201 Regency Drive,
Hurst, TX 76054-2307
May 20, 1997
When I stopped receivingJomp, Jr., I naturally imagined the most dramatic reason, that my COA card with the score of address labels plastered all over it had angered you and you'd sworn never to see me another copy. I'm almost disappointed by the real reason.
Multiple address labels are my weakness. Whenever I see more than one address label, it sets my mouth foaming. It's like saying "Niagara Falls" to that fellow in one of the Abbot and Costello movies. "Niagara Falls! Slowly I crept foot by foot, inch by inch." - ed.
I'd tossed the sketch of the devil I was planning to ink for you into the purgatory of my cartoon idea box. Now I must redeem it and see if it is still funny and appropriate after a year. Perhaps if I add a nude witch.
You certainly would be historically correct. Plus the first Wiccans were apparently nudists. Nudism was a more publicized movement in the '50s than now So you could get nude witches that way.. - ed.
Beast wishes
[I must point out the postcard that this was sent on. It has a '50s pinup of Betty Page in catwoman attire.Gggggrrrrr!!! Even though the cat uniform is more than slightly silly. - ed.]
2677W-500 N
Hartford City, IN 47348
May 27, 1997
I'm trying a different typewriter here; old one crashed. Could be a lot of minor errors in here. And probably fewer comments; I didn't check as much stuff.
Have you received a lot of flack from fans that you should get a computer? Ignore 'em. We computer users need some source of comparison so we know when we are falling into folly and should get a manual typer. Or a quill pen. - ed.
Now, the original purpose of the Bell Curve wasn't to prove that blacks were inferior; it was to give the teachers a guide to how many of their students should receive top grades, how many second-rank ("B"), etc. What it's used for now, God knows; it depends on the teacher and the school hierarchy. I was graded "on the curve" in an all-white high school.
I was graded on a curve too in school. But I am not certain how much it measures knowledge. Suppose all the class are geniuses; suppose they're all idiots. Supposed the class was a waste (and I have taken my share of classes that were a waste). - ed.
We also took IQ tests, and I suspect that my high school class had an "average" IQ of about 120 because there were only 13 people in the graduating class and at least 4 and probably 5 of them were well above average, from about 140 down to maybe 90 for the class dullard. And we did acquire academic skills, or at least the higher IQs did, and ended up with high-status jobs (or in my case, high-status hobbies.) I'm not sure anyone attended college; I certainly didn't. But then, I never intended to spend my life as a sharecropper, so I became a bookbinder, draftsman, technical writer and eventually track designer for the Overhead (garage) door company. Plus authoring a few books, etc.
Would the IQ remain high if not used in work? Yes, in most cases. I started my working career at 14 as a cemetery caretaker; mowing grass and digging graves. Then I painted houses and barns for a few years (scraping the cowshit off the barns before painting.) Didn't seem to bother my IQ. By and large people with intelligence are interested in things besides work. If they can't afford to indulge their curiosity in reading, watching intelligent TV programs, etc., then the IQ might go down, but I'm not sure I believe that. The frustration would go up, certainly.
I think disuse does lower the IQ. Your hobbies are protection against that. People who don't have hobbies, like you, would probably be in trouble.You are so right in one thing. Intelligence is a vague concept that is very useful for everyday life but it becomes denatured when you try to objectify it and adapt it to the physical sciences. You might be able to do something with the IQ as objectified into tests, but it resembles the original concept hardly at all. Academic achievement and job status, upon which IQ is based, only peripherally have anything to do with the original concept. I figure the denaturing process happens with a lot of things like consciousness, God, soul. - ed.
Is Two Live Crew degenerate? No; they're making a good living. Their listeners might well be degenerate, of course, but that wasn't the question. I don't quite see that the woman with the illegitimate kids would have been better off with a man around the house, either. A decent man might have been an improvement; a "man" probably wouldn't. The average man is no superior to the average woman, and the symbol of a complete family doesn't make it one.
About the Two Live Crew, I meant the listeners were degenerate.. I can justify doing this as a figure of speech, implying the listeners from the performers, a species of metonym. Anyway, who knows what the private Two Live Crew are like; for all I know they may be anchorites. We only know their public persona.
