File 770 #145
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October 2005 1 2 File 770:145 Art Credits Taral: Cover Bill Rotsler: 7,18,42,44, 45,46,48,49 Diana Glyer (photos): 2 Keith Stokes (photos): 17,19,21-24,30,32-34 Alan White: 3,15,16,20,23,25 H.L. Drake (photos): 7,12,35,36,59 145 Ray Capella: 27 Grant Canfield: Bacover, 40 Anne Dashiell: (photo) 2 File 770:145 is edited by Mike subscription: $8 for 5 issues, $15 for Chaz Boston Baden: 11, 39 Glyer at 705 Valley View Ave., 10 issues, air mail rate is $2.50. Freff: 15 Monrovia CA 91016. Len Wein: 18, 48 File 770 is available for news, Telephone: (626) 305-1004 Laurie Mann: (photo) 24 artwork, arranged trades, or by E-Mail: [email protected] Glenn Glazer: (photos) 24, 31 Editorial Notes by Mike Glyer Months ago when I would tell John Hertz I The friend was promptly won over to our vi- ral world. was working on the May issue, I didn’t mean sion of Sierra as the greatest three-year-old My sister Kathy, a school principal in New that it may get published in October. But here prodigy in the history of Western Civilization. Mexico, clued us into the wonderful possibility we are. (Oooh, I’m shivering already, knowing So she shared with Diana that very young chil- of raising butterflies in our living room. Aunt the chilly reception that awaits tardy newzines dren can be taught to play chess. Kathy sent Sierra a collapsible mesh butterfly in Lillian’s Zine Dump… ) In an e-mail, Diana bowled me over with house, about two feet tall, which came with a Maydays: Diana took Sierra on a week- the news that Sierra had learned to set up the certificate to order caterpillars that would grow long road trip to Loveland, CO where I rendez- pieces in their proper places on the chessboard. up to be Painted Lady Butterflies (not unlike voused with them to attend the wedding of my But I admit being pleased to read that Sierra the way I used to order inmates for my Uncle nephew, Adam. I had seen myself using the has her own ideas about the game. Milton’s Ant Farm.) week they were away to publish a new issue. Diana wrote, “After Sierra was taught how Five caterpillars arrived with a built-in food Instead, it was decreed that I spend those to put all of the chess pieces in their ‘home’ supply in a small jar (with mesh airholes in the juicy days at the end of May actually doing my positions, she read them a story and then laid lid). They ate and grew for days until, now job. I spent weeks scripting an Appeals CPE them all down for their nap-time. A few days much bigger, the caterpillars attached them- training video and going back to Maryland to later, when we played a simple game with just selves to the lid and wrapped themselves in a deliver it on-camera. When I came back, there the pawns and kings and queens, she made up chrysalis. In the meantime, Sierra carefully were phone conferences to hold and thousands her own game, which involved moving the gave each one a name: Jimbo, Juniper, more words to write about a corporate tax pawns a few steps forward, then having the Noogadah, Molasses and Florida. shelter I am handling. Suddenly Labor Day is king and queen do a little dance across the When Sierra and Diana got home from upon me. middle of the board.” preschool on April 29, Jimbo and Juniper fi- Road Warriors: Diana and Sierra stayed Metamorphosis: Being Sierra’s parents nally joined the other three that had already for several days at a friend’s house in Durango. lets us revel in a child’s discovery of the natu- emerged from their cocoons. All five caterpil- Sierra is 3.5: (Left) Sierra peeks out of her new playhouse on Easter morning; (Center) Butterflies Noogadah, Molasses, and Florida moments away from freedom; (Right) Sierra wins a tricycle race with Auntie Carol. October 2005 3 lars had turned into butterflies. They fed them sugar water and enjoyed watching them. On the second morning, we all went into the garden and set them free. Trufen.net: Last issue I recommended the Trufen.net fan news site. Victor Gon- zalez is keeping it moving forward under an incredible head of steam by writing about 15 stories to each one from an outsider. I’m impressed by the way he’s learned all the places to look for fannish news, and disciplines himself to wade through miles of material in hope of a story. He finds items from the Smofs list, even Roger Tener’s Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol -- which I used to think of as my own secret source. Victor has a flair for broadening and