| January 15, 2002 |
Web Page Address: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
All of our subszines (Tinamou, Deny Everything, and Houdini Blues) are now accessible via the above web page. The next Tinamou deadline should be February 18, 2002.
Yes, this is very late, in fact the latest this ever has been in 18 or so years
of publishing.
The primary reason for this was an insane work schedule on my two jobs (both
of which are nominally full time) and a desire to make sure that Charlotte
didn't feel short changed first.
I think that was met, but I see what happens with folds now better than I
ever have before.
With each day that you don't publish it seems easier to go another day
not publishing.
But I don't like the feeling and I have a feeling that posting this issue
is going to feel especially good.
Thank you for all your understanding.
Deadlines should be pushed back sufficiently (February 2 and 23) for everyone
to get caught up.
Let me know if you have any other questions about the delay.
I make no promises that I have included everything that should be here,
feel free to nudge me and I'll get completely caught up next time.
Since I've had a few questions about my E-Mail address lately, probably
best to just update everyone.
My Internet Service Provider, The World, which claims to be the first public
subscriber ISP, though I'm sure that is dependent upon how you define an ISP,
is substantially upgrading their equipment and the capabilities for me to
connect to them.
They are doing this through a ``new'' address, so that mail from me looks
like it is coming from either burgess of TheWorld.com or burgess of shell.TheWorld.com.
But I'm kinda attached to the old Software Tool and Die (the official name
of the company that generates the world.std.com address) and besides I probably
have millions of listings of that address in various places, too many to
try to correct.
So, I'm not changing the official address, but know that each one sends mail back
to precisely the same mailbox.
It makes no difference.
A lot of you have been sending me two copies of things.
But if I hook up to world.std.com instead of shell.TheWorld.com, I run at about
1/4 the speed, so you know what I'll be doing.
It also interfered for a few weeks with me posting to the rec.games.diplomacy
newsgroup, but that also is corrected.
Thanks to those who asked about it.
I want to say a few words about my subszines.... thanks for being understanding!!! In here, we have Houdini Blues #8 from Michael Lowrey and he would like me to plug his Dip and Outpost games - sign up now!! Please see Michael's subszine down below or on the Web Page! Don Williams had been through a bit of a tough time (losing his hard disk on his computer) but is back publishing with a vengeance and we have lots of catching up with him down below, helping to make this issue a bit huge.... and David Partridge had a few errors in adjudication, but I believe this is ACTUALLY the final version down below. And Dave Partridge is trying to start a new game too, so let me take a seat back a bit and not start a new game for a bit and urge you toward our subszines. They are uniformly excellent and right now more timely than I seem to be.... ;-)
Mark Kinney is folding his small szine, League of Nations, which had one game in it that I was playing in (as is Warren Goesle and David Partridge). If Don or Michael or Russ would like to pick up the game and run in TAP they would be welcome and could contact Mark Kinney for details at alberich of iglou.com - I think there is only one player who is not a TAP subber and I would offer one free if it is picked up here.
The postal sub price is now
$1.50 per issue in the US and Canada,
STILL a bargain at twice the price.... but
you can double that for other foreign subbers (or $3.00 per
issue sent airmail).
Players in current games and standbys will
continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts
(except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost
$20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the
game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance).
NOTE: See the revised game start announcements below!
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at: /
I also have taken over the Postal portion of the Pouch: /Postal/
and TAP on the web is there at: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
where the szine resides in html format. Presently, issues from #190 to the current issue are there, and I will be updating the back issues gradually someday. Also, check out Stephen Agar's more extensive efforts at: http://www.diplomacy-archive.com and http://www.meurglys.com
David has grabbed and reserved the HIGHLY prized name: www.szine.com!! David Wang's site used to be the best place to follow John Caruso's postal baseball league that I am in. BUT, the site has not been updated as well in recent times. THE place to follow the league now is DICKIE-POO Martin's website: http://www.phantomempire.com where in the ``files'' section, ``baseball'' sub-section, you can see all of the individual and team level stats. You need to sign up as a ``member'' to see all of the files. You, too, can chat with John Caruso there, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings. My Red Sox team is looking great for next year and so I'm very excited. BUT WE ARE LOOKING FOR A FEW NEW PLAYERS!! Contact John Caruso at commishjohn of att.net or me for more details. We have two teams left open at the moment.
Peter Sullivan's subszine is currently ``in stasis", although all the back issues can be accessed via :
http://www.manorcon.demon.co.uk/octopus/index.html
Peter is unlikely to be starting any new games in the Octopus until ``at least the start of 2002." In the meantime, if anyone else fancies running some choo-choo games here in TAP, both Peter and I would be keen for someone else to try their hand. I think we have Rip Gooch as the representative volunteer, but he should get back to me about his plans.
By electronic mail, through the Internet, subs are free and can be obtained automatically by sending the message: subscribe tap
to majordomo of diplom.org and messages can be sent to the entire electronic mailing list by mailing them to tap of diplom.org which will forward your message to all of the people currently on the list. The message:
unsubscribe tap
sent to majordomo of diplom.org gets you off the list. Please make careful note of that as well since you generally can get yourself off the list a lot easier than I can, and NOBODY likes to see unsubscribe messages sent to the entire list. A big, big thank you for David Kovar for setting this all up!!
| THE SEARCH FOR BILL QUINN |
Bill Quinn was the Boardman Number Custodian in the mid-1980's and won the Don Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Hobby in 1986. More specifically, he was Publisher of Everything during the Don Ditter and Kathy Byrne Caruso Custodianships (issue numbers 53-62) and then took over the Boardman Number Custodianship itself from August 1984 to August 1986. Bill was known for his efforts to organize the BNC records and as a tireless worker at the task, during a period of one of the highest rates of game starts in the history of the position. Naturally, Bill burned out on this eventually and has dropped out of sight. I think it is time to find him again.... you have until Issue #255!! Action on the search for's has been lagging lately, use the Internet for something, search for people!! The name ``Bill Quinn" only generates 2,630 hits on Google and ``Al Pearson'' only generates 728!! You'll really kick yourself if the AREA person named Al Pearson is the one that I'm looking for, for example and you can track him down pretty easily. Ask our AREA Diplomacy pal Glenn Petroski, gelp of juno.com, if you don't know what AREA is..... I'm not amused that the rate of searching seems to have dropped lately, go find these guys!!!
Feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Mark, Gregory, Kevin, Al, and Jerry found too!!! Note that Brenton Ver Ploeg would love to find Leslie Obata, the woman that Jerry Lucas used as his front too. This could be an easy way toward finding Jerry, though as Brenton notes, who is to say she has the same name now. This is a regular continuing feature of the szine and I will be introducing a new ``search for'' every five issues. Moreover, you can win a $25 prize for finding some previous target who went unfound in the original $50 period. That means that if Mark Berch, Gregory Stewart or Kevin Tighe or Jerry Lucas or Al Pearson is ``found'' from now on it is worth $25.
Winners will receive credit for Dip hobby activities that I will pay out as requested by the winner. Subscribe to szines here or abroad, run your own contests, publish a szine, finance a web page, or whatever. Spend it all right away or use me as a bank to cover hobby activities for years. What must you do to win? Get me a letter to the editor for TAP from the person we're searching for.
This is very important, just finding them doesn't do it. They have to write me a letter. The final judge as to the winner of any contest will be the target himself and I reserve the right to investigate the winning entry. When you find someone I'm looking for, you should ask him to send me a letter for print that includes a verification of who ``found'' him.
| INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION EXCHANGE NEWS |
The British representative is the editor of Mission From God, John Harrington. John may be contacted at 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 3UW, UK.
E-Mail: fiendish of operamail.com, John.Harrington of tfeurope.com
Please include the full name and address of the foreign publisher with your order, if possible, as well as the szine title. Make your check in US dollars out to me personally or in GBP to John if you're doing things from that end. I will conduct business for Canadians as well, if I can, but prefer to deal in US dollars with them if possible, or Canadian dollars cash. To subscribe to American szines, the system works in reverse. There has been some interest in finding a new Australian representative. Should someone Down Under have an interest, or from anywhere else in the world, please contact me.
We have added a European continental representative, most of this traffic likely will occur between Ronald Camstra (in the Netherlands) and John Harrington, but if anyone here in the US wants to get money into guilders or then into other continental currencies, we'll try to help you out. Ronald Camstra can be contacted at siedler of zonnet.nl and his home address is: Wielingenplein 48, 3522 PE Utrecht, the Netherlands. But in Holland it is most common not to send checks but to transfer money by bank. Dutch people can pay directly to Postbankaccount 4652247 of Ronald Camstra in Utrecht. Since he can see the name and address of the sender in his bankreceipt, people only have to mention the name of the zine and the editorial address along with their bank order. Ronald is obviously a huge Settlers of Catan fan. If you're interested in playing that game internationally by mail, I think Ronald can help you out.
We also have reopened a branch office of the International Subscription Exchange in Australia!! Brendan Whyte, the publisher of the excellent szine Damn the Consequences will be doing the honors, taking over in some sense from John Cain, who was the Australian rep for many years. You can contact Brendan to sub to Australian szines from the US or to sub to US szines from Australia, converting Australian dollars into American ones. I think we can maneuver deals to Europe from the other reps as well. You can find Brendan Whyte at b.whyte of pgrad.unimelb.edu.au (same university where John Cain works!) or by mail to send checks at: Geography Dept., University of Melbourne, Vic 3010, AUSTRALIA. This should help out my Australian subbers!!
| WORLDMASTERS00 SECTION |
Worldmasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Goes ON!!
The second round is now over. This year a large number of players went on to Round 2, before they narrowed to the Semi-Final Round of Seven games to determine who goes to the Finals. Prominent semifinalists include: David Malloch (one of last year's finalists), Paraic ``Fred'' Reddington (tall Irish elfin Diplomat as hard as nails!), Jack Brawner (best known as Dick Martin's childhood pal), Paul Riley (GM extraordinaire who proves he can play too!!), Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu (I'm learning Norwegian so I can talk to him and Frank Johansen in their own language... my first E-Mails to Joe were more or less understandable), Yann Clouet (one of France's greatest exports to the English speaking world), Egbert ``Egg'' Ferreira (extremely, even by Dipping standards, arrogant Brazilian... don't let him bowl you over), Thomas Franke (long acknowledged as the best German player in the world, showing he's not washed up), Stephen Agar (my Diplomacy World co-editor is showing he can play the game with finesse!), Fearghal ``Twerg'' O'Donnchu (the Irish wildman!!), Christian Dreyer (winner of tournaments and demo games, extremely dangerous!), Brian Dennehy (wow, he is just a great player, not second in any book of mine), Jody McCullough (yes, our very own Bay Area whiz!), Frank Johansen (the aforementioned other Norwegian and the President of the Norwegian Diplomacy Association), and Chetan Radia (he of the only 18 center win at this summer's World DipCon). Expect this Tournament not to end for another year, though we are obviously already well into 2001. The next tournament in the series will be WorldMasters 2002, starting sometime next year.
