Joe sends us these pictures of our probable new meeting place. We have a trial run scheduled for August 12, two presentations. Fingers crossed that the Zoom works for us here!
Royal Canadian Legion
3015, rue Henri-Dunant,
Lachine, Qc,
H8S 1R5
It’s 37 minutes travel time (including a short walk) from the Lionel Groulx Metro: 191 bus.
This week’s new issues at https://efanzines.com:
John Purcell’s Askance #55
Opuntia #553, edited by Dale Speirs
Rich Lynch’s My Back Pages #28
Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #46
Octothorpe #87, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line
—
From Lebyl in Israel:CCJuly2023-v01
From the N3F, Tightbeam
Tightbeam346
Table of Contents
Art
Front Cover… Armada by Jose Sanchez
12… Tigana Dragon by Artist Fish
Back Cover… Big Splash by Tiffanie Gray
Letter of Comment
4… Lloyd Penney
Anime
4… Action Heroine Cheer Fruits… Review by Jessi Silver
Poetry
7… The 2019 Rhysling Anthology Edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel…Review by Jean-Paul Garnier
ProZines of Years Past
8… Review by Heath Row
SerCon
10… H. Beam Piper Bio-Bibliography by Jon D. Swartz, Ph.D.
Television
13… Musings on Picard and the Star Trek Franchise by Chris Nuttall
Short Stories
15… F&SF May/June 2023… Review by Heath Row
Television
16… Fantastic Television: Travelers Review by Heath Row
Food of Famous Authors
18… Eat This While You Read That: Margaret Ball… Cooking by Cedar Sanderson
CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees, 2023
CSFFA has inducted three people into the Hall of Fame, in 2023. Congratulations to John Robert Colombo, Michelle Sagara, and Clifford Samuels for their induction. Thank you to the 2023 Hall of Fame Jury for their work. Here are very brief bios of the inductees (please visit their web sites for more info about them).
John Robert Colombo has been called “the Master Gatherer” for his compilations of Canadiana. He is a member of the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario, and has written, compiled, and translated more books than any other serious Canadian author. More than 200 titles of his books have been published since 1960. http://colombo.ca/
Michelle Sagara has written over 40 fantasy novels and has been nominated twice for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (the award underwent a recent name change). She also has a long running book review column, Musing on Books, for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, with over 50 columns. https://michellesagara.com/
Clifford Samuels is the Aurora Awards Administrator and has been a pillar of support for Calgary fandom for almost four decades, his contribution reaching beyond the city, beyond the province, indeed, beyond the country.
See more at the Hall of Fame page: https://www.csffa.ca/the-csffa-hall-of-fame/
Missed MonSFFA’s Barbecue-in-the-Park last Saturday? The club will host a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca this Saturday, July 15, beginning at 1:00PM! Have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand!
No formal programming is planned, just a game or two, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish! Share with your fellow MonSFFen the details of your latest genre-themed craft project; tell the group about an SF/F book, movie, or TV series you’ve been enjoying of late; or share vacation photos of cool sci-fi events, exhibits, museums, or shops you may have recently visited!
The floor is open! Your input is welcome and encouraged!
Given this opportunity, we will have information on our scheduled August in-person meeting—the first in over three years!—plans for the return of the club’s fund-raising book sale, and other matters for which the input of our membership is desired.
Mark your calendars, and we hope to see you online Saturday!
A SUNSPOT SO BIG YOU CAN SEE IT FROM MARS: A huge sunspot (AR3363) just emerged over the sun’s southeastern limb. Mars rover Perseverance saw it before we did. On July 2nd, the rover’s mast-mounted stereo camera (MASTCAM-Z) tilted up to the sky above Jezaro crater and photographed a deep-black dot on the solar disk:
Zoran Knez of Croatia assembled this montage using publically available NASA images
Perseverance does this all the time. Using a solar filter, the rover looks at the sun almost every day to check its brightness. When the sun dims, researchers know a dust storm is brewing–one of the most important forms of weather on the Red Planet.
Sunspots are just a bonus. A recent study shows that Perseverance sees more than 40% of all sunspots despite the fact that Mars is 78 million km farther from the sun than Earth and the rover’s camera doesn’t put many pixels across the solar disk. It is able to resolve about 10% of the biggest sunspots into multiple pixels.