About illegitimacy, all things being equal, a two parent family, and better still a married one, prevents hassles in our society, especially for the kids. Our society claims to be so liberal, but we know about that. Illegitimacy remains a stigma. My view has nothing to do with the superiority and inferiority of the sexes, and everything to do with giving a decent life to one's kids. This view, of course, is true only when all things are equal. It would be best if some fathers kept a thousand miles away from their progeny. - ed.
Can't comment on pot or LSD; never used them. Alcohol is pleasurable in itself, yes. I have never been drunk, in the usual sense; I've had enough alcohol at one time to make me a little wobbly on my feet, but it never affected my mental faculties. (I credit this to the strong asthma drugs I took as a child; if I could imbibe them and still concentrate on school work, mere alcohol didn't stand a chance. ("...active ingredients stramonium and belladonna...") Tried pot once; didn't get anything out of it and never bothered again.
You may not have breathed in. - ed.
TV extolled lots of things; it does not hypnotize people. If you're dumb enough to think nightclubs, smoking and drinking are the good life, you'll try it. If you're smart, you won't.
I don't use 9-digit zip codes because they aren't necessary out here. The postal clerks and route carriers know us personally. If anyone supplies me with a 9-digit zip, I'll use it in writing them, but they're mostly superfluous out in the sticks.
Nope, my progeny -- one son -- isn't any part of my self. I like him, but he isn't me and doesn't want to be. Don't believe in afterlife, either; dead is dead. One may live a while in the memories of friends or relatives or both, but they die, too, and eventually it's all gone, except that, years from now, someone may run across a crumbling paperback that I wrote and, maybe, wonder a bit about the author. Or find a mouldering copy of YANDRO in a stack of old fanzines. Works live on -- for awhile -- people don't.
I agree that you can't see, hear or smell people who are dead. But there is being true to the facts and true to ourselves. And many of us yearn for immortality; so, to be true to ourselves, we should believe in an afterlife. Of course, we shouldn't expect to telephone our grandfather a la one Leonard Nimoy special. - ed.
More comment than I thought. Some personal commentary; on Saturday night at Marcon -- May 10 -- I hauled off to the hospital. Urinary tract infection that had migrated to the bloodstream, they said. Finally got out on May 13. Very weak in the legs for some time; the effects of the infection plus arthritis. But I'm improving. Today we just got back from Wiscon; Juanita did the driving, but I tended the huckster table, made my two panels, went to parties, etc. And got back to find a second-story window blown out -- possibly hit by a bird, possibly just the high winds we had. I was up and down a stepladder getting some temporary material in the opening to block the wind and my legs worked fine. (No possibility of deliberate damage; they could have kicked in the back door much easier with less chance of detection, so the problem was natural.) And we have another con in a week and half....I'm getting better because I have to.....
Sometimes you're better off staying active. I have arthritis, not probably as bad as you. Lifting weights seems to have helped. Arthritis still pains me but right now walking and normal lifting doesn't exacerbate the pain. - ed.
1706-24 Eva Rd.
Etobicoke, ON
CANADA M9C 2BC
June 28, 1997
Time's been at a premium (such is the harried way of life we all enjoy), and letterhacking's had to take a back seat to working on our Worldcon bid and our local con, Ad Astra XVII, which took place earlier this month. Now, it's a long weekend, and I can get caught up on fanzines, such as issue 17 of Jomp, Jr.
Time seems to be at premium for a lot of people. I have been told that the researchers who look at questionnaires and diaries claim that there is more spare time than in the '60s. But it doesn't seem the case for my set. Of course, maybe the fact that they are on objective time and we are on subjective time has something to do with it. I find that in no other era have people had less time for APAs than during the present. - ed.
The history of the witch is amusing, but also indicative of the prejudices, arrogant behaviors and ignorant beliefs we can come up with for groups we don't like. Such beliefs and opinions have also been applied to other groups who have been called out of the ordinary, such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mennonites, and many more. We've met Richard and Tamara James, the heads of the Wiccan Church in Canada...very nice folks, and dedicated to their beliefs, unlike many fans who wear pentacles just to try and look fannish.