Jody McCullough had the dubious distinction of being the first semi-final player eliminated, after being jumped by Frank Johansen and Yann Clouet. Watch out for Frank and Yann now!!!
The main WWW site for Worldmasters can be found at http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Sign up for the conference board at
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
The Conference board is where day to day communications and discussions take place. Jack McHugh, Marc Peters, and other US postal old farts didn't make the cut!
The Boasters game was a ``demonstration game'' being run within the
2000 Tournament, but separate from it..... I also have been playing
in another similar demo game there called Road to Rio that you can watch
at the top of the Webforum page (how come Road to Rio gets such a prominent
position.... ;-).
We have now called it quits on Boasters and I declared Toby Harris the winner,
or at least the Board Topper.
We couldn't generate any interest in picking it back up after World DipCon.
Now Road to Rio also is in a bit of trouble for similar reasons.
It's been a fun game so far, but we have been on break until the first of
the year, waiting to see if we can reignite interest, and have just run
one lackluster turn.
We'll see where that goes.
| DIPDOM NEWS SECTION (with letters) |
Obscure and not-so-obscure ramblings on the state of the hobby and its publications, custodians, events, and individuals with no guarantee of relevance from the fertile keyboard of Jim-Bob, the E-Mail Dip world, and the rest of the postal hobby. My comments are in italics and ((double quotation marks)) like this. Bold face is used to set off each individual speaker. I should also make a note that I do edit for syntax and spelling on occasion.
The game Diplomacy is a copyrighted product owned by Hasbro and all reproductions or other use of that material in this szine is intended to be personal use and not infringe on those rights in any way. All reproductions are done at a heavy financial loss to the editor and thus are without the remotest possibility of commercial intent, except to promote THE game, the Game of Diplomacy, which you all should purchase from Hasbro or other duly licensed distributors.
In what I believe is a RECENT change, Hasbro also has been putting the rules to Diplomacy up on their web page along with rules for most of their other games. Not only that, but they have the ``current'' as well as an older version of the rules there. Check these out if you like:
http://www.hasbro.com/default.asp?x=cc_gameandtoyinstructions
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy(OlderVers).PDF
Nice of them to make BOTH of these available.
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
The Winter issue is still being assembled as Stephen Agar had ANOTHER disc crash (he must be doing SOMETHING to anger the computer ghods!!!) but I think we're almost back on track. Check with me or Stephen if you submitted an article just to be sure we have it. I'm still looking for WRITERS!!! Please!!! You don't want me to turn into Larry Peery, do you?? But thanks to Larry for an article that will be appearing in this issue, we have that one, Larry!
If you want to subscribe in paper form at $3 per issue, North American subs should be sent to David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033, USA. Stephen Agar is handling international postal subscriptions and you can write to him at: 47 Preston Drove, Brighton, BN1 6LA, UK. Issues from Stephen will cost you 2 GBP in the UK and 3 GBP for the rest of the world.
This first letter below was unfortunately delayed, but I still think it holds interest..... sorry, John.
John Biehl (Tue, 30 Oct 2001 00:03:15)
Deadwood Con Oct 20th/21st
Jim, I was able to visit Eric Ozog, his wife Cathy and family for the second time. I met Buz Eddy and a family up from Oregon. The first game we played was `Bounty', a game of collecting cargo of varying value and getting this back to home port. Piracy and warships (the law) make for interesting twists. I was able to go pirate and nabbed a valuable cargo without being pinched by the law. With that haul I was able to win the game by the exact count of 150 `doubloons'. Of course, Sarah, whose cargo I pirated, wasn't too pleased. The next game was my variation of Kingmaker (has some extra `chrome') played by Cathy, Buz and me. Cathy Ozog got a good lot of nobles, Buz got some and me, I got none (of any consequence). It was only a matter of time (1475) before parliament was called (on turn 25) where Henry VI was declared the one and only King by the (Cathy) Ozog faction. She got the outright victory by a single Lords vote. We then played a Seafarers of Catan game which Eric won. I found it more complicated than Settlers but this may be because I have not played this game much and the board gets some `getting used to'. Our Saturday nightcap game was this ``Exploding Cow" game - a hilarious money game where the object is to blow up the most valuable cows in your field before all the town cards are used up. I think Cathy won this one too.
On Sunday morning, after pancakes and coffee we were able to play one of my several variant Risk games. This was my British Isles game with four players plus a `rampaging neutral'. The `rampaging neutral' is a rule I have devised to include an extra player (or players - you can use more than one rampaging neutral) which is played by all the actual players. Cathy, Eric, Samantha and I played British Isles. Eric had the bad rolls and was out first. I almost won but for the dreaded 1-1-1 die roll followed by a 1-1-2 roll right at the end of the attack I made on Cathy. A few turns later Samantha was able to eliminate her and then me to win it all. British Isles is a small Risk game with 24 territories to the regular game board that has 42 territories. It is `fast and furious' (the way all Risk games should be played). In the afternoon, after the family from Oregon left, we played another three player game of Kingmaker. In this game, we all got some valuable nobles, Eric having the weakest faction, then Cathy and with me having the most nobles and eventually the strongest faction. Unfortunately, bad fortune followed me throughout the game. An event card dragged the Constable to London (my noble - Roos) where he subsequently got plagued. Then my siege of Nottingham got delayed by bad weather not once but twice in a row (this is almost unheard of). Lastly, when I did take a town by siege who died but my Percy (the best noble of my lot). This bad luck cost me the game as it prevented me from destroying Eric's faction. If I had done so I could have dominated parliament. As it turned out the game lasted until 1484 (turn 34) when, in parliament, King Henry VI was declared the one and only King (as in the first game). The game could have gone on longer because there was no clear winner (but time was) and we had to end the game. The one other strange occurrence in this game was Cathy getting virtually all the ships (the odds of this happening are very high and my version has more ships - some of the `chrome' I referred to). Neither game of Kingmaker was particularly bloodthirsty (very few nobles were killed) except for the royal heirs who were `disposed of' in one manner or another (a beheading, a poisoning, a drowning and even an abandonment of a five year old in the wilderness). Ah, the `elimination' of your rivals, how satisfying! It is great to get together and play some old (and new) favorites. Here's one: ``When is a `stab' in the back a good thing? If you leave it in you won't bleed to death."
| John, jeen of telus.net |
David Partridge
Greetings!
Diplomatic Incident XV will be held in Boston, MA on March 2nd and 3rd, 2002. You are welcome to drop in unannounced, but it does help with the planning if you let me know you might be coming.
Diplomatic Incident is a house con, lots of good Diplomacy and gaming, no set rounds or scoring. For more details, go to www.diplom.org/DipIncid.
Taylor Hayward (a regular at recent DIs and a driving force in the local Boston FTF scene) joins us this time as co-host (letting Jack's wife and new son enjoy the weekend in peace!). The setting will be Taylor's Apartment at 1033 Beacon Street, Boston MA. Gaming will start Saturday at 11AM, with the door opening at 10AM. Crash space is available for those who need it, bringing your own sleeping bag is recommended. Please let me know ahead of time if you need space. If you can provide space in the Boston area please let me know as well.
Directions
Via the T Take the Green C line to St. Mary's T stop. 1033 Beacon Street is five doors down.
Via car Drive to Kenmore Sq. (Citgo sign, Fenway, etc.). Take Beacon Street out of Kenmore away from Boston. Go through a set of lights and find the nearest parking space. Sorry, no garages. 1033 Beacon Street is right near by.
| Hope to see you there! Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com |
((I will be there too, so COME ON OUT, y'hear? I had forgotten to mention it before, but a few months ago Gary Behnen came through town and we had a great dinner together. I think it might be about time to entice Gary back into the hobby. Gary, think about coming out to this!!! Last issue, I said I would publish a note from Kent Pollard and didn't, so it is only right to say elsewhere in this issue that I WON'T publish a note from him and then put it in here. I have a couple of other stray things I just uncovered, but except for this, they will wait until next issue.))
Kent Pollard (no date)
Dear Jim-Bob, I am sorry about the noncommunication lately. I am equally sorry to tell you that I must withdraw from my games. I have been very short on free time lately. I don't think it is fair to the other players to keep them on hold. I am only going to retire from the szine for awhile. I will get back into the gaming later on down the road. I am enclosing a check for you for the two games that I had been playing. ((Thanks, more than was necessary.))
Again, thanks for your patience! I am doing fine. I just need to address school and personal life problems more directly. I hope all is well with you. Tell the ole pros that I will be back.
| Kent |
PS I attended Billy Graham, he was great!
| MUSIC SECTION (WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTS AND SOCIETY) |
Tell me anything you like about the year of 2000 or 2001 in music. List a top two, a top ten, or a top 100, I don't care, just tell me something!! Mine will appear ``REAL SOON NOW'' - yes, in issue #254 or something!!! And it will be a joint 2000 and 2001 issue. I also recently met music correspondent Ian Moore from Ireland in person as he came through Boston, we had a GREAT time, and I hope to hear more from him via letter soon.
((On December 2nd, I wrote to Rick Desper:
``Really interesting how the Red Sox/baseball situation is sorting out.
As I understand it, this is what is going to happen:
John Henry (Marlins owner) is still going to join the HUGE Red
Sox ownership team (also ex-Padre owner Werner plus they are
negotiating to bring the O'Donnell/Karp team into their group too),
Loria is still going to take over the Marlins, the league is
going to run the Expos for a year while they wait out the last
year of the Twins lease and THEN they will contract. Oh yes,
and Duquette gets kicked upstairs, but keeps a job and Billy
Beane gets hired away from the A's to be the new GM.
Most of that is directly from Peter Gammons, don't know if he
put it up on ESPN.com, but that's what he has been saying.''))
Rick Desper (Sun, 2 Dec 2001 14:23:23 -0800 (PST))
Regarding baseball and the Tony Clark acquisition, I'm with Sports Guy Bill Simmons, somebody has to clamp down on Duke now before he can do more damage. ((Really?? I think there is a good chance this will work out quite well, but it is certainly a classic Duke chance taken.))
I've heard most of the Gammons stuff before, but not the part about Billy Beane. That would be great! Maybe he'll be able to get one of those young A's arms somewhere along the way.
