The View From Entropy Hall #1, APA Q 393, 6 April 1996, from Ed Meskys, RR #2 Box 63, Center Harbor NH 03226-9708. Email: [email protected]. phone 603-253-6207.

For years I have been reading John Boardman's DAGON but starting in January he has been sending me the complete APA Q and I have decided to make another attempt at an APAzine. In the past in APA NESFA, APA Q, and perhaps elsewhere I had used the title ALBERICH because I always identified with Wagner's dwarf, especially as portrayed by Rackham. Unfortunately I have lost all track of how many issues I have produced or even how many times I started over with a new volume number. Hence a new title. Anne Braude has always referred to my chaotic office/library as "Entropy Hall" and Toni Piper even had a wooden plack made with that name which now hangs over the door. Hence my title to match Anne's IEKAS column title, "The View From Mole End."

Since the last disty had only two contributors...a great drop from what I saw several years ago...I figured I would be able to keep up with mailing comments. Unfortunately this time I found nothing to comment on. Maybe next time.

I did enjoy Lunacon and am looking forward to coming back next year. I do also hope to come back to NY Decoration Day weekend for the International Space Development Conference at the Hyatt across the street from Grand Central Terminal. It is put on by the National Space Society, successor to the L5 Society and National Space Institute. I belonged to both before the merger but dropped out due to a shortage of funds. I never was at one of their conferences. I sent in a membership and see that they will have three tracks of programming running from Thursday May 23 to Monday, May 27. If finances permit I will come down a bit early for more book hunting and socializing.

I stayed with John Boardman for two days after Lunacon. After he got home from teaching morning classes Monday we spendt the day going over the last few APA Qs and some other reading. After dinner we watched two hours of TV news and crashed early. Next day we met Art Saha and went bookhunting. We planned to start at Books of Wonder on 7th Ave. at 18 St and arrived at 10:30 AM only to find that it didn't open until 11. It was cold and drizzly and we looked for a place to sit down with a cup of coffee to wait. We couldn't find anything south or east of the store and finally found a small Arab sandwich shop around 7th Ave. and 21st St. It was a very pleasant place and we had some baklava. We finally got back to Books of Wonder where I struck out on books that I especially wanted. I did pick up three by Diana Wynne Jones and one by Lloyd Alexander. We then went east on 18th until we came to the Acadamy bookshop where we found nothing. Ditto across the street at Starlight Bookshop. I did pick up THE WHIMSICAL TALES OF DOUGLAS JERROLD on Art's recommendation. We then went to the Barnes & Noble bargain outlet on the west side of 5th Ave. Here I hit paydirt and spent $90 on used, remaindered, and review books. This is really a great place. When Sandy and I were there last June we also found a great many bargains.

18th Street seems to have replaced 4th Ave as the place to buy books. Of course I remember the great days of "book row" when there were some two dozen used bookstores on and near 4th Ave. below 14th Street.

John led us to the Canadian House of Pancakes, a chain I never heard of, at 16 St. & 3 Ave. for lunch. They gave as appetizerscornbread with chocolate chips which I enjoyed.

Time and money were running out so we cut back to one remaining store, skipping Strand, Forbidden Planet, and the SF Shop to take the bus downtown to science fiction, mystery, and more on Chambers St. John has been recommending this place to me for years but it was always at the end of our expedition and got cut off as time ran out. I made a point of skipping others and going here, especially since John said thhat the owner, Al Zimmerman, had told John that he wanted to meet me. Well, Al was out on vacation but I found that the store had a nice selection of used books at good prices. When I got home and showed my purchases to Sandy I found that despite my computerized list of wants I bought five books we already have. Worst is that most were new books purchased at cover price.

Next morning after John left to teach his classes Perdita drove me to the Port Authority terminal and I headed for home. On the bus I started to listen to Diana Gabeldon's 3rd Scots historical fantasy, VOYAGER. It is a long book, taking 45 hours of tape, and will keep me occupied for a week or more, depending on how much time I can devote to it .

Mark Blackman--You mentioned that the next Lunacon will be only two weeks after Boskone. I forgot to pick up a Boskone 97 flyer at the con this year but I assume that this means that Boskone is Feb 14-16 and Lunacon is Feb 28-Mar 2. Am I correct? Have the GoHs been selected yet? If so, who are they? This year I didn't get to return my participants' questionairre and wasn't on the program. I would like to try again. You know what areas I can speak on and I am available for up to 2 items on any day, for no more than 4 in the three days. There is no one I cannot stand to be on with. Please pass this on to the appropriate persons.

In case I do not write you before you read this, would you have access to extra copies of Lunacon 96 publications? I never got my "pocket program" because registration was out when I was there, and I never went back. I would also like an extra copy of the program book to send to Anne Braude because of her interest in Pratchett and Friesner.

JOHN BOARDMAN: In February you wondered whether RADIO FREE THULCANDRA still existed. I received my last copy about three years ago and do not have immediate access to a copy to check the number. A year or two ago someone told me that while he never officially killed the zine he has gotten so involved with computer bulletin boards that he has no time for anything else. I guess they are the equivalent of weekly APAs with even faster response, and just like the APAs the material is usually very ephemeral, first draft with no editing.

I hope you can duplicate this on your copier for the disty. Next time I will enclose some money for paper and toner. Could I have 5 extra copies of this? I would like to send one to Anne Braude. Does Fred Lerner get the complete disty or just DAGON? I will probably come up with a few other people I want to send copies to.

Until next month....Ed