DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Erebus, issue 4, 1943

Transcribe
Translate

Erebus, issue 4, 1943

Page 10

up in front. General Electric tubes are ever so much nicer....(I work for G.E.)

There is no truth to the rumor that Astounding is making a change to micro-film format with its next issue....

What do you think of this "decimal time" that the Ingersoll Co. is plugging in its advertising? That is, each day would consist of twenty hours, each of which would have 100 minutes, each of which would have 100 seconds. It would make a heck of a lot of money for the Ingersoll Co., of course. But maybe it isn't such a bad idea. However, our time reckoning system doesn't need changing as much as our calendar. And please don't get the idea that I'm talking about a thirteen month thing; that no longer has many boosters, even. The World Calendar (with caps) has equal quarters, the first month in each having thirtyone days and the other two thirty. There's one day left over at the end that isn't in any year, so we have a world holiday. A certain date always falls on the same day of the week, and all the important holidays are on Monday giving us plenty of long weekends. It's booful.

Anything can happen in a doghouse. But Len committed sacrilege last issue when he put "Fido" on the space-going one in the middle of this thing. It's "Phydeau", and I've shot men for spelling it wrong!

When the NFFF was being formed, everyone was bubbling over about how mature fans were growing. Throughout the lingering death pangs of that organization, the boys who cried mature were strangely silent. Well, I was silent then, but now I'll take my turn at going out on the limb and yelling my head off. I think fans today are more mature than they've ever been. Those that are still left to carry on their beloved activity could scarcely help being so. There isn't anyone anywhere who hasn't been affected by the war, and the effect on most people has been to make them think a little straighter, I believe. And I've seen plenty of evidence of straighter thinking among the fans, individually and collectively. There's a lot less nonsense among us now -- aheck of a lot less. There's some, of course, but what there is seems to be good for us, and it doesn't come anywhere near overpowering anything really worthwhile. Even most of the newer fans, who have no way of knowing completely what it's all about, seem to be quick about adopting a sensible attitude toward things.

My purpose in bringing this up lies in the fact that once more there are large amounts of talk around about fandom organizing. And I could be wrong, but from my observations I think there's much more chance of any organizations that grow out of present discussions (strictly excluding the Cosmic Circle, which cannot really be considered a fan organization at all) have a much better chance of succeeding than did even the old NFFF. Why? Because the idea of organizing just for the sake of organization alone seems to be pretty well forgotten. The trend now is toward having a real purpose, something to work for, in mind -- then building an organization to accomplish that purpose. I don't think fandom has ever taken a healthier attitude. 

Yes, we're still growing up -- and there's no apparent reason why we can't continue to do so for some time to come.

This column seems to be incapable of settling down to any one fixed policy and then sticking to it. However, there is definitely no truth to the rumor that with the next installment the title will be changed to "The Doghouse; It Ain't Necessarily Stf"....

Saving...

up in front. General Electric tubes are ever so much nicer....(I work for G.E.) There is no truth to the rumor that Astounding is making a change to micro-film format with its next issue.... What do you think of this "decimal time" that the Ingersoll Co. is plugging in its advertising? That is, each day would consist of twenty hours, each of which would have 100 minutes, each of which would have 100 seconds. It would make a heck of a lot of money for the Ingersoll Co., of course. But maybe it isn't such a bad idea. However, our time reckoning system doesn't need changing as much as our calendar. And please don't get the idea that I'm talking about a thirteen month thing; that no longer has many boosters, even. The World Calendar (with caps) has equal quarters, the first month in each having thirtyone days and the other two thirty. There's one day left over at the end that isn't in any year, so we have a world holiday. A certain date always falls on the same day of the week, and all the important holidays are on Monday giving us plenty of long weekends. It's booful. Anything can happen in a doghouse. But Len committed sacrilege last issue when he put "Fido" on the space-going one in the middle of this thing. It's "Phydeau", and I've shot men for spelling it wrong! When the NFFF was being formed, everyone was bubbling over about how mature fans were growing. Throughout the lingering death pangs of that organization, the boys who cried mature were strangely silent. Well, I was silent then, but now I'll take my turn at going out on the limb and yelling my head off. I think fans today are more mature than they've ever been. Those that are still left to carry on their beloved activity could scarcely help being so. There isn't anyone anywhere who hasn't been affected by the war, and the effect on most people has been to make them think a little straighter, I believe. And I've seen plenty of evidence of straighter thinking among the fans, individually and collectively. There's a lot less nonsense among us now -- aheck of a lot less. There's some, of course, but what there is seems to be good for us, and it doesn't come anywhere near overpowering anything really worthwhile. Even most of the newer fans, who have no way of knowing completely what it's all about, seem to be quick about adopting a sensible attitude toward things. My purpose in bringing this up lies in the fact that once more there are large amounts of talk around about fandom organizing. And I could be wrong, but from my observations I think there's much more chance of any organizations that grow out of present discussions (strictly excluding the Cosmic Circle, which cannot really be considered a fan organization at all) have a much better chance of succeeding than did even the old NFFF. Why? Because the idea of organizing just for the sake of organization alone seems to be pretty well forgotten. The trend now is toward having a real purpose, something to work for, in mind -- then building an organization to accomplish that purpose. I don't think fandom has ever taken a healthier attitude. Yes, we're still growing up -- and there's no apparent reason why we can't continue to do so for some time to come. This column seems to be incapable of settling down to any one fixed policy and then sticking to it. However, there is definitely no truth to the rumor that with the next installment the title will be changed to "The Doghouse; It Ain't Necessarily Stf"....