The Celtics still need a point guard, even after having three picks in the first round of the draft this year. Joe Johnson might be enough to get them over the hump and into the playoffs. Considering how many dinosaurs there are in the NBA these days, the C's are pretty much due.
| Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com |
((Yeah, Billy Beane would be interesting. He'd revive the farm system which is desperately needed for sure. I actually think that Kenny Anderson will surprise you. He has played great for the last three games or so, dropping Palacio to about 10 minutes a game where he belongs. While one can certainly question picking Forte (who will never be more than marginal, I think) over Tinsley, the Celtics are far from the only team to underestimate him. And I think there is progress being made. Expect the Celts even to challenge for a home advantage in the East first round and in any case I think are one of six teams with safe playoff spots nearly in hand..... too optimistic? Perhaps, but that's what I think. [Late addition to this: that's precisely where things are going as the Celtics are even challenging for the top spot in the East....]))
Harry Andruschak (Mon, 29 Oct 2001 20:21:54 EST)
Just a quick acknowledgment that TAP-251 arrived today. You may publish this. Procedures have been changing at the Postal facility where I work in response to the death of two Postal workers to anthrax and the infection of several others. Hopefully, this won't affect my vacation to Mexico starting this weekend. Eleven days in Mexico's Copper Canyon region. I have been working with a new Therapist-Counselor in adjusting to my post-surgery physical and mental condition. She has been a big help in many ways, and I seem to have settled well into the ``eunuch calm". My latest tests confirm that my prostate has been put to sleep and I will NOT die from prostate cancer. So there. I intend to go on living for quite some time yet.
As far as the music section goes, I did indulge myself and buy the CD of the soundtrack for the movie FARINELLI. The main interest, of course, was the well done blending of two voices to produce a new sound. Nowadays we have no real idea what the Castrati sounded like, since much of their abilities and sounds came from over 15 years of rigorous training after the knife. Those training methods have been lost. How did they manage to achieve a vocal range of three and a half octaves? So the CD presented an interesting idea, something like a soprano on steroids. Even if nowhere near authentic in sound and story line, it represents an interesting experiment.
| Yours Aye... Harry, Sarareichert of aol.com |
((Indeed, I will have to pick it up! I actually think that some countertenors who are NOT castrati have done some pretty decent work, though the sound surely is different.))
Steve Langley (Sat, 22 Dec 2001 19:06:47 EST)
``Jimmy Neutron ... Boy Genius" - a movie
Animation was barely okay. Low budget computer animation with some mats. Not really appealing.
Story very limited. This is a kid's movie, and unlike ``Shrek" and ``Monsters, Inc." there isn't a level for adults to enjoy. This is strictly a kid's movie.
Luckily I am still a kid in many ways, so I enjoyed it for what it was.
``Jimmy Neutron" and his dog, ``Goddard" are an appealing pair. Actually, I think ``Goddard" has the edge. ``Jimmy's" nemesis ``Cindy Vortex" is pretty cool too. So the movie has something going for it, just not a whole lot.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((It also was pretty short, so it held my interest - even though most of the cool bits were foreshadowed by the previews I'd seen. I liked it better than Charlotte, probably 'cause I could do the kid thing more easily. I also liked Cindy Vortex a whole lot. What little work they did do on animation was on the space fleet of kids' ships and they were so overdesigned that they were just lame. I'm sure you can buy the models for 50 cents apiece at the after Christmas sales. I also would challenge a bit of Steve's Shrek/Monsters, Inc. comments, I thought the best bits about BOTH movies were the kid oriented parts of them, I thought the ``adult interest'' items were just lame and too predictable. Perhaps I'm just drawing the fun line in a different place though. I thought the best part of Monsters, Inc. was the simulation or test room, but I didn't consider that adult interest, just neat. And it says a lot for Jimmy Neutron that I didn't find Goddard just totally annoying, since I usually hate dogs..... but he reminded me of Doctor Who's K-9 a little bit, who I also loved. Anyway, Jimmy Neutron is not offensive, and it could have been.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 9 Dec 2001 19:02:58 EST)
``Ocean's Eleven" - a movie
Back in 1960 Frank Sinatra and some of his close personal friends thought that it would be fun to spend a month partying in Las Vegas and have a movie studio pick up the tab. In order to pull off this scam they made a movie about stealing from a Las Vegas Casino. There wasn't a lot to the story beyond having some really top talent mugging their way through a fairly pedestrian heist. Amazingly, or maybe not considering that Sinatra's career was peaking just about then, the movie made a lot of money at the box office.
Forty one years later, George Clooney, with a slice of ``The Magnificent Seven" thrown in, has attempted to pull off the same movie. I'm not sure about the close personal friends part. This time the heist is larger, and the heist is a lot more complex, but it is pretty much the same idea made 41 years later. Who knows, it may even have the same sort of success.
``The Magnificent Seven" reference has to do with the gathering of the crime crew. Clooney in the Yul Brenner role and Brad Pitt as Steve McQueen go out and enlist as unlikely a crew of `professionals' as has been collected on the big screen. Sinatra already had his crew when his movie started. They were all ex-military and had been working together for years.
From where I sat it was difficult to remember what the character's names were. They did the mugging required, and may even be more talented as a group than the originals. There isn't a whole lot in the story that requires the level of talent offered.
Brad Pitt gave probably the best performance as the second in command who actually held it all together. Clooney enlists him from his job teaching young television talent how to play poker. That was probably the funniest scene in the movie.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I actually really liked ``Ocean's Eleven'', not as much as ``Zoolander'' say, but a lot better than a lot of movies this year. Brad Pitt was just wonderful, though you're right that many of the other supporting actors' excuses for character were a single distinctive ``schtick'' (like Don Cheadle had a British accent and Elliott Gould had a cigar). And I found Julia Roberts completely silly as a character, but since she isn't my favorite actress this did not bother me much. And I love George Clooney, he is just so much fun to watch. Hey, it more than held MY interest, which is all you can say for a cheap thrill movie like this one.))
Steve Langley (Tue, 1 Jan 2002 18:39:44 EST)
``The Lord of the Rings" - a movie
Remember when I advised you to read ``Harry Potter" to get a better idea of what was going on in the movie? Well, I am given to understand by two friends that the opposite works better for ``Lord of the Rings." According to one of them it is too distracting to keep hearing yourself say, ``But that's not the way it happened in the book."
The first of the trilogy, ``The Fellowship of the Ring" doesn't exactly follow the book. What it does do, in a truly wonderful fashion, is give the flavor of the book. It is true to the spirit of the story if not the details.
If you are not familiar with the story a being of great evil and power fashioned rings of power that were distributed to the elves, the dwarves, and to the kings of men. What none of them know was that there was a final ring that held power over all of the others. That ring was lost following a final battle between good and evil in the times of ancient myth. It was recently uncovered, because it was ready to try again to rule the world. The ring itself was sentient and evil. It made a small miscalculation. It got itself discovered by a hobbit. Turns out hobbits are harder for evil to turn than any other of the manlike folk.
And so the story begins. A hobbit has the ring, a shy homebody type who really doesn't have a taste for adventure. His task is to take the ring across the world, protecting it from all those who would take it from him, and ultimately to destroy it.
The movie tells the start of the tale and the start of the adventure.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I found a couple of problems with this movie and ultimately didn't like it all that much, though it seems perfectly designed for 12-15 year old boys, which may be its target audience (he says as someone who usually likes good movies designed for 12-15 year old boys). Let's see if I can describe them in ways that won't ruin the movie for those of you who haven't seen it and will. First of all, I will see all three movies in the end. Whereas, I am seriously thinking of NOT seeing the next two George Lucas Star Wars movies that have a similar problem. I actually can't believe George actually is subtitling this one ``Revenge of the Clones''!! What will the revenge be?? That they go behind the cameras and play with a computer generated George Lucas before going to one of George's famous bar hopping downtown SF parties?? More likely, we will see far too many computer generated armies producing far too much video game inspired computer mayhem. Perhaps it is that I don't play video games, not at all. But the pacing of Lord of the Rings reminded me of what I think video games are. I haven't read the books in quite some time (long enough back that I didn't have the extreme reaction Steve suggests), but I still at one extremely key point of Orc mayhem and computer generated mass battle wanted to scream ``wasn't that off camera in the book and why can't it be that here???'' I went home and verified that it indeed was totally ``off camera'' in the book and wished there was more of that restraint in order to play up character a bit more.))
((Also, I played D&D for years in the mid to late 1970's and acquired and retained a working vocabulary of orcs, rangers, and elves but that part totally lost Charlotte and she too had read the books a long while back. Characters and races are thrown in and almost needed subtitles to keep track of. Boromir and the Ranger look too much alike and sometimes can't be distinguished and the same goes for some of the hobbits. You'd think that you could at least keep track of the nine members of the Fellowship, wouldn't you?? Well, you can't. The VERY late production choice to make what was going to be two movies into three left them breaking off Movie #1 in a somewhat awkward place (technically just after Chapter 1 of Book 2) and as a bit of a letdown. In a couple of years, I would probably sit through a marathon of all three movies together and enjoy it. It certainly is not a bad movie, but it is NOT the best movie of the year and I don't think it even is better than Harry Potter. For sure there is WAY more good character development in Harry Potter than there is in Lord of the Rings. I think they did a pretty good job of following BOTH Baggins hobbits but Boromir got about a minute and a half of character development and Gimli the Dwarf got even less than that! Finally, they tried hard, but the Hobbits just didn't look like Hobbits. The character who played Samwise actually gained 30 pounds for the role, but he didn't look it and needed to gain at least thirty more. How can you have skinny hobbits?? But still, by all means, go see it. It may well keep winning best movie of the year awards. Perhaps I'm just saying that it is nowhere near that level of quality.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 16 Dec 2001 18:58:53 EST)
``Vanilla Sky" - a movie
The title is explained in the context of the movie.
Very complex story. Very well acted. Conspiracy, madness, some of both, something else? Even after it is all laid out for you there is still room for interpretation. Just the sort of movie I am strongly drawn to. For all of that, I felt a little let down by it.
I plan to buy the DVD just so I can play and replay some of the scenes, looking for clues that may not even be there.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 15 Dec 2001 18:53:30 EST)
``Not Another Teen Movie" - a movie
``Not Another Teen Movie" is really all of the teen movies ever made rolled together. I think it will appeal mostly to dirty old men and teen boys. There is a lot of female teen skin.
The plot is an amalgam of "She's All That," "Cruel Intentions," and "Pretty in Pink" along with bits and pieces of every teen movie I have ever seen thrown in. Probably bits and pieces of every teen movie I haven't seen as well.
Most of the funny parts were put in the trailers. But not all. I laughed.
It did get me to thinking how really pathetic teen movies are. How many teen movies have you seen where they take a beautiful girl and hide her behind bad hair and glasses, only to fix the hair, remove the glasses, give her a pushup bra and a sexy dress to reveal that she is just as beautiful looking like a slut? Oh well.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 10 Nov 2001 20:57:09 EST)
``Heist: - a movie
Remember a month or so ago when I was disappointed in the story that went along with a caper. "The Score" was about the experienced old thief and the hot young thief. That was about the whole story. "Heist" is a similar situation, with so much more story that even when you get to the end you wonder if it's really over.