As a side comment, the Pentagram, which a lot of fans wear, just missed being the symbol for Judaism. It was known as the Seal of Solomon. Apparently until 160 years ago, it competed with the Hexagram, AKA Mogen David, AKA the Shield of David, for the honor of being the symbol of Judaism. I bet it lost out because it had been closely associated with magic. In legend, Solomon himself was a magician. - ed.
If vice is everywhere, why don't people get tired of it? I'd
like to think that if we had a more liberated attitude about things like
alcoholic beverages, there'd be less abuse of it. Many European
children have a glass of wine with their dinners, and there's less
abuse of it, while here, alcohol is held away from them as an adult
thing, and they long after it to see why adults would keep it for
themselves. However, people will tire of one vice, and turn to another.
There's a problem with liberation. The liberation of one generation becomes the chains of another. Thirty years ago we were liberating ourselves from innocence into sex, and now we are liberating ourselves from sex into innocence. In the 1800s people were liberating themselves from reason into hero worship. Since the '20s, we have been liberating ourselves from hero worship into the facts -- I guess the equivalent nowadays of reason. What we need is a reasonable balance between competing tendencies, like sex and innocence, and hero worship and the facts. Using what we need of each for happy lives and rejecting what we don't. This takes common sense, which seems to be in short supply. - ed.
Locally...both Yvonne and I have been nominated in different categories for Auroras, Canada's Hugos. We'll see who wins what in October, so wish us luck. (I've been nominated for my fanwriting, by the way.) Also, I've enclosed a flyer for our Worldcon bid. (Yes, we're nuts, but you're not the first to think that way.)
Certainly I am going to wish an intelligent and perceptive correspondent like you luck. And, I don't wonder about why you would be nominated for your fan writing. As for your Canadian Worldcon bid, Worldcon bids are fun, I've been told -- if nothing else. Even East Podunk must have its own Worldcon bid. And sometimes it gets the Worldcon, but better be careful it's not a joke. - ed.
Time is short, and I'm 5'4", so I'll wrap things up here. Take care, and see you nextish.
23629 Woodfield Road
Gaithersburg, MD 20882
June 29, 1997
Sorry to take so long....
Hmmm--so witches flew "on an assortment of animals" -- curious, which ones? The more obvious (horse, etc.) or esoteric (elephant, etc.). Antlers are shed (horns are not) does that mean Cernunnos was without head gear part of the time?
If memory and generalization serve me right, the most usual mode of witch transportation before the 16th Century seemed to have been the goat, with the sheep the next most usual. About Cernunnos, all is possible with a god. I don't know whether the ancient Druids ever portrayed him as without head gear when they portrayed him. Certainly the modern Wiccans haven't. - ed.
I tend to think that most of the general population fits into a fairly consistent mental capability slot. But, I (almost daily) see a guy who has what I would call linear thinking (i.e., he can ONLY deal with one task -- to completion -- at a time), and it is frustrating because he is, literally, incapable of planning another task(s) before the first one is done. He also cannot amend his method to handle ANY changes in the situation.
I, on the other hand, do a million things at once and am always changing direction. ...So you said this individual gets a lot done, right? - ed.
Actual ice water in the vein could be more serious than just cold shoulder (unless it was actually cold saline) -- sounds painful.
I am certain it was. - ed.
I looked at all the white space on the last page. If you can set the space between paragraphs, you might be able to compress a bit and fill up that area or shrink it down as needed.
I have a little problem planning ahead. No question about it. - ed.
Good luck on the next Jomp!
11 Sussex Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20910-5436
July, 8, 1997
Glad to receive JOMP, JR. #17. In line with your article on "the image of the witch in modern society," I have a couple of remarks to make. Appearing as a witch in Halloween costume is apparently considered entirely acceptable and without sinister referents. And some of us can find a charge of witchcraft, if not an actual witch, in the family tree. In my case, Joseph Parsons (1613--83) came from England to Springfield MA in 1674. He married Mary Bliss (1620--1711). My old record shows merely that she was charged with witchcraft, sent to Boston, tried and acquitted. Perhaps, as you suggest, there were "Compurgators" to testify in her favor as character witnesses. Anyway I'm on her side.
