<caughran@rogers.com>
Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, the fiftieth anniversary! Such an occasion invites retrospection. My history with sffy goes back to 1957, when as a 17-year old neofan I wrote Lee for a copy of #2. She was sold out, but sent some other things, including fanzines and letterheads for Jim Caughran, ill-tempered LNF. Lee, you encouraged me in fandom. Should I be grateful
or angry? other fans gave us over the years. We had
Nice to see mimeography and twilltone again. enough to keep the mimeos cranking for
The spell-checker just marked "mimeography"; decades!
I guess it's not a dying art, but already dead. Sometimes I hear rumors of a business
Where do you get supplies? that still stocks mimeo supplies; none of
Enjoyed SF Family. The marina in Puerto Rico the ones I dealt with do. I'm now strictly
where we kept our boat was called "Muelle los mimeo-in-a-box girl, with forays into
locos Adamos," the Adams Family Dock. It was color inkjet on Fibertone and other odd
a fun place; things were not taken seriously. pairings of technology old and new. -- gfs
Maybe we need more ridiculous names for
things; society is too straitlaced. Robert Lichtman
A person I know has a big birthmark on his <robertlichtman@yahoo.com>
face; he is a candidate for being eaten by a I really, really love Steve Stiles's cover
[purple people] eater, if it is parsed that way. In for SFFY's 2001 issue -- so date-
fact, he is a candidate either way it is parsed; appropriate, so well-executed. Moving right
guess I'd better warn him. to Kip Williams's two poems, I liked them
But the line about the descending eater is an both but the bacover's "All in the SF Family"
argument against a purple eater. If a bird or other is by far my favorite. It doesn't hurt to have
creature were seen against the sky, the colour is Dan's illustration below it, either -- one of my
necessary identification if unusual. So surely it favorite covers from my sentimental favorite
would be noted in the lyric, unless it can't be 70's fanzine from the dear departed Terry
made to scan. Hughes.
And in Ted's story, "I thought he was going to I haven't been around fandom for all the
turn purple..." indicates that there are purple soon-to-be-55 years that SFFY has been
people, if only when they're angry. Is the purple appearing on its highly regular schedule.
people eater an emotion control constable? However, because I have a complete set of
Dave Langford's speech was them I certainly disagree with Lee writing in
funny. It must have had its her editorial, "It was with my retirement from
audience ROTFL, as they say all but a nominal position that the best issues
on the Internet. From the short of SFFY came about." No disrespect to the
snippets in Ansible, I didn't parade of fine fans who've assisted Lee in
appreciate his talent for continuing the tradition she began with the
sustained humour. Great! first half dozen issues, but those certainly do
not suffer by comparison to the later ones.
I stockpiled a lot of mimeo As a recipient of the CD-ROM of the first
supplies in the 1990s, buying eleven SFFYs, I certainly appreciated having
from Logos in the Twin their contents in electronic form in case the
Cities), Gestetner, and an ink ravages of time eradicated their paper versions.
manufacturer in California. However, I have a belated complaint. The scans
Plus the 100 cases of Fibertone of the first issue simply will not transfer
Jeff and I picked up in 1995, themselves from the CD to my hard drive, nor
and the mimeos and supplies will they open from the disk. Is it possible that a replacement copy could be sent my way?
A lot of the contributions to this especially well reflected in
issue are of the sort that evokes no these pages. -- gfs
parti-cular comment beyond an
expression of sheer enjoy-ment. Dennis Lien
However, in Dave Langford's <Dennis.K.Lien-l
"Secret History of Ansible" I @tc.umn.edu>
wanted to add to his section
about weird/unique issue Someone on one of my lists
numbering -- where he gives such memorable got Science-Fiction Five-Yearly (nice job, by
instances as George Charters's "base 3" numbering the way) and wondered how the Sir Arthur
after the tenth issue and Second Hand Wave Clarke contribution came to be. I assume Sir
numbering each issue the 42nd -- the additional Arthur wrote the caption, but did he do it first
example of Geogre Bondar's ten issues of Qotha 5, and Steve Stiles did the cartoon for it, or did
where the issues all have the same number (or part he write it from pre-existing Stiles cartoon? In
of the name!?) with dating being the only clue any case, did he do it specifically for SFFY, or
offering some assistance in determining the is this a quote from a pre-existing letter or
sequence in which they appeared. Later Bondar article or something? Did you approach him
did another fanzine, DV8, but those did have issue or he you or just what? If these details are not
numbers. Of course, George's most famous (or Top Secret, Inquiring Minds Want To Know.
perhaps infamous) fanzine was the one-off Terry (If they are Top Secret, of course, Inquiring
Broome's Underwear 4, produced using the ditto Minds will have to get by without knowing.)
process (highly unusual for a British fanzine) and
with the fanzine cut to resemble Inquiring minds had to wait,
a pair of briefs (or "Y-fronts" as but not even that was a secret.
they call them over there). I don't LeeH wrote to Sir Arthur and
know if it was this or some other asked for a contribution, much
factor that caused the actual Terry as she had several others over
Broome to gafiate for a time and the lustrums -- they're friends
then resume activity some years from way back. He sent the
later under the name of Terry caption specifically for
Hornsby. SFFY #11. Next, we sent it
Despite my comment above, to Steve and he had his way
I must single out Ted White's with it. The black areas are
"Crime Stalks the Fan World, consistently solid -- I'll bet
or, Abducted By Space-Aliens," that page went through the
which I found a very nice tribute laser printer rather than the
to F. Lee Baldwin and a good piece mimeo-in-a-box. -- gfs
of fan fiction in its own right.