Gene Hackman plays "Joe Moore" an old thief who is ready to retire. But Danny DeVito has one last job that he wants Joe to run for him. Danny plays a sort of fence, moneyman role. He needs Joe to run the job because Joe is the best. Naturally since he is forcing Joe to run the job he wants one of his own, a nephew, to be on the inside, just to make sure Joe stays honest.
David Mamet wrote and directed. Mamet knows how to put a plot together. He also writes wonderful dialogue. There is one other thing he does, too. He puts his wife into everything he makes. She play's Joe's wife. She is a player. Joe relies on her to make things happen. Of course, with Mamet behind the story, she isn't totally reliable, and Joe doesn't totally trust her.
Imagine, a caper film and no car chases. I loved it.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 3 Nov 2001 20:26:04 EST)
``The One" - a movie
Which only goes to show that Jet Li can make a bad action film.
There are 125 `universes' in the `multiverse'. Now I would have thought infinity would be more like. If you are having parallel universes making up a larger multiverse how do you get a limit of 125? Not that it matters, except to the story.
Jet Li plays multiple roles. He is ``Yulaw" an ex-interuniverse-agent (a cop whose duty is to keep things in balance ... balance is never explained). On one balancing mission he killed an alternate version of himself, and received the life-force of the slain version. Well, actually he received 1/124th of the life force. The other 123 versions of himself split the rest between them. He was obviously very perceptive because he recognized the increase in his life power, and so became an agent of in-balance. He started to visit other universes, killing himself over and over again, to get more and more life force.
The movie opens with him killing the 123rd version of himself. Lots of action follows and he is captured and is about to be senetnced to a life in the prison universe, when a woman smuggles a white rat that is carrying a bomb into the sentencing room.
More action follows. Instead of prison he goes to the final universe. Possibly our own. Maybe not. They are all quite similar. His goal is to kill the 124th alternate and become a god. Or implode the universe. There is more than a single school of thought here. The 124th is a cop who has recently become nearly super powerful.
More action follows. Followed by lots more action. Then there is some action. And so forth. Finally the movie comes to an end, followed by some more action.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sun, 28 Oct 2001 20:17:51 EST)
``High Heels and Low Lifes"
Minnie Driver is so good. Too bad the same can not be said for her choice of movies. "Beautiful" was dreadful. "High Heels" is a cut above that, but still far from as good a film as her acting would indicate. As it was, she pretty much stole the show going from innocent, to so out of love, to mock tough, to chillingly homicidal. All while continuing to be the good girl.
This is a crime comedy that was long on crime and a tad bit short on comedy. Even the comic opera police were not all that funny.
The stroy relied on coincidence to get started, and had too many unexplained things happening for it to get credit for a plot. Great dialogue at times. Still, not enough to make it worth watching.
Minnie Driver is still lots better than the movies she has been in lately.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 11 Aug 2001 19:58:21 EDT)
``Original Sin" - a movie
I went to this expecting a story. I was not disappointed. Written and Directed can sometimes be a very good thing. I think it worked this time. Interesting cinematography, with use of multiple exposure, interesting angles, interesting backgrounds. I was enchanted.
What really came as a surprise was that Antonio Banderas can actually act beyond the macho arrogant persona he usually projects. Which isn't to say he didn't project macho arrogant in this film, too, but that wasn't always appropriate, and he managed very well.
Less of a surprise to me was that Angelina Jolie is also an excellent actor.
Of course the film is tanking at the box office. Oh well.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sun, 18 Nov 2001 19:47:40 EST)
``Harry Potter" - a movie
First let me say that if you have not read ``Harry Potter" book one then please do yourself the grand favor of doing so. Even if you are not a reader do this.
Second, if you have read the book and have not gone to see the movie, please do yourself the favor of seeing the movie. Unfortunately the book is bigger than the movie. I have yet to see a book that wasn't. They did a really good job of shrinking the book down to big screen size. But trust me, the order of events for maximum enjoyment is read the book, then see the movie.
If you decide to just go see the movie I am sure you will still enjoy it. You may leave the theater wondering about some of the things that took place. Your own fault for not reading the book.
((Indeed, just what I was thinking, although I did not RE-read the first book just before going to see the movie, having read it a year or two ago actually was best of all. It does make you think about making more than seven movies as the books get longer and longer.))
Actually I was thinking they should have made two movies out of the first book. Or one much longer movie with an intermission. They used to do that sort of thing. Sigh.
((Oh yes, yes, yes..... but this problem only gets MUCH worse in Books 2, 3, and 4!!! I really worry that some things will be horribly telescoped.... like doing all of the Quidditch matches in.... Book 3, I think? and missing all the details of Hermione's story of the ``extra classes".... and the other book that has the Wizard get-together, and the visits to the town in Book 4, etc. etc. I worry that they will stay hard on THEME and miss the side fun. Yes, of course Book 1 could have been four hours too.))
We are agreed. A great deal of what makes the books work as well as they do are all of the little events surrounding the larger events.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 24 Nov 2001 17:41:19 EST)
``Spy Game" - a movie
Both Robert Redford and Brad Pitt were better together in this than I have seen them for a while. Redford's smart senior CIA agent, playing all ends against, and Pitt's young idealistic natural CIA agent playing for good to triumph over evil came across brilliantly. Telling the difference between good and evil drove them apart. But in the end it was Pitt's character's character which overcame, leading Redford's character into a monumental act of self sacrifice.
((And this is a place where Robert Redford's well known decision to eschew cosmetic surgery made every line in his face worth watching.))
The story starts with Pitt making a mistake with bubble gum while attempting an unauthorized prison break in mainland China. The body of the story is told through flashbacks in a top echelon meeting where the CIA pumps Redford for reasons to hang Pitt out to dry. Redford refuses to play the game, even though he has told Pitt early on that he would. As the story unfolds it is revealed that Redford is the reason Pitt is in trouble.
((Yes, but not in the usual way one expects. I found the plot rich and fresh! I also liked the way they got high level government bureaucracy (which I have seen first hand in other agencies) just right in the subtle ways.))
Complex convoluted story. If it has a flaw (for me) at all is is that I would have liked to see Redford manipulate the CIA into taking action. If the movie has a flaw it is in Pitt's age. He really isn't old enough for the part he played. The timeline requires him to be mid forties or older, and he really isn't.
Still, excellent movie.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((Really? I thought Brad Pitt pulled that off just fine, remembering that he WAS supposed to be young in some of the flashback scenes.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 13 Jan 2002 19:01:38 EST)
``The Royal Tenenbaums" - a movie
Wes Anderson makes intelligent funny films. ``The Royal Tenenbaums" may be his best. It leads the field now at least.
The Tenenbaums are a wonderfully dysfunctional family. Weirdness pervades the film in both little and large ways. These are not real people. These are exquisitely drawn works of fiction.
Gene Hackman deserves some sort of awards mention for his portrayal of ``Royal" the world most dysfunctional patriarch since ``Homer Simpson." He has been out of his family's life for 17 years. But when he runs out of money and hears that his wife plans to remarry, he fakes a terminal disease as a way to worm himself back into their good graces.
What follows is sometimes very funny, sometimes touching, occasionally quite dark, but always well written, and unfailingly weird.
Owen Wilson plays `Eli Cash' the neighbor from across the street who grew up wanting to be a Tenenbaum. He also got a writing credit along with Anderson, and a production credit. Good job.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I've come to really like Owen Wilson's work. He was really promising in small parts in ``Anaconda" (a laughably bad movie of heaving tits [but nothing really explicit] and a leering Jon Voight that I will likely watch on this upcoming Saturday night again since it's up against football and Mary Poppins), ``Armageddon'', and ``Rushmore'' (an underrecognized masterpiece which I believe he also partly wrote!). He was really good in his first starring role in ``Shanghai Noon'' (I love Jackie Chan movies! - there's a sequel of that one coming out soon, I think) and then he was stunning in ``Meet the Parents'' and ``Zoolander''. I look forward to seeing this Tenenbaum movie... and he's also in ``Behind Enemy Lines'' - I guess playing a bit against type, but he was really good in that too, a fun little movie.))
Steve Langley (Sat, 12 Jan 2002 20:07:53 EST)
``A Beautiful Mind" - a movie
I think Ron Howard may be a genius. Maybe not, he may only be a borderline genius. There is as much difference between borderline genius and genius as there is between average man and borderline genius. That is to say, they really are so different that it is hard to communicate one to the other. Ron Howard has made some truly impressive movies in his career. That could be near genius with a lot of hard work and luck, or true genius. Tough call.
The reason I rambled through the above is because the movie makes the point that there is a difference again between genius and true genius. Tom Nash is a true genius. This was a true story about a man whose beautiful mind came up with some original ideas. He thought of innovations in ways to think about things that ultimately won him the Nobel Prize. What makes the story exceptional is that he did it over a lifetime of fighting with schizophrenia complete with paranoid delusions. There is no cure for schizophrenia. What there is comes in the form of medicine to dumb you down to the point where the delusions don't upset you. The prognosis is continued deterioration until you have to be turned into a vegetable.
Ron Howard makes exceptionally good movies. He probably is a genius.
Oh, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly were incredible as the Nashes. Paul Bettany and Vivien Cardone were both wonderful in their roles, too. Exceptionally good movie this one.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((Yeah, even more so since I couldn't see how they possibly could take such a complex real life story and make it into a coherent movie. The Economist in me wanted it to be more about the difficulties of his theories (Nash himself is rather skeptical about how we economists use them), the government bureaucrat in me wanted it to be more about the RAND Corp. work that he did, and the academic politician in me wanted it to be more about the various really thorny problems that Nash created for the system in his life (including the really touchy debates that led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in the end). They cut all three of these out nearly completely. Then, I thought it could have been about his sons (the illegitimate one that they left out completely) or the one they did show only as a baby who has suffered the same demons as his father. But no, they made it about the central love story, and Ron Howard did it so touchingly! I loved this movie, even as it was somewhat fictional. What brilliant moviemaking!!))
Steve Langley (Sat, 5 Jan 2002 19:01:11 EST)
``Impostor" - a movie
Gary Sinise put his own money into making this movie. I hope the investment works for him. I like Science Fiction and this was quite a bit better than average for that niche.
The story premise is that Earth is at war with aliens from Centari (wherever that may be). ``Spencer John Olham" (Gary Sinise) is a scientist who has just completed work on a weapon that might allow Earth to start fighting back as equals in the war. So far the Centari have the technological upper hand.
In fact the Centari are capable of duplicating humans down to their very DNA and replacing them with the duplicates. The duplicates even have the memories of the originals. They don't even know that they are not the originals. What would be the point of that? The duplicates also are infested with nano-bots whose function are to come together to form a high energy bomb when the duplicate comes into range of its target.
Earth Security has reason to believe that has happened to ``Olham". The movie is the story of Earth Security trying to detain or kill him while he attempts to prove them wrong.