I am too. I was told that sometimes people were accused of witchcraft out of personal animosity. If there wasn't a witch panic going on at that moment -- and often there wasn't -- the court often saw through it and acquitted the accused. Of course, with time, fewer and fewer were being convicted anyway. When you enter the 18th Century, the courts in English speaking countries rarely convicted for witchcraft. Even farther back, many courts recognized the legal problems involved in convicting a witch, especially with the "spectral" evidence that was often the only basis for prosecution. - ed.
The original development of the "IQ" figure was quite simple. It is merely your score in some test, divided by the average score of everyone in your age group, multiplied by 100 for convenience in doing away with fractions. Your IQ will be high if the group you are compared with is below par, and it will be low if the crowd is full of extra smart people. What's more the IQ is never absolute; it changes from year to year, as it was developed to act as a measure of change (intellectual growth).
But the rub lies in the specifics used in measuring the intellect. As Buck points out the education and job criteria that give the test its external validity may not measure what, in common parlance, is intelligence. - ed.
As for the Bell Curve, it is not like the free form monster Jomp, Jr. has provided on page 6. It is rather like the form of an old, eroded mountain, with a broad, not far from flat, summit sweeping out on either side in a gentle curve approaching, but not quite reaching, the zero axis at the base. The chess rating of all members of the US Chess Fed. provides an excellent example. I marvel at the vast numbers who are below my rating and I am humbled by the (slightly smaller) number who come in higher than I will ever go. For people who abuse the Bell Curve by attempting to show that some segments of the population (typically minorities) have better innate abilities than other segments, I make no excuses. They are wrong.
You made a telling point with your observation that "the people who are obsessed with drugs, sex, porn, outrages to common decency and other so-called pleasures, look miserable." (Remember Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray").
Your ct. (Buck Coulson's LoC) on Newton's development of gravitational theory is right on the mark. As U say, the ancients could not believe in what they called "action at a distance." Can we?
Certainly the Aristotelian ancients, and Renaissance Aristotelians, couldn't. The Neo-Platonists are another story. They were rare in the 13th Century but became more numerous, and seem to have taken over in the 17th Century. Then science took another turn and left both behind. The problem wasn't that there wasn't an explanation for action at a distance. The problem was that the explanation was unseen. You could see the four elements of Aristotle earth, fire, water and air. You could not see the angels and spirits the Neo-Platonist explained such things as gravity, with. This smacked too much of forbidden magic for the Aristotelians.
In the 17th Century, the action of atoms became another unseen explanation, which was more acceptable to the powers that be. Newton took this one step further, and said he could not tell what the explanation was for the action of gravity, light or chemicals, although it could be natural ( it could also be spiritual) . And was satisfied with describing that action, descriptions which were enshrined in his laws. This was less acceptable to the powers that be, especially the Cartesians on the Continent. But eventually it became the new orthodoxy. - ed.
Good luck with your project of re-reading Gibson's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
I think that was Harry Andruschak who was re-reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall.. No big deal, reading Jomp, Jr, with all these names, must get confusing. - ed.
Your goodly supply of aged LoC's was worth saving for this issue. I've dated this one and will wait (calmly, calmly now) to see what happens.
Fortunately for me JOMP, JR. is a not time sensitive zine or I would be out of luck. - ed.
I am getting Jomp, Jr., again -- the newest one is #17. Appreciate your efforts. I still decry Harvia cartoon style. Wish you would go back to the Gothic style of cartoon/illustration.
We have an esthetic difference of opinion. I really like Teddy's cartooning. - ed.
Have you come into the late 1990s and gotten a computer with Windows and e-mail and access to the Worldwise Web? I somehow doubt it. My elder brother still cleaves to DOS. I was converted by having to use Windows on the job, and seeing how much simpler it is.
You show a lack of faith in librarians. We librarians in general are trying as hard as possible to embrace the Web for fear we will become toast. Even many, both male and female, who can be described as Marion the Librarian. As for Windows, I, like you, learned on the job. - ed.
If you had e-mail, you could e-mail me your articles and I could proofread them for you.
Do you capitalize Blacks as a political statement? In editorial circles, it is considered radical and sure sign of leftist leanings. I also notice that the preponderance of the letters you get seem to be left of center. Maybe you should broaden the readership. I consider myself to be a middle-of- the-roader.