Perseverance has one big advantage. It can see parts of the sun we cannot. From where Mars is currently located, Perseverance views more than half the sun’s farside, giving it a preview of sunspots still hidden from Earth. That’s how the rover spotted AR3363 days in advance.
People on Earth saw the sunspot for the first time on July 5th:
“A very big sunspot is coming!” says photographer Philippe Tosi of Nîmes, France, who inserted an image of Earth for scale.
Just don’t forget, Perseverance saw it first. Daily photos from Perseverance are available here. Select the date and camera (MASTCAM-Z), then start looking for sunspots.
more images: from Philip Smith of Manorville, New York; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna Sweden; from Sylvain Weiller of Jerusalem, Israel
We remind MonSFFen to mark the next two Saturdays on their calendars!
MonSFFA’s Summer Barbecue-in-the-Park 2023 is scheduled for this Saturday, July 8, and our virtual get-together/picnic—a “Relax-a-ZOOM”—is set to follow one week later, on Saturday, July 15.
MonSFFen and their families, as well as friends of the club, are invited to gather beginning at 10:00AM in Parc Maisonneuve on Saturday, July 8, for the club’s 2023 Barabecue-in-the-Park! Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Botanical Gardens and the Olympic Stadium. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.
Our intention is to claim a picnic spot somewhere along one of the rows of trees, not too far from the parking lot and the chalet. Our “Preferred Picnic Area” is indicated on the map (above). Look for us in roughly that area.
So join us for a relaxing day in the park! Friends, fun, food, and fire, the latter in the form of our new “Dragon’s Breath” propane barbecue, which we’ll have on site for those who may wish to grill up a couple of hamburgers, hotdogs, and other such summer staples! Bring your own refreshments, snacks, and any meats you may wish to barbecue.
And please note that proper washroom facilities are located in the chalet, a marked improvement over the deteriorating and unsanitary facilities at Parc Angrignon, our former barbecue locale!
Should the weather prove inclement on the 8th, the event will be shifted 24 hours forward to Sunday, July 9. If necessary, we will post a notice on the club’s Website of any change in the schedule by no later than 9:00AM, Saturday morning, the 8th.
We will also host, this month, a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca on Saturday, July 15, at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand!
No formal programming is planned, just a game or two, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish, including, given this opportunity, a little bit of club business regarding our planned August in-person meeting, and related issues, for which the input of our membership is desired.
To download a PDF of our “Club Events in July” flyer, click here: FLYER
From South Africa:
Good day all Here is the June issue of PROBE, number 196. I hope you enjoy reading it PROBE196X
Best
Gail
From Bill Burns at e-fanzines:
Editors have been busy this week, with eleven titles having new issues. Added at https://efanzines.com are:
And another update followed:
To the sound of fireworks, I have added these new issues to https://efanzines.com:
From Garth an update to CUFF:
Even yet more news about the Canadian Unity Fan Fund! Slowly but surely WE ADVANCE! Shooting My CUFFs #3
From Nic Farey:
“Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control. And it didn’t have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realized that you either became a power or you were crushed.” TH 66
From Joe Major: Alex129
From the N3F:
Yes, a new issue of Eldritch Science the N3F Fiction zine .ES202306
MonSFFen and their families, as well as friends of the club, are invited to gather at 10:00AM in Parc Maisonneuve on Saturday, July 8, for the club’s 2023 Barabecue-in-the-Park! Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Botanical Gardens and the Olympic Stadium. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.
Our intention is to claim a picnic spot somewhere along one of the lines of trees, not too far from the parking lot and the chalet. Our “Preferred Picnic Area” is indicated on the map (above). Look for us in roughly that area.
So do join us for a relaxing day in the park! Friends, fun, food, and fire, the latter in the form of our new “Dragon’s Breath” propane barbecue, which we’ll have on site for those who may wish to grill up a couple of hamburgers, hotdogs, and such! Bring your own refreshments, snacks, and any meats you may wish to barbecue. And note that proper washroom facilities are located in the chalet.
Should the weather prove inclement on the 8th, the event will be shifted 24 hours forward to Sunday, July 9. We will post a notice of any change in the schedule no later than 9:00AM, Saturday morning, the 8th.
Then…
We will also host a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca on Saturday, July 15, at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand!
No formal programming is planned, just a game or two, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish, including, given this opportunity, a little bit of club business regarding our planned August in-person meeting, and related issues, for which the input of our membership is desired.
JULY 2023