The story has several logic flaws that are big enough to accomodate a truck. The fault of the drugs Philip Dick was taking when he wrote it no doubt.
But the story does hold together well enough to show off the very intricate world of the future that was created as the setting. Great attention to detail. Technology and war torn planet all very well presented.
I liked it.
((Hmmmm, not sure that one was released around here yet. If it is better than his Mars movie (which won't be difficult) I'll at least seek it out! Let's stick in some alternative thoughts from Rick Desper!))
Rick Desper (Thu, 10 Jan 2002 18:34:44 -0500 (EST))
A few thoughts regarding the big holiday movies.
What did we see with Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings? Well, what these two movies prove is that, when given a good story to work with, Hollywood can still make a great movie. The problem is that the Hollywood executives always feel that the best place to cut corners is with the script. Or, they have vague and fuzzy concepts linking ``script elements" with commercial success. Considering how relatively cheap good writers are, I would think that a good studio would simply decide to consistently use them, instead of letting the marketing people write the movie.
Barton Fink would agree with me. ((No doubt!!! Let there be more Barton Fink....))
The Harry Potter phenomenon shows that there is a yawning gap in our culture dying for half-decent literature. Aside from Harry Potter, there has been almost nothing in terms of fun books for children written in the past 20 years.
I like HP a lot. I liked Lord of the Rings a lot more.
Lord of the Rings is the better movie, IMHO. It's based on a better story. The Rings trilogy is the foundation of the fantasy genre. It remains unequalled. (And please don't even bring up Robert Jordan! Somebody needs to slap the man!) I find myself at a loss of words to describe why I feel this way. The LotR movie makes many shortcuts from the books, but every time I saw one, I saw that it was necessary to make the film cogent for a person who hadn't read the books. ((I suppose, but there could have been more time for more of that if they had a bit less cartoony violence....))
For example, the book takes a long, long time with the whole Nazgul chase as the four hobbits are going to Rivendell. Thankfully, the movie cuts a lot of that short, while retaining the essential elements including the meeting with Strider, the fight with the Nazgul, and the dash to Rivendell at the end. Also, the movie opens with a lot more information about who Sauron is than is ever there in the book, and it covers Gandalf's troubles with Saruman while they are happening, rather than waiting for later. These are necessary changes. But the movie still gets a lot of small things right, like how Legolas walks around on the top of the snow while the rest of the Fellowship has to plow through it like the heavy creatures they are. I'm really looking forward to The Two Towers. ((Unfortunately, I missed this important small point..... I'll have to watch it again.))
I've seen a few other movies recently, but the only one which I think really needs mention is Mulholland Drive. I thought it was a great movie. I don't want to talk about it too much, since the details of the plot are best experienced as a surprise while they happen. Let me just say that Naomi Watts was simply terrific in this movie. I had been leaning toward Nicole Kidman for Best Actress for Moulin Rouge (one of the only other decent movies I saw last year), but now I would definitely want Naomi Watts to win. And Laura Harring is also terrific, and could be considered a nominee also for Best Actress (it would be absurd to view either as a ``Supporting" actress: if you have two leads of opposite genders neither is ``supporting", and I think that should also hold here.)
Anybody who wants to know if they should see the movie, the answer is yes! There are a lot of dream elements to the movie, many of which I picked up while they were happening. The transitions from scene to scene are sudden and jolting, the characters (esp. ``Betty") are unreal to an extreme - even for a David Lynch movie! I think a good exercise is to list the kind of narrative features you expect in a dream, and then see how many of them appear in Mulholland Drive.
I really need to see this one again. I had been thinking LotR would be a good Best Picture winner, but Mulholland simply blows it away.
Of course it won't win, but who cares. I mean, who really thinks ``Braveheart" was a great movie? Nice scenery, good face-painting, but that was about it. And that won over ``Remains of the Day''.
| Rick, desper of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
((Interesting how the mind totally forgets abominations like that.))
Rip Gooch (Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:55:26)
Hi all! Our first Christmas card arrived this week. Hence this brief message...
If any of you are contemplating sending cards, gifts, money, airline tickets, excess offspring, or similar, to help lift our festive spirits, please ensure you have the correct postal address. I'm reminded that our mail redirection facility expired at the end of October, and it would be a shame if anything went astray.
48-4600 Kimbermount Avenue, Mississauga, ON L5M 6Z5, CANADA
If you're in contact with anyone without e-mail, we'd appreciate having the message passed along the line. Many thanks.
| TTFN, Rip, ripgch of yahoo.com |
Conrad von Metzke (Fri, 14 Dec 2001 05:14:43 -0800)
Hi. Just to warn you - I have a new toy.
Remember the old days of Conrad sending you those (sometimes awful) cassettes with all manner of strange music? Well, now I have a CD clone-maker, and it's time to make use of it for my friends. There's a parcel on the way - things that might interest you. Enjoy. And if you don't enjoy, there's no particular financial investment here, so just trash 'em.
((Oh boy, wow, but I DID enjoy them!!!))
It all started at the end of last summer on eBay. I bid on, and won, a CD - nothing special, or so I thought, just interesting to me. (It happens that it was an Italian knock-off - pirate, in other words - of a live broadcast from the NY Phil. in 1954, Bruno Walter doing the Bruckner 4th. My winning bid was something like $12, no big deal.)
Little did I know. About an hour after the auction ended, I got an e-mail message. Some fellow I'd never heard of, who began by informing me that he'd gotten ``stuck in traffic" and couldn't get home for the end of the auction in order to outbid me. And he REALLY wanted this particular item (``It's important to me and several other people") and would pay me $75 if I would relinquish my right to buy it from the seller, and in addition he'd make me a clone for free.
Well, after spending some considerable time re-wiring my jaw, which had fallen off, I replied: Gee, if it's that big a deal to you, who am I to stand in the way? So yes, he could have it in return for the clone, and never mind the $75, I wasn't much in need of a bunch of unearned money when I was going to get what I wanted anyway (and for free).
So the deal was done, and then the clone arrived - along with my ``good deed" reward. Turns out the guy is an exec. with National Public Radio in Connecticut, and in addition he's part of an informal `consortium' that has acquired, archived and catalogued in excruciating depth every single recording ever made of a Bruckner symphony, LP and CD. (They don't specifically do 78s, but virtually everything ever done in that format was reissued at some point anyway, so as a practical matter they have it all.) There are literally thousands, and they have just about everything - the CD I'd won was one of the few things they hadn't yet found, and needed for completeness. So anyway, I was given the URL of their archive listing and told to choose any three items I wanted - in return for my gesture, those three items would be cloned and shipped immediately. And they were. And I am a happy person.
But meanwhile I got to thinking how nice it might be to have my own clone machine. So I started checking, and looking at sales, etc., and finally went up to Circuit City and bought one. On sale, plus a small rebate, plus 100 blank CDs tossed in (``free") as a come-on.
Of course, it wasn't quite that simple. Seems I'd done my homework slightly inadequately. The clone machine wouldn't work in my computer - it required as an OS Windows 95 release 2 or higher, and I was running release 1 - so, upgraded OS required. Worse, and in my opinion fatally so, the memory requirements of the clone machine were just barely within the range of what I had available; if I'd installed it, I'd have been right on the edge of having the hard drive's memory completely full. And you know as well as I do that isn't a particularly good idea (and usually doesn't work right anyway). So - bigger hard drive needed to go with the new OS.
So I thought and thought, and finally decided that what I really needed for my new toy was a new system! Nuts to that old petty 2.3 gb hard drive, I wanted a big fat one- and so, off to the computer shop, and now we have a 40 gb drive and Win 98 (and, in the process, a spare computer! - which has since crashed, but can easily be fixed, which I'll do during the after-Christmas sales when I can probably pick up a small hard drive for next to nothing). And the clone-maker is in and works fine. Sort of....
It copies CDs directly without a problem. But it is also supposed to be able to make custom CDs - transferring cuts from multiple discs onto a new, custom-designed one - and I can't figure out how to do that. The documentation appears at first glance to be clear, but I must be missing something because it doesn't accomplish what I want. I need to find an expert to come in and tell me where I'm screwing up....
But meanwhile, have some exact-copy clones for your delectation. For this first installment it's all choral music, from that period that you know I love so well:
1. Haydn Missa Cellensis, the so-called ``St. Cecilia Mass," in a period-instrument performance that is simply stunning. (And this is, after all, my very favorite setting of the Mass, so I could live a very long time without ever tiring of this.)
2. The same, in a more traditional (modern styling) performance that until now has been considered THE standard. Just so you get the chance to see what can be done both ways. (Note, with this one the original is part of a 2-CD set, one disc for the Haydn and the other for a bunch of Mozart stuff. I have NOT copied the Mozart disc. But the `booklet' still lists it. Do not try finding it, it ain't there.)
3. Three masses by one of my newest fun obscure discoveries, Jakub Jan Ryba (1765-1815) - of the three settings, the one in e minor is a real gem, the other two lots of fun but not quite so striking - the guy drew heavily from Czech folk tradition, writing ``for the people" rather than in the more elevated Haydnesque style - intriguing.
4. A disc of religious settings by an earlier (and equally forgotten) Czech fellow, Franz Ignaz Tuma (1704-1774), who in addition to being earlier also writes in a consciously archaic style. Very much worth knowing.
5. ((And last, for now.)) A concert for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which you may play in celebration on Dec. 28 if you wish, or not - it's your life. It consists in a Mass and a Litany by Michael Haydn, with a couple of Mozart organ sonatas tossed in at appropriate times, and some traditional plainsong sequences, all to recreate what might very well have been a real Holy Innocents service in Haydn's own time. Performed in period style by the American Boychoir with a small New York instrumental group. This, for me, is a disc to treasure. (And this despite the fact that I have other, ``better," performances of both the Mass and the Litany.)
This is the end of another endless message. Do get some enjoyment out of this. Or at least pretend to. And keep in mind that, of the free 100 blanks I was given, I still have about 85. The future looks bright for illegal copying....
| And the happiest of seasons to you guys! Conrad, metzke of san.rr.com |
((No pretending needed!!! I wrote you more in the thank you note I sent you and I might say more in the szine next time, but these were all loads of fun and Charlotte even liked them.... even the Boychoir Holy Innocents and she usually HATES boy choirs.))
Mike Barno (Sun, 18 Nov 2001 14:38:17 -0500)
Hi, Jim,
Did you get up at 5am today for the Leonids' 1767 comet debris? I did. It was excellent, best since a Perseids shower a long time ago. The people in Asia seeing the 1699 and 1866 paths must have had a real trip. In a minute, I'm gonna check one of the websites to see if we got overlap of those two trails.