deep- ening stories with fannish background or historical sidebars. Victor’s friendship with Peter Weston Fred Patten Donates donor’s treasures: early science-fiction stories brought in Weston as a columnist, with the by a teenage Ray Bradbury and a range of surprising dividend that the column attracted Collection to UC Riverside Japanese comic books that could help scholars controversy and regular participation from a Fred Patten suffered a stroke on March 12 that trace the history of anime, the popular form of diverse group of British fans. left the right side of his body paralyzed. Fred Japanese animation.” The site has become a crossroads for a lot spent a month in hospital and six weeks in a Fred was quoted: “It was sort of heartbreak- of fannish communities. See you there! physical rehabilitation center before being ing. If there was any way I could have saved Efanzines.com: There’s a reason I was transferred to live at Golden State Colonial my collection, I certainly would have. I didn’t just about the last person to have his fanzine Convalescent Hospital in North Hollywood, have any choice -- either let it be thrown away on Bill Burns’ excellent website. For years CA. He had to give up his apartment, and made or donate it.” I've been producing File 770 with Microsoft the hard decision to give away his extensive Conway said it would take a few years for Publisher, which churlishly refuses to export collection to UC Riverside. Lee Gold gathered her staff at UCR to catalog the estimated to Adobe PDF. So I couldn’t put them in a a crew of fans to pack and clean up for Fred. 82,000 items that Fred donated. form Burns could use. And I wasn’t going to Melissa Conway, head of special collections buy the big Adobe program just for that. at UCR, pointed to the addition of Patten’s University of Iowa Saves Horvat Only this year I discovered Adobe has an anime, manga, and Japanese comic books, as a online service that will do a limited number coup for the university. John Hertz has pointed Fanzine Collection from Auction of conversions for free. The discovery made out that Fred may well know that field better Did you ever hear that Oregon fan Mike me wonder whether any software company than any other English-speaking person. Horvat had one of the world’s biggest fanzine had licensed the conversion engine to sell as Shortly after the stroke Fred could speak collections? His 250,000-item treasure trove a stand-alone program. At least one has. I fairly clearly, so Lee Gold volunteered to take rivaled the Bruce Pelz and Terry Carr collec- found DeskPDF, an inexpensive piece of down his dictation and continue publishing tions now housed at UC Riverside. Horvat’s software which rapidly transforms old Pub- Fred’s Apa-Lzine, keeping unbroken Fred’s may have boasted more 1970s apazines than lisher files to PDFs that can be shipped off string of contributions back to the apa’s first either, remembering that is when Horvat cre- to Bill Burns. (Now Microsoft’s latest edi- distribution in 1964. Fred now types one- ated and published South of the Moon , an index tion of Publisher can convert to PDF. Sorry handed on a laptop keyboard. of amateur press associations that lasted until guys, you’re too late.) He resumed attending LASFS meetings 1984. There’s a slight bottleneck in getting the regularly with the help of friends who transport issues online. The old issues were produced him and his wheelchair. by pasting art onto camera-ready printouts. Fred had already started the year in ill So I need to scan in most of the art and add health, spending 10 days hospitalized with it to the Publisher layouts before they can be pneumonia in January. converted. But we’ll get through all that in His special wheelchair was paid through time. contributions to Glen Wooten’s Donation Help Wanted: While seeking material Fund. Friends have established a webpage with for Trufen, I stumbled across a link to news about Fred’s progress and information "Swancon the collectible card game" and about how to donate to the Fund at: was quite amused. It seems to have been written five or six years ago and I wanted to http://www.kayshapero.net/FredPatten/fred.ht know if it had a playable set of rules, or was ml it just a fannish parody of collectible card The donation to the Eaton Collection made games? Not having located an answer the Riverside Press-Enterprise in July. A story through my Google searches, I e-mailed the trumpeting news that UC Riverside had re- Swancon committee.