Mailing Comments

[page 38] MAILING COMMENTS {Title Art: The title is surrounded by red dots.} The cardinal sin, as I understand it, in an apa is to NOT include mailing comments However, this time because of lack of hours and minutes, and also because of the peculiar date-line on this particular ish of HOOM, I will omit the usual comments. To comment on the September mailing would be rather stale and to rush in with mailing comments on the new December mailing wouldn't be quite cricket because it would steal a march on all the other pubbers who won't be putting out a zine until a couple of months from now. Soooo, I'll save the comments on the current mailing until the next ish of HOOM and get myself back in line. I could say, however, that the last two mailings have been superb, and I'm looking forward to the coming year with N'APA, and to working with Art Hayes. Perhaps I can use this space to good advantage to make a few additional comments that Gollum's Grandmother didn't make: First of all, we all give in to the fact that HOOM doesn't need a "teen column." We concede from this day forwad that Joe's column will be a general comment column, and the fact that he _is_ a teen (_fif_teen, by the way, because someone asked) has nothing to do with his contrib to HOOM in any way. Gollum's Grandmother will shoulder the blame for this idea. . .I didn't mean to set the teens of fandom apart in any way, except that they seemed very exceptional people. You see, as a teacher of the teen group which I judge to be the average high-school lot, I daily observe the apathy and lack of awareness which seems to be characteristic of this age. I can't call it the "generation gap" because these kids are the stuffiest bunch imaginable. . .I wish they'd _do_ some of these things the young people today are supposed to be doing! A couple of examples: A speaker at an assmbly used a Simon & Garfunkle record (their "7 O'Clock News" recording) to illustrate his talk, and the kids around me were buzzing, "Who is Simon & Garfunkle? What's it supposed to _be_? Or on another occasion, we Government teachers brought a recording of Feliciano's "Star Spangled Banner," to discuss whether or not it was "good taste" to sing our national anthem in this way. The _faculty_ all liked it. . .the kids in our classes were horrified, and thought it was something to be specifically banned in the future. Granting the fact that our national anthem is difficult to sing, they would be for hiring opera singers or at least highly trained voices to render the anthem at any public events! [page 39] They are so lacking in imagination and in intellect that I contact the lively, aware tests of fandom gives me some faith in the coming generation! The most horrifying thing I have read is a postmark on the envelope from the Va. Dept. of Education. . . it read, "our future goes to school today." The "future" that I deal with day in and day out, doesn't believe in sapce exploration. "If God intended us to get to the moon, he would have created a stairway." The "future" that I teach doesn't accept the theory of evolution because it contradicts Adam and Eve. The "future" I try to urge into discussion feels we should de-emphasize science and engineering in the schools because "there are already enough inventions putting people out of work." Can I be forgiven, then, for wishing to place teen fandom on a pedestal, and for admiring these kids that READ, that are literate, that are imaginative, that are aware of today's world and its problems and its hope! Poor Joe has taken the brunt of all my "setting aside" of the teen group. . . so, forgive us, and accept him as just another fan. Everyone is probably completely correct in feeling that teen fen are just as mature and capable as the older members of the community! They're that kind of people--God love 'em! Now, below, I'll try to reproduce Paul's version of the poem in HOOM 2, so you dedicated Elvish writers can compare John's version with his: {Tengwar: A Tengwar traslation of an unspecified poem in HOOM 2.} (Coninued on Page 3:40) [page 40] We hope you remembered! To celebrate Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday on September 22. To take out a moment on your Merry Christmas holiday, and recall that it was December 25th that the Fellowship set out with the ring from Rivendell, at dusk. Continued from Page 3:39 : {Tengwar: A continuation of the unspecified poem from HOOM 2, transliterated to Tengwar. Illos from the article reviewed on Page 3:21. Original drawings by Carlo Italiano. Somehow I can't visualize Sam looking quite like this. . .and WHERE did the earring come from? In all my dozen times through LotR is it possible I missed a description of Sam