2:30 pm EST: The American Meteor Society site has a graph of the first wave's activity, but nothing on the second and third waves yet. They report a half-hour of peak activity over 2500 meteors per hour, and one and a half hours above half-maximum activity level (1250 meteors per hour).
| - Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
((We thought about it carefully, but we were so busy and so tired that getting up (and having to drive out of the city to see anything) just didn't seem to work for us. I'm glad you enjoyed it!!))
Mike Barno (Sun, 18 Nov 2001 19:35:13 -0500)
Too bad. My place is so rural that I could watch it from my porch with no lights in sight... the hill's curvature and forest blocked light from the villages of Spencer and Candor, so the planet near Orion (Jupiter?) and Sirius were the brightest lights in my field of view. The weather here was very clear, no cloud blockage and not much haze. A jacket, a winter hat, a corncob pipe, and a Saranac Black & Tan helped fend off the cold. It was a good show, but it would have been nice to see the other two trails seven-to-eight hours later. Hey, there's a promo that might be a good hook: we should tell the World DipCon bidders to select a site/date combination when there's a comet or eclipse or meteor shower viewable from that part of the world. It might be justification for attendees as being ``efficient" to take a long voyage for multiple reasons instead of ``just for a game".
| - Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
((Great idea, I propose we make it a bidding requirement!!! At least it will be better than Easter in Australia, which unfortunately does NOT work for me, least of which being commitments to be singing that weekend.))
Jody McCullough (Wed, 16 Jan 2002 23:40:52 -0800)
TAP - Music Picks for 2000!
Greetings,
Every year you ask for music picks and every year I mean to send you some. Seeing as it's now 2002, I thought I'd send you my picks for 2000! I'll get you the 2001 picks later. So anyway, here goes...
((Good, you're RIGHT with me. I'm going to do both next issue, I think.))
pre-2000 albums I want to mention:
David Gray - White Ladder: First released in 1998, this was picked up by Dave Matthews' iht label and released in the US in 2000. It had stayed on the Irish charts for more than a year, and stayed on the charts for a long time here too, really breaking in 2001 when radio FINALLY started playing some of his stuff. But some of the best songs here will never be played on US radio, as they're just a little too dark. ``We're Not Right", for example, is a wonderful song which will never get played on the radio.
Hank Dogs - Bare Back: The stunning 1999 debut from this London trio blends folk rock, country and Celtic. The executive producer is Joe Boyd, who is probably familiar to some TAP readers for his work with other great bands. Nice acoustic guitar work, interesting slightly dark lyrics, and heavenly harmonies. If you like good acoustic music you'll like this album.
Female Vocalists:
Laura Satterfield - Dirty Velvet Lie: I heard the track ``Naked and Scared" on a show dedicated to Native American music and I had to have this album. The rest of the album turned out to be just as good. Laura has been on a couple of other albums in a group called Walela which features Rita and Priscilla Coolidge as well (she's Priscilla's daughter). I've heard those albums are pretty good too. She wrote or cowrote all of the songs, except for the old Jimmy Cliff song ``Many Rivers to Cross". She has a smooth voice which can occasionally be a little too sweet and breathy, but she pulls it off so well she gets away with it.
Neko Case and Her Boyfriends - Furnace Room Lullaby: She's had a couple of 7" releases and one other album, but she really hit her stride with this one. Described as alt-country, but that doesn't quite do it justice. These songs cut right to the bone. And then there's that voice. She goes from a Patsy Cline warble to a Billie Holiday simmer, and lots of other stops in between. Every song is a little different, but all are well-crafted with good melodies, excellent lyrics, and oh, that voice.
Other:
Underworld - Live, Everything Everything: This is dance music with an edge. The buzz has been that Underworld puts on a great live show, and if this disc is any indication, the buzz is right. Also available on DVD with lots of images and links and extra goodies.
Muslim Gauze - Azure Deux: Okay, okay, this mix of traditional muslim music and modern techno probably isn't for everyone! But if you've got a taste for something a little different, you could do worse than sample this one.
Compilations:
These were all available at Starbucks. Don't laugh, there's some good stuff here! And if you hate Starbucks, you can always go to www.hearmusic.com.
Songs of The Siren, Her Own Story: This leans towards smoky ballads, but includes some peppier stuff too. This one would be worth it just for Shelby Lynne's achingly sad ``Looking Up" and Rebecca Pidgeon's superb version of ``The Word Around Town", but there are lots of other good tracks too.
Hear Music Volume 2, Songs for long narrow stretches: You'll recognize some of the acts, but only a real music freak would know all the bands on this one. But this is a very solid compilation. All of the songs are good, right down the line.
Hear Music Volume 4, Sidewalk music from here to there: This one has more of an upbeat World feel to it. It's supposed to remind you of taking a walk in a city and hearing the music pouring out from various places. I'm not sure I buy the premise, but there's some damn good songs there.
Note: Some of this stuff is on independent labels and may be difficult to impossible to find, depending on where you live. If anyone wants help tracking one of these down, feel free to email me. I can probably get it locally or point you to some place on the internet. And I'd be happy to do that.
Well, that's all for now. I may jump back to '98 next time, because a lot of good stuff came out that year.
| -Jody- jodymc of telocity.com |
((Indeed, I must say that as the music industry continues to fragment, it seems to get harder instead of easier to find and get excited about new things. I still do, but the feeling comes less and less these past two years and I spend more time listening to older music. Since I really don't like Football, I'll insanely allow Rick to make predictions.... made awhile back so some of these no longer make sense, but that's OK...))
Rick Desper (Thu, 10 Jan 2002 18:02:10 -0500 (EST))
NFL:
The Rams are at least two notches above anybody else in the league. Their offense is possibly the best I've ever seen; the only one I can think of it which would rival them is the old 49ers offense. But the 49ers never had Marshall Faulk. I would take the Rams, giving 7 points, in the Super Bowl, right now. Without waiting to see if they make it, or who their opponent is.
Three of the four best teams are in the NFC. After the Rams, I would take the Steelers, 49ers, and Packers, in that order. The Steelers have the best defense in the NFL right now, a great running game, and their passing game has been excellent this year. The 49ers defense has been silently excellent recently, and they have the only offense which could rival the Rams. The Pack have a very good, if erratic, defense, a great feature back in Ahman Green, and, of course, Brett Favre, who is the one QB I would want at the end of a close game.
The NFC is much stronger than the AFC this year, at least at the top. What happened? The Ravens, Colts, and Titans all fell off badly this year. Meanwhile, the Packers and 49ers are back in gear.
Then there's the Bears. I like the Bears' defense and their running game, but I think they have a great record based on a soft schedule and a couple of lucky wins. They will not be able to compete with the Rams. They should make it that far, because the Eagles should beat the Bucs in Philly. The Bucs are extremely erratic and emminently stoppable. At times their defense is brilliant, at other times it's positive porous. The Eagles have a very good defense, but Donovan McNabb is way too excitable. If he can rein his enthusiasm in, I could see them beating the Bears. And they might be the team with the best chance to beat the Rams, but it's slim.
The 49ers' problem is that, even though I think they are a better overall team than the Packers, they have to go to Green Bay. They are not going to win in Green Bay. It just won't happen. And then the Packers would have to play the Rams - that would be a great game to watch.
The AFC is much, much thinner. Look at the QBs: Gannon, Brady, Stewart, Fiedler, Testaverde, and Grbac! Yikes! Only Gannon is a top-flight QB I would trust in a big game, though Stewart has really improved a lot. Tom Brady is, right now, the most overrated QB in the NFL. I like the guy, and the fact that the Pats have been winning, but there is no way anybody will be able to convince me that the Pats should simply let Bledsoe go based on a lucky streak of 14 games during which Brady's numbers were underwhelming. I'm not saying that the Pats should bench Brady, but rather that they ought to let both guys compete for the job next summer. Unless somebody is willing to give them a great deal for Brady (not Bledsoe), in which case they ought to take the draft picks and run. Brady's arm is nowhere near as strong as Bledsoe's, and their command of the game is approximately average. The only advantage of Brady over Bledsoe is that his decision-making never sinks to the dreadful low points that Bledsoe's has.
But who will come out of the AFC? Pittsburgh, almost by default. I could see the Jets beating the Raiders again, but then they would be hard-pressed to win in Pittsburgh. Miami should have the edge over the Ravens, who looked positively awful on Monday night against the Vikings. Grbac looks just horrible: he has no confidence and the passing game is very weak in the Red Zone. The running game disappeared when the let Priest Holmes go to Kansas City and Jamal Lewis promptly disappeared for the season. Also, the defense is not playing as well as they did last year.
To the games:
Philly (- 3 1/2) over Tampa Bay. I like the Eagles defense a lot, and also Duce Staley and Donovan McNabb. I don't like the Bucs offense at all.
Jets (+4 1/2) over Oakland. I cannot tell who will win, but I would gladly take the Jets and the points. Oakland doesn't have a great running game. They have a very good passing game, but the Jets pass defense is also good. Wild variables: the Jets won last weekend even with 3 turnovers, if they have fewer, shouldn't they do better? The other change from last weekend: Sebastian Janikowski is coming back. Had he been kicking last weekend, the Raiders likely would have won. I would not put money on this game. Let's say the Raiders win a close one, though.
Miami (-2 1/2) over Baltimore: practically a gimme. Baltimore will not be able to run against the Dolphins in Miami. That leaves them with Grbac and the Ravens' receivers against Miami's corners, who are among the best in the game? I'm surprised the line is this low. I predict a rout. I would put a lot of money on this game.
((Taking the easy comment, gee, you got that one totally backwards, didn't you....))
49ers (+3 1/2) over Green Bay. I think Green Bay will win a close game. This is clearly the game to watch this weekend, as both teams are good enough to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and the game features two of the best three QBs in the league (along with Kurt Warner, of course).
Next week:
Raiders at New England: I would predict a cold snowy day which grounds the Raiders air attack. Also, I think the Patriots defense is up to the challenge of stopping Tim Brown and Jerry Rice. The other possibility here would be Miami at New England, and I'm pretty sure that they'd fire up the snowplow for that game. In any case, the Pats will win their home game. ((They're predicting snow, so you might be right even though it's the Raiders....))
Miami at Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh in a fairly easy game. The Fish will not be able to move the ball at all in Pittsburgh. Fiedler is not good enough, nor is Lamar Smith. And though the Fish defense is strong, the Steelers will run over them.
Green Bay at St. Louis: another great game! Well, at least in the pre-game hype. The problem is that the Packers defense is nowhere near good enough to stop the Rams, while the Rams defense is good enough to slow down the Pack. Rams win, by a lot. Take the ``over" in the over-under line.
Eagles at Chicago: Bears playing in Soldier Field in mid-January? Could challenge the records for coldest NFL game ever. Or at least in the post Ice Bowl era. The Bears are well-designed for playing in the cold. This would be a fun game to watch for throwback fans. Take the ``under" in the over-under line.
