Pray to God, but keep rowing for the shore. — Old Russian Proverb

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. — Edward R. Murrow

Gunboat with press: Three signed up so far.

Perestroika Diplomacy: Add an economic twist to the classic game. Centers generate revenue, armies and fleets must be maintained, and treasuries can be sacked! Rules are available on request.

Signed up: Art Schleinkofer, Phil Reynolds, Harold Reynolds, Karl Schmit

Standard Diplomacy: That’s it, the one and only original

Signed up: Fred Wiedermeyer, Hank Alme, Cary Nichols

Just the results please: Don’t really know what to call this one as I just came up with it. Perhaps it’s been tried before. The twist for this variant is that each season only the ending unit positions are published, not the orders. You’ll know who went where, but not who helped whom, or want may have been tried unsuccessfully.

Signed up: Phil Reynolds, Doug Kent

A new game for 3-4 players. Manager your factory and build your products, but beware, increased production means more waste, and if you aren’t careful you’ll find that working in a sludge pit affects your productivity and the bottom line.

Railway Rivals: Be the first to try out Brendan Whyte’s new Queensland map.

Signed up: Brendan Whyte, Rip Gooch, Andrew Glynn, Brad Martin. Room for more, starts next issue.

Outpost:

Sign up for the next game to start when the current one finishes.

Snowball fighting: Current game is over. Anyone interested in another go? 2 signed up so far

Signed up: Tom Howell

Signed up: Brendan Whyte, Robert Dowrey, Karl Schmit

Reader’s Choice: I’m open to anything, just send me the rules and if I think I can run it, I’ll offer it.

Well, two different deadlines didn’t do me any good, so back to just one and if I get orders fast enough I’ll process some of the games more quickly. Maybe it was tax time or something.

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The Black Bottomed Girls try to lag and grab cards, but two of them lag a bit far. The Team About Nothing (51) and The Four Kingdoms (59) leave some rubber on the road as they grab for those last few points from this sprint. Amazingly enough, the pelaton reforms will 11 of 24 riders, and only one empty square separating another 9.

GM – Boob: Nice analysis Jim, but you forgot about Babylon and Cutler doesn’t get his point.

BBG: We like it when we go slow and gentle on/with, each other. Nice slow, smooth strokes please us greatly. And hopefully will build us up for a massive climactic finish. You with us, boys?

GM – BBG: Sorry girls, but half of you aren’t keeping it up.

FRONT MEN to SPECTATORS: Note how I'm expanding my little mini-front pack. I left Abigail in the lead for now, but she'll never know when I might strike to the lead! All four of my riders are still in the running to score at the finish line.

GM – BOOB: While Abigail is looking back at you, you might want to glance over your shoulder at the Kingdoms, they’re on your tail and packing some big numbers.

BOOB to BACK PACK: Gosh, where are your cards? Some of you just have NO zip! I'll bet the pack totally falls apart this turn!!

GM – BOOB: No points for this guess!

Jerry -> George: C'mon George, get moving!

George -> field: Look out, here I come! (Fires afterburners - scooter zips forward nearly to the next finish line and stalls.) Serenity Now!

Elaine -> team: C'mon guys, the Howells are getting away!

Kramer: Giddyap!

BOOB to "AL-GEBRA" REPORT: You had me rollin' in the aisles, and you know I don't mean no funny smokes!

IN THE LAND OF HOMEGROWN EVIL'S SELECTIVE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT:

I laughed when SCO got snagged in embarrassing disclosures (such as how much money they were getting from various Microsoft divisions and front groups) by people doing "View Change History" on Word documents it posted online.

MIKE to BRENDAN: I'm counting on [praying for] Bo Dacious to move to space 76 so Cheney can pull your other three riders along. If she didn't, there's a break at 76 and we don't get the card values for drafting the Bible and Seinfeld teams, even if Babbette surprises me by filling 79.

GM to Mike: You’ve got to start coordinating. That move along with some 5’s from the other girls would have generated some bodacious cards (56 for you, 67 for BBG) and got you both back in the running.

MIKE to RICK: George can't afford to sit and collect three's. So are your three guys gonna meet up in space 78 and look at Elaine's big (as you prefer) butt four spaces ahead? I think Tom will cut us off leaving the 79 gap, and you'll waste three big cards pulling Rumsfeld and maybe the pack.

GM – Mike: Another good analysis, but Tom didn’t cut you off. Rumsfeld paid off, but oh, for that 76!

MIKE to BOOB: Points? I'm no wimpy point racer, I'm here for the overall win, the checkered flag, the trophy, the trophy queen. Anyhow it's my first Breaking Away game: a training session, a practice whose outcome doesn't count against me. Count my points NEXT game.

ATTRIBUTED TO TERRY PRATCHETT: "It's dawned on me that Zero Tolerance only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down areas, and not in the Stock Exchange."

SEEN ON SLASHDOT-DOT-ORG: "...but then all it would take would be a judge interpreting a bong hit as an act of terrorism to eliminate a class of protections." (Actually, that's the case now, under the USA-PATRIOT Act whose provisions the Administration now wants to make permanent.)

Two Pairs of Kings - Pack: It looks like the pack is breaking up, so it's time to pull out those big cards. Maybe we'll have a crowd around the second sprint line.

GM – 2PK: Half right.

Dans - Bad Leftovers: It's not like Um Reifenbreite, where you can declare a breakaway and no one can draft behind you.

IN THE LAND OF HOMEGROWN EVIL: Let's see. Class III narcotics? Check. Stock market pump 'n dump? Check. Nigerian scams? Check. Hijacked machines? Check. All of these are seriously illegal. So where are the cops? Sure enough, it's the first option, preventing cancer patients from using the only remedy for nausea caused by chemotherapy.

MIKE GETS A RULE CLARIFICATION FROM THE GM: Does a secret interrogation program verging on torture count as "Evil" if the big bosses refuse to read the Pentagon report or the Red Cross report? Or is it just "Rough Riding"? Did Rummy earn a red card or just a yellow card?

GM – Mike: A black one!

:Black Bottomed Girls (Brendan Whyte) 5 points

Homegrown Evil (Mike Barno) 0 points

Thin Bottomed Girls (Tom Howell) 24 points

Manager: Edith

The Four Kingdoms of Daniel Chapter Seven (Eric Brosius) 8 points

The Front Men (Jim Burgess) 15 points

Manager: Ian Curtis

The Team About Nothing (Rick Desper) 26 points

Manager: Frank Costanza

Ethan has vanished, emails and phone calls not returned. Because of the special conditions of this game I can’t simply call a standby but I will continue searching for one and will let players know as soon as I have. If it takes a significant time the deadline will be delayed appropriately.

Germany: f den retreat hel

Russia: a rum annihilated

Austria: a gal – (sil, vie, otb)

England to France- We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the villages, we shall fight on the sea, we shall never surrender!

Egland to Russia - On behalf of the Queen and myself, welcome to the new Tsar in town!

England to GM - Where did all these sparrows with the coconuts tied to their feet come from?

GM – England: You must have some darn big sparrows in England!

England to Germany - Ditto to France! Only this time we really mean it!

England to GM(again) - When does the United States come in on our side (or at least start sending us those old destroyers or something)?

GM – England: They appear to have attacked the French, causing all their units to hold. They must have disagreed with the President or something. You won’t get many more of these opportunities though, you’ve got to make better use of them!

Amazing what a single night of rain can do. One passing storm and this was the road on the way to drop the kids off at school in the morning. Why couldn’t it have come in February and been snow (thus speaks the skier)?