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Fandango, v. 3, issue 4, whole no. 12, Summer 1946
Page 3
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COMMENTS ON THE SPRING MAILING INSPIRATION. The review of stfzines was very interesting, and should prove of considerable usefulness to those of us who have not read all of their back issue zines. . . . The interesting discussion of traffic control and city redesigning would be much more valid if it had been better designed to fit in with present-day cars and highways. Electronically controlled automobiles are very well. . . . but what about the millions of cars on the road today, none of which are so controlled? Are their owners to be compelled by law to have them adapted to fit the new system? Are they to be scrapped arbitrarily? Certainly an electronically controlled highway network will fall far short of its aim if it is used by vehicles not so designed. It is all very well to bring in these new devices, but at the same time it must be remembered that many very commonplace automobile improvements are not shared by all cars on the road. For example, although the first four-wheel brakes appeared in 1923 or 1924, there are many cars still in daily use which have only the two-wheel brakes. I saw two today, a model T vegetable truck and a Dodge touring of about 1922 vintage. Safety glass has been available for twenty years or more, and has been standard equipment on many cars since 1938, yet many cars are still in service which do not even have safety windshields, let alone side-windows. I believe that it is enough to demonstrate that radical modifications of the motor car will take a long, long time to become universally adopted. And then there is the matter of highways Lynn talks about roadside controls. All very well, but consider the thousands and thousands of miles of presentday highways which are definitely obsolete and inferior even according to the standards of 1940. Three-lane highways have been condemned as death-traps for well over a decade, yet there are still plenty of them. I drove several hundred miles over such roads in my 1943 trip from northern Idaho to Los Angeles, to say nothing of an even greater distance over obsolete two lane highways, with turns banked for 25 or 30 miles an hour instead of the 50 plus at which even my antiquated Willys was rattling along. And I know of several major and semi-major arterials which still bear their antiquated black-top paving, and are liberally sprinkled with signs reading: "Slippery when Wet or Frosty". . . . The point I'm trying to make is that while it is all very well to build up pipe-dreams of one kind and another, it seems that a more practical, though certainly as interesting, discussion could be built up if we took greater efforts to coordinate with things as they are today, and try to trace a gradual evolution, rather than outline some arbitrary system of fifty or a hundred years in the future. . . .. Robot ad was lovely. ---oo0oo--- FANTASY AMATEUR. I voted Yes on both those questions. Did you? Of course it is of academic interest only, but I was struck by the slipshod reasoning of some of our members who seem to think an augmented membership is the solution to our financial woes, rather than an increased dues. If mailings average 35¢ each, there is automatically a 40¢ per member per year deficit on postage alone. Just how can it solve this situation to enroll further members at the old rate? ---oo0oo--- FAN-DANGO. That was the last of the pink issues, I hope. I made a lovely boner when I said Bessie and Bennie would not be of interest on the same side, forgetting about OK 8946 and 8949!
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COMMENTS ON THE SPRING MAILING INSPIRATION. The review of stfzines was very interesting, and should prove of considerable usefulness to those of us who have not read all of their back issue zines. . . . The interesting discussion of traffic control and city redesigning would be much more valid if it had been better designed to fit in with present-day cars and highways. Electronically controlled automobiles are very well. . . . but what about the millions of cars on the road today, none of which are so controlled? Are their owners to be compelled by law to have them adapted to fit the new system? Are they to be scrapped arbitrarily? Certainly an electronically controlled highway network will fall far short of its aim if it is used by vehicles not so designed. It is all very well to bring in these new devices, but at the same time it must be remembered that many very commonplace automobile improvements are not shared by all cars on the road. For example, although the first four-wheel brakes appeared in 1923 or 1924, there are many cars still in daily use which have only the two-wheel brakes. I saw two today, a model T vegetable truck and a Dodge touring of about 1922 vintage. Safety glass has been available for twenty years or more, and has been standard equipment on many cars since 1938, yet many cars are still in service which do not even have safety windshields, let alone side-windows. I believe that it is enough to demonstrate that radical modifications of the motor car will take a long, long time to become universally adopted. And then there is the matter of highways Lynn talks about roadside controls. All very well, but consider the thousands and thousands of miles of presentday highways which are definitely obsolete and inferior even according to the standards of 1940. Three-lane highways have been condemned as death-traps for well over a decade, yet there are still plenty of them. I drove several hundred miles over such roads in my 1943 trip from northern Idaho to Los Angeles, to say nothing of an even greater distance over obsolete two lane highways, with turns banked for 25 or 30 miles an hour instead of the 50 plus at which even my antiquated Willys was rattling along. And I know of several major and semi-major arterials which still bear their antiquated black-top paving, and are liberally sprinkled with signs reading: "Slippery when Wet or Frosty". . . . The point I'm trying to make is that while it is all very well to build up pipe-dreams of one kind and another, it seems that a more practical, though certainly as interesting, discussion could be built up if we took greater efforts to coordinate with things as they are today, and try to trace a gradual evolution, rather than outline some arbitrary system of fifty or a hundred years in the future. . . .. Robot ad was lovely. ---oo0oo--- FANTASY AMATEUR. I voted Yes on both those questions. Did you? Of course it is of academic interest only, but I was struck by the slipshod reasoning of some of our members who seem to think an augmented membership is the solution to our financial woes, rather than an increased dues. If mailings average 35¢ each, there is automatically a 40¢ per member per year deficit on postage alone. Just how can it solve this situation to enroll further members at the old rate? ---oo0oo--- FAN-DANGO. That was the last of the pink issues, I hope. I made a lovely boner when I said Bessie and Bennie would not be of interest on the same side, forgetting about OK 8946 and 8949!
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