Conference championships:
Pats at Steelers: here the dream is dashed. The Steelers are a mature team ready to return to the Super Bowl. The Pats are a fluke in a weak conference. I just think the Steelers are too strong. But the Pats will give them a very tough game. The Patriots defense is very, very good. They don't look impressive because they give up a lot of yardage, but they are usually great at preventing TDs.
Bears at Rams: this will be another rout. The Rams are strong enough to cruise past the Bears defense. Lots of points.
That will bring us to a rematch of Super Bowl XIV, also known as the ``Heaven Can Wait" Super Bowl, pitting the Rams against the Steelers. It will be a close game until late in the game when Kurt Warner appears to have a terrible spinal injury. He'll be carted off the field, but then will miraculously return to play in the game when he's possessed by the spirit of Joe Pendleton.
The Rams offense is a lot better than the Steelers defense is. I don't see any defense in the NFL right now which could stop the Rams, except, for some odd reason, the Bucs defense, which is unfortunately attached to a very weak offense.
((It's hard to miss the Patriots around here and I feel right about the way you do. It seems a shame to let Bledsoe go when it seems clear that he really is the superior quarterback for the long run.))
I agree: I mean, I cannot imagine Brady having a string of 400-yd games. Bledsoe used to put those stats up easily. Sure he's a bit dumb in the clutch, and tries to hard to turn a losing situation into a winning one, but in terms of physical talents, he is clearly ahead of Brady by a lot.
Brady is having the kind of streak which we've seen in the past from QBs like Jim Harbaugh, Neil O'Donnell, and most recently Trent Dilfer. In the long run, you really should go with the better QB, and that's Bledsoe.
| Rick, desper of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
((Yup, and to me that would be true even if Brady wows his way through the playoffs, but what do I know, I don't even watch the games..... ``Anaconda'' on Saturday..... Jennifer Lopez!!!))
| LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK |
2000G, Lawyers not wanted, Winter 1907
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com
Has A Bohemia, A Warsaw, A Ukraine, F Aegean Sea, A Ankara, A
Tyrolia
A Budapest, A Trieste, A Serbia
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com Has F Norwegian
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Build F Brest Has F Belgium, A Holland, A Piedmont, A Burgundy, F London, F Brest
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com Fleet North Sea retreat off the board OUT
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com Retreat A Trieste - Albania Has F Mid Atlantic, A Venice, A Portugal, F Naples, F Tunis, A Albania
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com Build A St Petersburg Has F North Sea, A Munich, A Berlin, F Kiel, A Livionia, A Sevastopol A Moscow, F Liverpool, F Norway, A St Petersburg
Spring 1908 orders due Wednesday, Dec 5th
GERMANY: Free at last! Frankly this is the best development in this game since 1901. No way would I retreat into the best negotiator's supply center [yes that's a dig at the rest of you] in order to experience another year of this misery. And as expected, I outlasted Randy, as usual. Bye!
2000G, Lawyers not wanted, Spring 1908
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com
A BOHEMIA - Tyrolia, A WARSAW - Ukraine, A Ukraine - RUMANIA,
F Aegean Sea - GREECE, A ANKARA - Armenia, A TYROLIA - Venice
A BUDAPEST support A Ukraine - Rumania, A SERBIA support A Trieste - Albania
A Trieste - ALBANIA
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com F Norwegian Sea - EDINBURGH
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F BELGIUM - holland, A Holland - RUHR, A PIEDMONT support Italian A Venice A BURGUNDY - Munich, F LONDON - North Sea, F Brest - MID ATLANTIC
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com F Mid Atlantic - WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN, F Naples - IONIAN SEA, A VENICE support A Albania - Trieste, F TUNIS support F Naples - Ionian Sea A albania (destroyed) - trieste, A Portugal waves goodbye to the ships as they head for Gibraltar, leaving it alone, very alone....
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com F NORTH SEA - support F Kiel - Holland, A MUNICH - Kiel, F KIEL - Holland A BERLIN support A Munich - Kiel, A LIVONIA support A St Petersburg - Moscow, F Norway - NORWEGIAN SEA A MOSCOW - Ukraine, A SEVASTOP - Armenia F Liverpool - NORTH ATLANTIC, A ST PETERSBURG - Moscow
Fall 1908 orders due Thursday, Jan 3rd 2002
VIENNA (with apologies to Robby Robertson): Now when the rumour came to our town/ it grew and grew, where it started, nobody knew/...you may forgive/and you might regret/but you can never, ever forget
2000G, Lawyers not wanted, Fall 1908 (Brux moves on, Jim is MIA)
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com
A BOHEMIA - Silisia, A Warsaw - UKRAINE, A RUMANIA sup A War - Ukraine,
F Greece - AEGEAN SEA, A Ankara - SMYRNA, A BUDAPEST - Trieste,
A Serbia - GREECE, A TYROLIA support French A Burgundy - Munich,
A ALBANIA - Trieste
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com F Edinburgh (dislodged) support German F London - North Sea
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F Belgium - HOLLAND, A RUHR sup F Belg - Holland, F London - NORTH SEA, A PIEDMONT support Italian A Venice, A Burgundy - MUNICH, F MID ATLANTIC OCEAN - irish sea
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com Stanby Italy Eric Ozog elferic of juno.com NMR F Western Med, F Ionian Sea, A Venice, F Tunis, A Portugal
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com F North Sea - EDINBURGH, A Munich (dislodged)- Silisia, F KIEL - Holland, A Berlin - PRUSSIA, A Livonia - WARSAW, A MOSCOW sup A Wars - Livonia F NORWEGIAN support F North Sea - Edinburgh, A SEVASTOPOL - Rumania, F NORTH ATLANTIC - Irish Sea, A St Petersburg - LIVONIA
Winter 1908 orders due Friday, Jan 11th 2002
Spring 1909 orders are due on, Thursday, Jan 24th 2002
Press
Paris to Moscow: I don't know. I guess, in some ways, you helped talk me into this....
Russ - Brux: Thanks for playing it out
Winter 1908 Supply Center Chart
Austria 10 + 1 Took Rumania & Smyrna, Lost Warsaw Smrna, Contantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ankara, Trieste, Rumania
England 0 - 1 Lost Edinburgh
France 7 + 1 Took Munich Brest, Paris, London, Belgium, Marseilles, Holland, Munich
Italy 6 + 1 Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Portugal
Russia 11 + 1 Took Warsaw & Edin, Lost Smyrna, Rumania, Munich Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, Kiel, Denmark, Warsaw, Norway, Liverpool, Moscow, Edinburgh
2000G, Lawyers not wanted, Winter 1908
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com
Build F Trieste
Has A Bohemia, A Ukraine, A Rumania, F Aegean Sea, A Smyrna,
A Budapest A Greece, A Tyrolia, A Albania, F Trieste
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Build F Brest Has F Holland, A Ruhr, F North Sea, A Piedmont, A Munich, F Mid Atlantic, F Brest
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of TheWorld.com Build F Naples Has F Western Mediterranean Sea, F Ionian Sea, A Venice, F Tunis, A Portugal, F Naples
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com or BrendanM of imclone.com Retreat A Munich - Berlin Build A St Petersburg Has F Edinburgh, F Kiel, A Prussia, A Warsaw, A Moscow, F Norwegian Sea A Sevastopol, F North Atlantic, A Livonia, A Berlin, A St Petersburg
Spring 1909 orders are due on, Thursday, Jan 24th 2002
(PRESS ITEM ADDED BY JIM-BOB): I tried REPEATEDLY to send E-Mail orders to Russ and they were tossed in the dead letter pile by AOL and never delivered and worse were not bounced back to me. I was REALLY surprised by that NMR. I am calling my orders in to Russ by phone from now on. The same thing happened to Paul Rauterberg earlier in the game. Be careful if you aren't on AOL sending messages to AOL members. Remember that their Spam Protection Program IS very sensitive and it WON'T bounce your message back if it isn't delivered (which is totally lame).
Winter 1908 Supply Center Chart
Austria 10 Smrna, Contantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ankara, Trieste, Rumania
France 7 Brest, Paris, London, Belgium, Marseilles, Holland, Munich
Italy 6 Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Portugal
Russia 11 Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, Kiel, Denmark, Warsaw, Norway, Liverpool, Moscow, Edinburgh
Russ Rusnak 1551 High Ridge Parkway Westchester, Il 60154
GM 708 409-0718 RRRRRUSNAK of AOL.com
Bob Osuch 19137 Midland Ave. Mokena, Il. 60448 AUSTRIA 708 478-3885 ROsuch4082 of aol.com
Bruce Linsey PO Box 234 Kinderhook, NY 12106 ENGLAND GonzoHQ of aol.com
Paul Rauterberg 3116 W. Amer. Dr. Greenfield, WI 53221 FRANCE 414-691-4264 trauterberg of wi.rr.com
Mike Barno 634 Dawson Hill Road Spencer, NY 14883 GERMANY 607 589-4906 mpbarno of lightlink.com
Jim Burgess 664 Smith Street Providence, RI 02908 ITALY 401 351-0287 burgess of world.std.com
Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com BrendanM of imclone.com RUSSIA
| THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE GAMES SECTION |
``So I called up George and he called up Jim, I said let's make a deal.
He said he'd talk to him. Gonna start a church where you can save yourself,
You can make some noise, When you've got no choice...
You told me useful things, what people think of me, I guess I should thank you.
It's true, then I agree... I'm all alone, I've got no choice,
I'm all alone, I've got no choice."
From ``Got No Choice" by the incomparable Mark Cutler, from the CD Mark Cutler and Useful Things.
If you want to submit orders, press, or letters by E-Mail, you can find me through the Internet system at ``burgess of world.std.com''. If anyone has an interest in having an E-Mail address listed so people can negotiate with you by computer, just let me know. FAX orders to (401) 277-9904.
Thanks to a suggestion by Mike Barno, from now on I will be noting cut or failed support orders with a small ``s'' instead of a capital ``S''. This will make it easier on the web page version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. I may forget every once in a while, but I will TRY to remember. I should also get an updated copy of my translation program for TeX to html, perhaps that has been fixed.
Standby lists:
Bruce Linsey, Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Bob Acheson, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Phil Reynolds, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Harold Reynolds stands by for Colonia. Help, more are needed for this game, maps are provided for free by me.... or by Harold Reynolds just ask.
Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF. Standbies get the szine for free and receive my personal thanks.
| GAME OPENING INFORMATION |
LAWYERS GAME: Steve Koehler, Stephen Agar and Steve Emmert already have signed up. We're searching for lawyers, contact me if you have any leads! We've invited Thomas Libby and Edwin Turnage but they have turned us down. Plus I'm still looking for a current address for Mark Franceschini. Official standby for the game is David Hood. HELP!!! Will this ever begin?? You lawyers are going to have to scour the depths of the sewers.... i.e. the courtrooms and law offices of the world... and find me some lawyers to play this game, before the NO lawyers game finishes!
