose you realize that this 3rd Distribution is technically illegal, since it was collected, assembled & distributed at a rump gathering and never got near the official LASFS Meeting of 5 Nov. '64. It seems to me that that defeats the whole purpose of Apa L. It's a pity you couldn't at least have assembled the Distribution outside of the meeting and gone in briefly to hand it out to the LASFS members. This would have had the advantages of a.) making the Distribution technically legal, and b.) giving the fans inside something interesting to read during the interminable speeches that went on until midnight, I understand. (I wouldn't know; I left at a quarter of 10 with Tom Gilbert, as soon as they stopped serving the food, to make sure I didn't miss out on the Apa L Distribution I knew you were getting out anyway.) The Anniversary Meeting wasn't a total loss; Forry was handing out free copies of Jimmy Warren's new horror comic, CREEPY; and you did get your $3.00 worth of food -- there was more than I could eat, anyway. ## I was fairly satisfied with t he outcome of the elections; the local part, anyhow. As I said, I'm not too happy about the prospect of four more years of LBJ, but better than letting Goldwater & Miller at the controls of the country. I voted for Salinger rather than Murphy, but I'm not really very enthusiastic about either; again, I voted for the Democrat just to make sure the Goldwaterites got stomped as hard as possible. As far as I could tell from all the campaign flak, GOP Murphy is a thinly-disguised Goldwaterite, and Demo. Salinger is a nothing waving the coattails of Kennedy and Johnson for all he's worth. As to the state Propositions, the only one I was really interested in that failed to pass was Prop. 15 -- pay tv -- and it looks as though that one may be declared unconstitutional, anyhow. Nationally, I was disappointed that to many moderate and liberal Republicans got swept away by the Johnson; it'll make it that much harder rebuilding the party. ## I'll put up with almost anything as long as I'm winning at cards, even Barney Bernard's poor sportsmanship and lousy puns -- though if he ever pulls another trick like refusing to deal until we've listened to one of his crummy jokes, there will be bloodshed. ## If the FAPA amendment does pass denying/revoking FAPA membership to any fan who is/has-been a member of the Cult, I shall simply introduce an amendment to the Cult Constitution proposing that all members of FAPA be made honorary Cultists.

Mot Treblig -- I don't know that you can really say that Apa L is revitalizing the LASFS; with the exception of Don Fitch, virtually everybody active in Apa L so far is from the small hyperactive core that was providing most of the action at our Meetings lately anyway. (I refer to our attending members, of course.) You were about to become active in pubbing fandom anyway, I believe. True, it does look like Apa L may nudge the Thompsons, Dan Alderson, Dave Fox, ,and possibly Bruce Roberts into publishing activity, but it's still too early to tell for sure. ## Here, now; if you complain about the Junior Committeeman and the Secretary, we won't know which post to elect you to come the December LASFS elections. You should have complained about the Director, and gotten yourself our top office right off. ## I agree that it would be desirable to get our distributions out as early in the evening as possible; preferably when the Meeting is no more than halfway through. As it is, the distributions so far have been assembled as close to the last minute as possible; preferably when the Meeting is no more than halfway through. As it is, the distributions so far have been assembled as close to the last minute as possible; there's a brief scuffle for them as we leave, and, except for the participating members that publish m.c.'s next week, that's been it. If any of the other LASFSians do read the distributions they get, any comments they may have had are apparently forgotten by the following week. Distributing the distribution early enough to give everybody at the Meeting time to glance at it and make comments on the spot may increase interest enough to get us a few more participating members in Apa L. ## If you hadn't shown me Tarzan and the Silver Globe, I wouldn't have believed in it. It hasn't gone on sale in

LA yet. You Pasadenans that get all your paperbacks and comics and prozines two weeks ahead of us ... ## As you'll have noted, I have been convinced by the arguments that Apa L should have Distributions rather than Mailings, since it is principally distributed by hand instead of being mailed out. ## I think that it is because Heinlein was trying to express his personal views through Hugh Farnham that he took more care with Farnham's Freehold than with most of his other recent books, and thus produced his best novel since Starship Troopers. So this fact is hardly "totally irrelevant to the intrinsic literary merit" of the book, unless you take a much narrower view of what constitutes "intrinsic literary merit" than I do. ## It's been a long time since we had a LASFS Theater Party; what say we get one up to go see "The World of Ray Bradbury"? By the way, I believe this show is the first science fictional dramatic production to win really favorable critical acclaim from all the mundane reviewers. It has been mentioned in local newspapers, in "culture" supplements, in national news magazines, and to my knowledge, nobody's said a word other than in praise of it yet. So this is the year our WorldCon Committee decides to eliminate the Best Dramatic Presentation award from the list of the "Hugo" awards for 1964, because "there's nothing better than horror movies and the fans will just vote 'No Award' again anyway." I suggest we all write a letter of protest to Ella Parker, citing several of the good dramatic productions that have appeared this year -- "Dr. Strangelove", "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao", "Robinson Crusoe on Mars", "The Brass Bottle", Harlan Ellison's tv shows -- to show that there is reason to include the Dramatic category again this year, and request that it be restored to the "Hugo" ballot. It's not yet too late.

Nel Seliab -- Unfortunately, Bruce is publishing just as fast as you are, so you're not going to make much headway against him. You're going to have to get sneaky like van

Arnam and publish two titles per distribution; then you'll pile up issue numbers twice as fast. ## There's no snow out here; you mow lawns instead all year.

Drahcir Nnam -- I'm voting (so far) for Leiber's The Wanderer for the "Hugo". Simulacron-3 is just a reworking of Fred Pohl's "The Tunnel Under the World" (?). (That's the disadvantage of having your collection packed away; you can't check on a title when you want to.) And not nearly as well done as Pohl's story, either. The hero spends all his time stumbling around trying to find out what's obvious to the reader. The only reason I finished the book was because I wanted to see if Galouye was going to introduce any variation to this stock we-are-property plot. He didn't. I do like many of his short stories; it's past time that a collection of his shorts and novelettes was assembled. ## There've been complete IBM-punchcard fanzines before. I don't know of any previous computer-printed zines, though. Fanzine covers and Christmas cards, yes, but not a whole fanzine.

De Rekab -- Sorry, but no sympathy from me.

Lihp Arotsac -- Do LASFans have minds? ## Amalgamate LASFS and the Fanoclasts? But, Phil, do you really want John Boardman in Apa L?

Naid Zlep -- But where'd she get a safety pin? ## In addition to human/animal gods, the modern world has also given us the machine god. Metropolis. The omnipotent computer. The artificially-living brain that takes dominance over natural minds. All those feed on a fear of civilization being destroyed by runaway progress; the dehumanization and loss of the individual awareness and soul. Is this better or worse than the ancient bloodthirsty but living gods, such as Kali or Huitzilopochtli?

Newo Nefinnah -- Why don't you and Phil use both sides of a sheet of paper? ## I don't mind the Alfred Foundation, but you'd better not tell Al where the reference's from. ## Privacy -- at the Lab? Oh, you're cracking me up! So what are all those "happy cries ... making it hard to concentrate"?

That's it. Names typed backwards because I wanted to see how they'd look. How long did it take you to find your comments? ## See you next week. --Derf Nettap

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