Letter Graded Mail sent to [email protected] By Our Loyal Readers Could we start with anyone but Lloyd Penney? Dear Chris: Hey, two more Hugo-winning Drink Tanks to comment on, issues 291 and 292. I am roaring ahead on the few zines I have left...the CPU’s gotta go in the shop shortly, so I need to get all my writing assignments done soon. Well, technically we won for the issues that we put out last year, but have I ever let reality get in teh way of me taking credit for stuff? 291...I need to dig up a photograph. Many years ago at a convention in Ottawa, Yvonne was done up with ape make-up at a demonstration. The photo is around here somewhere, and it needs to be scanned. When you find it, I wanna run it! My loc...don’t lose the buzz. Hang on to it as long as you can. There’s already been discussion about what the fan Hugos will be like come Chicon 7. To me, this is a strengthening of the Hugos themselves, an increase in their value. There will always be those who say the Hugos are broken, but their voices are lessened all the time. Folks don’t seem to be letting me lose the buzz! At FenCon this weekend, I had a great time and folks were all congratulating me and I got a lot more hugs! It was a good time! I don’t think they’re completely broken, but they do need some work! Taral’s article says to me that the furry site he’s connected with may be becoming just too important. I’m starting to feel that way about Facebook, actually, and with the recent changes to Facebook, my computer doesn’t seem to like it; that’s why it’s going into the shop. Yet, it’s also a familiar place to be... I saw so many old friends in Reno I hadn’t seen in so long. I guess as fandom turns grey, we are looking for comfortable places to gather. Well, I loves me some Facebook, but I can see it as a place that people might be too reliant. I am glad I got to see so many folks I don’t see often, and then I saw most of the others when I was at FenCon that it felt right! I always liked the original Planet of the Apes, and like many books, the sequels just didn’t do it for me. Some time ago, I got myself the novel the movie is based on, by Pierre Boulle. I wanna read the novel, but I’ve never found it for a good price anywhere I’ve gone to. Might have to resort to the internet... 292...I am still not all that comfortable with accepting the names ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’, so I kinda ignored Speak Out With Your Geek Out. If I took part in everything I found on Facebook, I wouldn’t have time for anything else. Still...my main fanac is writing for fanzines, like this one. I’ve been a costumer, a Trekfan, a conrunner, and much more. I guess it’s easier for me to accept the term Geek and Nerd because I’ve only been called it in jest, or more frequently, by myself. I guess that helps take away any of the sting. I am old enough to know Kurt Russell as the star of many Disney movies in the 60s. This movie has really dated badly. I doubt that movies like this could be done today. I have TRON: Legacy in mind... Yeah, it’s dated, but it has a charm that still applies. They did try to do a remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes about five years ago, but it was really bad! And at the end, there’s William Schallert. I looked him up on IMDB, and he’s been a supporting actor in so many of the biggest television shows and movies over the past 60 years, I remember him as a young man in the old, old Commando Cody serials. (Bill Mills gave me the CD of all episodes a few years ago. I’m not that old. Honest. Cough, cough...) I am done for now...so much to do, not much time, gotta get moving. See you with the next zine you send my way. He’s still working today, Mr. Schallert, and I believe he’s been the voice of Smucker’s Jelly for more than a couple of decades. Thanks much, Lloyd! And now, Eric Mayer! Chris, So I wanted to comment on the Hugo performance you talked about in your editorial. I admit, I watched it. Hell, I think as many people have watched that as saw the Pamela Anderson sex tapes. And it’s great you were so thrilled. The Hugo voters ought to love that it really and truly means something to you. Me, I am undemonstrative to the point of catatonia but I guess I’d probably cry. But at my age I cry about everything. Well, actually, no, if I ever won an award -- any award -- I would die of a heart attack from the shock. I know, everyone will say, but you don’t go to cons. True. But I wouldn’t be around to worry about it because if I’d been nominated the shock would have already killed me. A fair bit of the reaction was due to terror. It’s scary to get to go up on-stage in front of all those folks! You know what sometimes brings tears to my eyes, when baseball players set amazing records, or when guys who have played in the minors for ten years finally get to bat in the majors for the first time. But for me, I think it’s touching to see someone get to accomplish something that can’t be taken away, to finish first. I’m not competitive. The idea of beating others doesn’t appeal to me, but the idea of just once finishing first, does. A friend of mine runs, and orienteers, and he’s done every kind of race you can think of. Last heard from he was doing a 100 mile run at the age of fifty. He never was in any danger of being competitive but when asked why he did so many different things he joked, “I’m still looking for a race I can win.” Watching Willie Mays’ 80th Birthday celebration at Candlestick was one of those moments for me. Not many people ever get to finish first even once at anything. To feel -- not they beat out others -- but that they really met their potential, did their best, saw their efforts appreciated. You did it. So I love that you enjoyed that, Chris. It was great and you richly deserved it. Enjoy, enjoy! As Manny Gordon used to say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBUkbID_Vk Best, Eric Thanks, Eric! I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I deserved it, despite James screaming it at me while we were on stage, I do fell like it was something it’s somethign I will always treasure, and that is pretty great. And that’s a great clip! There are many cartoon characters that you may remem- ber fondly from the days when you were glued to the family TV every Saturday morning. And there are probably as many car- toon characters that turned your stomach... then, and even more so now that you’re adult enough to fully understand just how rotten they were. Like anyone, I have a list, and there’s a few choice items on it that I’m about to share with you. One cartoon character I could never stand originally ap- peared in Harvey comic books, and made the transition from third-rate comic books to fourth-rate animation sometimes in the 1950s. “Baby Huey” was quite possibly the worst character Har- vey every created, pioneering depths of puerile, smarmy wretch- edness not even the likes of “Herman and Katnip” could plumb. Bad as they were, Harvey theatrical cartoons could be had by local television stations for a song, guaranteeing the studio a presence in almost every half-assed kid’s program from Buffalo to Oakland, Spokane to Miami... and possibly even in Havana. These ubiquitous kid’s programs had names like “Uncle Button’s Playhouse,” “Tiny Tot Theater,” or “Long John’s Pirate Cove.” They made lame ef- forts to pretend to be something other than a cheap cardboard box to contain some randomly screened cartoons, but that fooled no one. Sometimes the sets were literally a cardboard box. The programs came and went like the cold season, each one appear- ing with a “new” host like “Cowboy Ted,” Capt’n Larry” or “Ring- master Rick, but it was always the same host as last year. It never made any difference who it was, anyway. They all showed the same cartoons. Harvey published a surprising number of insipid, uninspired characters in their comic books – Stumbo the Giant (a big stupid, kind-hearted man), Little Lotta (a strong, stupid, fat little girl), Little Dot (a small, stupid, cute little girl whose only personality trait was a liking for polka-dots), and that third-rate cat-and-mouse team mentioned above. As a kid, I actually bought some of these, possibly out of morbid curiosity. But I don’t know if I ever bought a “Baby Huey” comic.