Eric Lindsay
Belated apologies to you and other PC users who <fiawol@ericlindsay.com>
had problems with the SFFY CD. In early
versions, I used "/" in some file names, not Many thanks for SFFY, much awaited, but
knowing they are problematic. After you spoke up, infrequent enough that I forget it from issue to
I renamed the files, I think later CDs worked issue. I have to wonder how many other mimeo
more reliably. Past issues of SFFY are also now zines continue to appear, apart from those from
available at LA. I haven't seen mimeo ink for most of the
http://fanac.org/fanzines/SF_Five_Yearly/ and I previous decade. I certainly hope that your
have dreams of adding PDFs of earlier issues mimeo supplies will last another five years,
sometime next year. but I am also pleased to learn that back issues
Thanks to Bruce Pelz, I, too, have a full run and are on the web (and CD -- that is neat).
I quite agree that the early I wonder if perhaps Greg
issues do not suffer in Benford aimed his paper at
comparison with the later one of the journals who
ones. Just earlier tonight specialise in taking the piss
(November 24th) LeeH and out of science. It also
I enjoyed talking about how reads like a description of
SFFY continues to evolve. how to write a web page,
The early issues set the where technique and structure
personality and tone Randy render actual content (if any)
and I hope (and think!) is irrelevant.
Denny Lien carefully raises a reader question But I get to the end of the issue and I have to
regarding yellow polka dot bikinis, leading to the break down into maudlinity, or maybe that
expectation that an answer will be forthcoming. should be maudlin insanity, when I see Dan
Then he sweeps us away with a science fictional Steffan's illo on the back, captioned "TV nights
speculation about flying purple people eaters but at Terry & Craig's, circa 1975." He captured
without returning to the bikini question, which that basement apartment so perfectly that in light
obviously deserves further observation (as it were). of the news that came before the issue (Terry's
Must say Steve Stiles provided some great death), it's almost enough to make me cry. (I
illustrations, as indeed did other interior artists. stayed there one night in 1976 on my way to a
Nice to know that there are still people doing such Steeleye Span concert.) I'm glad we have Dan's
good work. cartooning genius to capture this moment in time.
Dave Langford mentions briefly a topic dear to
us, namely GUFF. It certainly is a wonderful thing Believe me, updating the mailing list is a heart-
to have survived this long, despite having Ansible breaking task. Tucker, rich, Mike Ford, Bill
associated with it. Having provided copies of our Bowers, Howard DeVore, George Flynn, KIM
material on a web site, we have obviously failed to Campbell, Harry Warner, Jr. And more, of
leave fans anything of use for the toilet. No course. And I still miss Terry; I expect we all
wonder so many fans dislike e-publication, and do. -- gfs
demand paper copies. "Troubled for you, from time to time
Actually, like virtually all of Dave's material, his It's why nothing new can break the bind
history was a delight to read. I've seldom heard a It's the time we waste for them, that
fanzine history as interesting. makes a friend a friend
Unique in all the world until the end."
Timothy C. Marion -- Ted Sherman
c/o Kleinbard
266 East Broadway Apt 1201B WAHF: Greg Benford, Catherine Crockett
New York, NY 10002 ("Very cool to be acknowledged, too. I usually
only get acknowledged for math theses."), Brad
I note that you abbreviate your fanzine's name Foster ("I look forward to getting all the way up
as "SFFY." I abbreviated it as "SF5Y" to my the 100th anniversary issue, though I might have
Australian friends, when I offered to make a to have someone read it to me by that time!"),
photocopy for them, since I figured your zine may Teddy Harvia ("I feel as if I'm writing
not make it all the way down there to them. I hope something that's to be put in a time capsule. I
you don't mind -- just trying to spread the Ghood hope I'm still around when it's opened."), John
Word, as it were. Hertz, Mike Lowrey, Lloyd Penney, Eric P.
I did have some comments composed in my Russell, John Teehan, and one woman who
head, but I had to throw those out -- mainly going found us while Googling for lyrics to both
on too sentimentally (if such a thing is possible) "Flying Purple People Eater" and "Itsy-Bitsy,
about how many people who were in your previous Teeny-Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"
issue who now are no longer with us, judging from because ... wait for it ... she was writing a post
your lettercolumn. But if you didn't do it, why about debate and logic!
should I? What I will say, though is that the letters
give me a sort of bittersweet quality and almost the
sense that I waited too long to get back into
fandom. These letters make the previous issue
sound so interesting that it tempts me to dig
through the boxes and see if I can find it. No doubt
you did send it to me, and fakefan that I was at the
time, I doubtless did not read it, but kept it
carefully preserved on a shelf with other unread
fanzines. I have to admit, I have gone through a
long period of turning my back on my friends and
ignoring fandom, despite the fact that I practically
grew up in fandom and learned to express myself
best (and perhaps only) in fandom. I guess, as
John Lennon once said, "I just had to let it go."
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Hard copy provided by Geri Sullivan
Updated March 25, 2008. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.