I apparently have broadened my readership. Welcome aboard. Also, I don't think Harry Warner, Jr. is that left of center. As for being radical, liberal is more like it -- although I feel the political winds are going to blow over the old ideologies any day now. My capitalization of Blacks has nothing to do with my politics. Rather, I capitalize a lot of words others do not. And why not? It's my zine. - ed.
I particularly liked the essays on the Bell Curve and on degeneracy. Re the former, I have four very intelligent friends who happen to be people of color. I guess that proves nothing statistically, but even one of them would have been enough for me to conclude that no matter what curve is statistically valid, all I need is the freedom to have whatever friends I want. Color, after all, is not destiny (whereas gender we are trapped in).
I have reached the conclusion that the belief in the inferiority of races has never been a scientific concept but a theatrical concept. In the racial literature of the 19th Century, writers acted as if they were involved in a melodrama. The antagonists had to wear the right clothes and make-up. I am not certain how much that has changed either. Both the racial or anti-racial literature of the 20th Century have their own theatrical villains; just that the costumes, scripts and make-up have changed. - ed.
In the latter, I reread the last para on p. 6 numerous times and still did not get the meaning of what went on between you and the mother of the illegitimate children. Ann Landers, by the way, points out that since it is never the children's fault that their parents did not marry, we should be calling the parents illegitimate.
Unfortunately, in the real world, people are cruel and the children get blamed more than the parents. Which is why I am dubious when people say I had an illegitimate kid but it's my business. - ed.
I also applauded your suggestion about an image of Picasso in a bottle of urine. Let us see what the oh-so-sophisticated art world would say then.
The disquisition on pleasure and pain was really good. I will have to share it with others. The concept that freaks extolled experiences you suspected were painful fall into the category of misery loves company, but not as smart as Tom Sawyer getting others to whitewash his fence.
Do you work in a library? Which one? I have had several temporary stints as a supervisory library technician and a library technician (research) at the Library of Congress, and I really miss the place.
I am a librarian at the Food and Nutrition Service Library. In fact, I am the library; it's a one-person. In addition, it is a library I created from a room full of typewriters. I think my agency may need my usual explanation. It is in the Department of Agriculture but it has nothing to do with agriculture. It is called the Food and Nutrition Service but it has nothing to do with food or nutrition. What does it do? It administers Food Stamps, WIC, School Lunch and a number of other Federal feeding programs. - ed.
Are you still in touch with Irv Koch (who has moved to Tennessee, bought a SF&F bookstore in Atlanta, and has the e-mail address Irv.Koch@juno.com)?
I had lost touch with him, but he re-surfaced in an APA that I am a member of and told his story. - ed.
Must go back to my job-hunting. I have a job, but I am miserable there. Any of your readers know of an editorial position, preferably intellectually challenging, involving copy editing and occasional substantive editing, and maybe even knowledge of foreign languages?
P.S.: Paula Jones's story and her behavior have the ring of truth, while Anita Hill's captured the ring of silliness. We shall see.
Such are the vicissitudes of partisanship. I think both's story has A ring of truth yet neither's amounts to sexual harassment. If Paula is speaking true, then what Clinton was doing wasn't completely moral but it wasn't sexual harassment either. From her description, Clinton presumed she had agreed to sex and was surprised when he found she hadn't (at least to the type of sex he was proposing). The evidence is pretty pitiful that at any point, before, after or during Clinton applied duress to work his will. That includes that she didn't receive flowers during secretary's day.
On the other hand, Anita never claimed she was sexually harassed, just pissed. I think Clarence thought talking dirty would woo fair lady but nothing could turn her off more. An all too common mistake. It wasn't sexual harassment because these people were friends and on semi-intimate terms. Anyway, at no point, did Anita feel the need to bring Clarence into court. In fact, I don't believe she would have made her grievances public had the committee investigators not twisted her arm. Yet once her arm was twisted, all the old animosity against Clarence erupted like a volcano - ed.
