Either I am subject at the moment to a high incidence of co-incidence, or else I am growing "telespathic tendrils." On January 9th, I sat down and wrote to Ben Abbas in Holland. I've never corresponded with him before ... In my mail on January 13th, comes a letter from Ben, which he must have written on 9th or 10th. One such incident is nothing, but in the past few months I've had that happen several times ... I wrote Zeda Mishler, and at the time of writing she wrote a letter to me (which she did not post, as a matter of fact) ... again, we'd never swapped letters previously ... Zeda, by the way, is no longer N3F Hostess ... she has "retired" ... to operate a fantasy book-shop! ... N3F Hostess to-day is Eva May Firestone, Upton, Wyoming, USA ... Ben Abbas was publisher of the ill-fated Dutch mag FANTAISE EN WETENSCHAP and is a fan-artist of no little skill ... you'll be seeing his work in these pages, we hope ... a Birmingham firm are planning the mass-prodoction of a development of the U.S. "Hoppicopter," powered by a British motor-cycle engine ... estimated cost just below £500, but much cheaper if demand warrants large scale production ... Donald E. Keyhoe, former information chief of U.S. Commerce Dept., claims in an article in "TRUE" that Flying Saucers are space vessels from another planet which has had Earth under observation for 175 years ... "Sarlie, vos you there?" ... Professor Adrien Daninos has returned to Egypt with a "new" idea -- Solar power -- he hopes to get this by using aluminum mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a boiler. Steam generated is to produce electricity ... lots of sun in Egypt, but the scheme sounds awfully familiar to me ... not only are the postmen of 1950 staggering under increased numbers of prozines, but there seems to be a healthy new crop of fanzines, also ... Kroll and Grossman's SCIENTIFANTASY expires with its fifth issue, we are sorry to note, but FANTASY ADVERTISER is back in the running again, now published by Roy Squires ... alisting of fanzines currently received is given elsewhere in this issue ... send 'em in you editors, and we'll note 'em down ... Doc Innes sends a report about hens ... at a meeting of the Physiological Society it was demonstrated that a hen injected wih radio-active phosphorus laid radio actvie eggs for weeks afterwards ... Doc Innes suggests that a good live-wire salesman can now make a living selling P32 and Geiger counters to chicken farmers who have wayward hens ... Daily Express, January, gives an odd mention of popularity of "space-opera" in the USA ... Roger N. Dard, of Australia, who is an admirer of Lee Brown Coye's artwork in WEIRD, learn that if there is sufficient demand, WEIRD may publish a folio of Coye's pics ... get the paper out and write to WEIRD TALES now! ... Doc Keller, who's THE HOMUNCULUS is reviewed in this issue, has two more books due for publication in next six months ... THE ETERNAL CONFLICT, and THE LADY DECIDES ... Richard Wall draws our attention to a very curious metamorphosis in Murray Leinster's tale THE OTHER WORLD ... the incident is that of a plumber who "turned into a doorway!" (SS Nov. P. 11) Derek Pickles of Bradford, England, has started a new service for fans ... a newspaper clipping agency ... if you are interested, there's an advert in the smalls with Derek's address ... the DAILY HERALD, October 21, under the banner "THE ATOM IS QUITE A FILM STAR" reports very favourably on the film ATOMIC PHYSICS, listing as the cast: "Professor Einstein, Lord Rutherford and a vast supporting cast of nuclei, neutrons, isotopes, etc." ... some other odd clippings around October mentioned Flying Saucers again ... one report from Baltimore mentions the finding in a barn of two oddly designed aircraft, which are considered as possible prototypes of the Saucers ... another from Los Angeles states that officers at White Sands proving grounds have seen "space ships" flying at 35-40 miles high. these ships being described as "egg shaped craft of fantastic size, and travelling at speeds of three to four miles per second" ... pass the salt, please, Joyce ... LEADER January 7th, has article about Einstein, in which the worthy professor is elected greatest man of the half-century ... an Algernon Blackwood story appeared in December Courier ... STRAND January 1st carries an article on the prophesies of Monsieur Robida, made in 1853 for 1950 ... like many other prophets, M. Robida was surprisingly correct in many things, and laughably "off-net-" in many others ... STRAND'S choice of "thirty books of the year" included Orwell's 1984 ... December issue contained a pretty good ghost tale by L. A. G. Strong, by the way ... Dame Rumor has it (that woman does get around!) that shortly to join the BRE list are AMAZING and FANTASTIC ADS, some unspecified firm is reported to have signed a three-year contract with Ziff-Davis ... first issues due out in March ... maybe before O.F., I dunno ... and to follow, there id a possibility of FANTASTIC NOVELS ... LEADER, January 14th, devotes three pages to "BRITAIN IS GETTING WARMER," an article of interest to fans ... we pulled a boner in the Sept. ish ... I said Fantasy Artisans were publishing SCIENCE, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ... this is not so ... publication is by Franklin M. Dietz, Jr. although the club does use the mag for its purposes, this is because Frank is a club member ... J. B. Coltherd tells me his time is monopolised by one of the fair sex, he can hardly get peace to read even aSF! ... with paper controls off on March 1st, we can look forward to a regular, dated, quarterly NEW WORLDS ... Ted Carnell, by the way, appears as a fictional character in a tale by Fred Patton, in OTHER WORLDS March issue ... GNOME PRESS have a fine line up for the future; including Asimov's Positronic Robot stories, maybe the Foundation tales (unofficial, that), and we hear that Martin Greenberg has approached Hal Clement with the idea of Hal putting several of his yarns into a novel about Space exploration ... TWS/SS "Q" FANTASTIC STORY QUARTERLY should appear any moment now. THE HIDDEN WORLD (Hamilton) having lead spot in first issue .. K. F. S.
Data entry by Judy Bemis
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