PO Box 5309
Torrance, CA 90510-5309
August 5, 1997
JOMP, JR #17 arrived some time ago but somehow got neglected, what with all my other problems. The worst was my high blood pressure going out of control, and my doctor prescribing beta blockers for the problem. The side effects of the beta blockers include reduced sex drive (my masturbation rate has been cut in half) and a general run-down tired feeling most of the time. Now I face $1,400 worth of dental work (1 crown and a few fillings).
The drug Zestril, a lesser blood pressure medicine, is bad enough. And I don't even have high blood pressure. The reason I'm taking it is a long story, which I don't want to get into this moment. - ed.
Meanwhile, I still cannot but get annoyed at the creeping of pseudoscience into fanzines. THE CONNECTION has a guy who refuses to accept Einstein's relativity. DASFAX has a monthly column by Gail Barton seriously discussing such things. I told the editor Sourdough Jackson to stop mailing me DASFAX and insteaad send my copy to the guy in THE CONNECTION.
So I was rather interested to read an article that appeared in the LA TIMES NEWSPAPER MAGAZINE last weekend, and I enclose it for your own reading and assessment.
I read the article. I fear I may earn your ire. I have halfway gone over to the believers. On the one hand, I agree 100% pseudoscience is not science. On the other hand, I believe it's religion, morality, romance, philosophy, esthetics, fancy, myth. I know pseudoscience's wacko promoters claim it is science and have an armory of atrocious logic to defend their belief. But their real reasons are religion, et al. The problem with the article was that none of the commenters seemed to realize that what poses as science ain't. They are taking the wackos too much at face value. - ed.
I forgot...do you get FOSFAX regularly?
I don't get it at all, perhaps I should. - ed.
Going to bed. Tired and sleepy.
Yours Aye.
R.R. #3
Tatamagouche, N.S.
B0K 1V0
February 19, 1998
Thank you for the copy of JOMP, JR. #17. I see it was dated one year ago. Does this mean that it is an old issue or that you publish very sporadically
Sporadically. - ed.
That was an interesting cartoon on page 1. I'm always intriqued at how many fans who receive tons of fanzines bitch at the stack of unread and unlocced zines they have and yet faneds continue to send fanzines their way.
Publishing fanzines makes us feel important when we remain a drop in the Atlantic. I know intellectually my fame has not gone beyond a small circle. A far smaller circle than my subscription list would indicate. But, in publishing and sending my zine out, albeit gratis, I still feel myself the center of the universe. - ed.
I decided about 27 years ago that getting falling down drunk mitigated all the fun that I could be having. I could never understand what fun there was in getting so drunk you didn't know what you were doing nor whom you were doing it with. Yet, many people constantly do so. One of the big themes of convention fandom is apparently parties, parties and more parties. Fine, if people stay sober enough to truly have fun. But, few do, according to reports. But, of course, many would proclaim you and I to be old stick-in-the-muds.
I'm not certain more young people than you would think haven't gotten wise. A number of young people I have met have had enough sense to go beyond that. (And a lot of old people have not.) - ed.
I found Buck Coulson's comments on females especially interesting. Not that I care much but I have sometimes wondered if fandom embodies homosexuals. And, I recently composed an essay wondering where all the females are in SF fanzine fandom, which will appear in TWINK #9 this spring. I've found there are quite a few of them in the United Kingdom. But not many in North America. And, of course, I do have the deserved, I am sorry to say, reputation of being a sexist male chauvinist pig. I love looking at pictures of babes.
Looking at babes is nature not politics. Concerning the number of women in fanzine fandom, my experience is there are a lot of them. Half the APAns I write to seem to be female. Among the genzines and prozines fanzines I have received, the biggest ones have been published by husband and wife. Thus, my experience with fandom is different from yours. - ed.
I'm afraid this is not much of LoC. Or is it? One of the most confusing aspects of fandom to me is that some editors seem more than happy with very short letters or even postcards. I have a tendency to write longish LoCs. Usually.
I ain't prejudiced. I'm happy to get any submissions. Even from certified loonies. (I'm not referring to anyone here. In fact, I haven't had one from a certified loony in a long time.) - ed.
Anyway, thanks for this one. I enjoyed it all. Hopefully, I will get the next one, if I am still alive and residing someplace you can reach me.
Write me at dengrove@erols.com. Back to My Home Page
THE END