Eric Ozog has cancelled the Air-Sea Diplomacy opening, at least for now. It is possible that Buddy Tretick will locate another guest GM for this, if you're interested, please contact Buddy. I do have a copy of the rules as well.
John Harrington is offering to guest GM a game of Office Politics. Any interest in that?? Let me or John know! Jody McCullough is still interested, anyone else?
Also, I am going to design some postal rules for Devil Take the Hindmost, and Chris Lockheardt is pulling out of that opening too, so I need three players. Eoghan Barry is signed up. Postal rules from me will be forthcoming shortly, on my never ending to-do list. I will get them in SOON!
Stephen Agar runs a British Diplomacy mailing list and has a new broader web postal gaming web site too at: http://www.postalgames.org.uk
and if you are interested, contact Stephen Agar at stephen of meurglys.com or join the Brit hobby mailing list at (aw, you guessed it, another new address): http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/about_this_site.htm
| I CAN'T FIND MY MONEY!: 2001F, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1901 (press only) IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1901 IS FEBRUARY 23RD, 2002
Spring 1901
AUSTRIA (Lockheardt): a bud-SER, a VIE-gal, f tri-ALB.
ENGLAND (Heikkinen): f lon-NTH, f edi-NWG, a lvp-EDI.
FRANCE (Mitchell): f bre-MID, a mar-SPA, a par-BUR.
GERMANY (Sayers): f kie-DEN, a ber-KIE, a mun-RUH.
ITALY (Méhkeri): f nap-ION, a ven-TYO, a rom-APU.
RUSSIA (Phillips): f stp(sc)-GOB, a mos-UKR, a WAR-gal, f SEV-bla.
TURKEY (Miller): f ANK-bla, a con-BUL, a SMY h.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Chris Lockheardt, 47 Acton Street, Maynard, MA 01754, +1 978-897-1547
clockheardt of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Allan Heikkinen, P.O. Box 372, Killara, N.S.W. 2071, AUSTRALIA
aheikkin of ram.net.au
FRANCE: Adam Mitchell, 19 Hollin Park Place, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS8 2NS, GREAT BRITAIN,
044 113 2650752 or + 01144 from US, heather.taylor of virgin.net (yes, that's really his)
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA
jimp of magna.com.au
ITALY: Dan Méhkeri, 24 DeQuincy Blvd, North York, Ontario, M3H 1Y5, CANADA, +1 416-631-0492
fool of kvack.org
RUSSIA: CW Phillips, 27 George St., Dudley MA 01571, +1 508-949-3424
pahtzerwannabe of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Tim Miller, 5454 South Shore Drive, Apt. 222, Chicago, IL 60615, +1 773-834-4597
btmiller of uchicago.edu
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, +1 401-351-0287
burgess of world.std.com
Game Notes:
1) Reminder: Most games in TAP are named after songs by the Mekons, the greatest rock and roll band in the world..... in my humble opinion. This game is named after the first song on Honky Tonkin' which I think is Eric Ozog's favorite Mekons album (complete non sequitur)... anyway, ``I Can't Find My Money'' leads off with a sort of country salsa beat and then the vocals have a rap quality to them. Not the greatest song in the world, but their usual complex message. ``Keep on Hoppin'" is a great dance song on this album and is a great highlight of live shows and that one I quote in my regular Mekons' quote down below. But this song seemed to speak to how ***I*** keep losing money on the szine, you all get this game for free, enjoy it!! Dan or ``Fool'' suggested that I call the game ``Please Check Your Facts (Before Posting Nonsense to Usenet)'' but all of you are not rec.games.diplomacy users, so that wouldn't work. Besides, I want to consider my insidious Mekons marketing.
2) Mr. von Metzke has assigned us a Boardman Number, and this group deservedly gets game F, but in doing so we uncovered a PROBLEM. Warren Goesle will have to adjust HIS game that just was ALSO assigned 2001D (as the game that follows was) and get 2001E, thus I get F, as it should be. You wouldn't think Conrad would get confused with so few numbers being given out, but in reality that actually makes it easier. Thanks, Conrad. We won't let you get away easily!!! That actually does make six numbers assigned in 2001..... well, that is pretty pathetic, isn't it??
3) But what is REALLY pathetic is that for most of you this is your first postal game and I have seriously let you all down. I will not do that again and use that as the engine to keep the szine pumping along. I hope we can get things going now. Write press, it's fun, and even Fool can do it!!!
Press:
(SOME EXCERPTS FROM THE SONG AFTER WHICH THE GAME IS NAMED): ``People say I'm happy and I like a drink or two; Suspended in the darkness, I weep like a child...... I sleep the sleep of faithlessness; Lying underneath your bed of nails; Listening to your cries in the silence of the night; As your body crashes down above my happy smilin' face; Oh kind Policeman please take me to jail; My crimes are as many as the lines on my face..... I can't find my money; Oh, no! I can't find my money!!''
(BOOB to ALL): In recent years, my ``Boob'' moniker has been used relatively less, but I have a feeling that it will come back in this game in spades...... oh dig me a grave, where the EYE-talians Rome, and the Turks and the Austrians play....
(FOOL to ALL): There is some concern on the part of one of our American players that these postal letters that have been sent across the border have been intercepted by the notoriously nosy Canadian Postal Service, who might misinterpret them as some weirdly coded instructions for the next terrorist attack and turn them over to the Americans. Let me assure you that this is, in fact, the case, and the FBI did come knocking on my door inquiring after a certain Baron von Blurbist.
Fear not, as the FBI had no jurisdiction here. They don't let us carry guns up here, but a few good swift whacks with a trusty hockey stick did the job just fine, just like in those Hollywood actions movies (incidentally, in case you didn't know, when American movies get exported to Canada, the gunfights are visually dubbed into a lot of high-sticking).
However, this was before that anti-terrorism Bill C-36 passed on the 19th, and so now in Canada we have no rights. I think if I cross-check any more FBI agents I think I'll be hauled off to a military tribunal and tried as a separatist Quebecois terrorist. Not like that sort of thing hasn't happened before up here. So in all future correspondance to Italy, please include the words NOT FOR TERRORISM prominently in the letter, so that there will be no misunderstanding and nobody will get suspicious.
Thank you.
(BOOB to ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE): A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse...... GET that Fool!!!
(FOOL to BARON VON BLURBIST): One No-Trump.
(BARON to PRINZ): Please forgive me. Franze Joseph put me up to it-he's such a practical joker.
(BARON to KING ACROSS THE WATERS): Worried as to the reasons you have not returned any of my messages, I have hired a local Kiwi to translate my letters to you into Australian. Normally, he doesn't dabble in such arcane dialects, but I doubled his pay to four pints.
(FrOm sWiTzErLaNd): YoU wIlL bUrN. ThIs TiMe FoR sUrE.
(BOOB to MULTIVERSE): Sigh.... do you think you're playing cryptodip?
(FOOL to BOOB): Cryptodip? And look who's talking? What, do all our incomprehensible remarks have to be about baseball?
(BOOB to SOX FANS): Playing the second sacker in overshift is needed when Wake's knuckler is dancin' the two step and may hide the fact that we still ain't signed Pokey yet.
(BARON to POPE AND SULTAN): Embrace the Luddite Way! Write, fold, stuff, and stamp!
(Abuse of yahoo.com): Thank you for reporting your spam problem to us. However, the email you forwarded appears to be related to an oddly-named Diplomacy game and not to any internet money-making scheme, so we have taken no action against the user.
(BARON to HEATHER): Be a man! Get your own e-mail account!
(FOOL to OL' BLIGHTY): I say! Anyone there?
(BORED IN BELGIUM): Seems like we have an awful lot of recovering Judge players in the group. To those of you who are not that familiar with the judges, this means that the game consists of successive phases of boring draw reduction ending in a boring FGx draw. The rest of you fight over the `honour' of being the third in a 3-way draw. Except England and Austria, you guys are toast I'm afraid. You can only hope that people will do something interesting instead, but don't hold your breath.
(BOOB to EX-JUDGEITES AND VERMONT GROUP SYMPATHIZERS): Three way draw, what about a FOUR way, where England actually replaces Germany and Italy and Russia ``share'' x??? If you guys play ANYWHERE near as whimpy as those Vermont Group Full Press Championship game lowlifes (ignore those JDPR scores, they are fakes, all fakes....) I shall never forgive you. Draw whittling indeed!!!
QUEERSLAND TO CANADA: Oi, what's with all these trans-Pacific threads? They appear to be attached to cans in Toronto and New South Wales. We tried sending a couple of ships to the Persian gulf, but they got entangled in them along the way. So to save face they just turned around and shelled New Zealand instead. Hope that's alright with you people.
(BARON to IGOR): Please move a couple hundred miles away so I get my 34 cents worth.
(BARON to THE ARCHBISHOP): Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Today I sent four e-mails.
(ARCHBISHOP to THE BARON): Prithee wasting of thy sacred mammon. Thou art forgiven, my son, goest whither knows not and sin not again any more.
(BOOB CONTINUES): And this next bit wins my award for best handwritten note to me of the year, excerpted....
(CHRIS LOCKHEARDT): A new baby in the house is keeping me from joining any of the MADip-L group's jaunts to Vermont. A shame too. I am sure nobody emerges from six hours in a car with you unchanged in some fundamental way. ((You'll have to ask Pox about that.... is she perhaps.... cured??? Seriously, gee, I really liked that note!))
I recently received a sample copy of John Boardman's Graustark. I am afraid the voracious postal community has caught the scent of me and is fighting to obtain their fair morsel. ((Indeed, you are about the freshest meat I've seen in many a year.))
While Graustark is a bit more political than my usual taste, it certainly was refreshing to cleanse my palate of the endless parade of ``God Bless America" and ``These Colors Don't Run!" bumper stickers that serve as my commuter's reading material.
In fact, the whole Ashcroft/Rumsfeld ``sit down and shut up'' brand of Patriotism finally provoked me into doing something I had been meaning to do ever since Mike Dukakis proudly pulled that card from him wallet - I joined the ACLU today. I feel much, much better about myself for doing so. Enjoy the trip to Vermont!
(BOOB to EVERYONE): Yes, the trip to Vermont was quite an adventure, but let me write about it in detail for next issue. Suffice it to say, I spent ten hours in the car and ten hours playing Dip that day.....
| SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1903 IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1903 IS FEBRUARY 23RD, 2002
Spring 1903
AUSTRIA (Kent): a BUD S a tri-vie, a alb-tri (d ann), a tri-VIE.
ENGLAND (Sundstrom): f lon-ENG, f NTH S a pic-bel, a pic-BEL, f nwy-SKA, f bre-MID.
FRANCE (Tretick): f gol-MAR, a MUN s a gas-bur, a POR-rom (imp),
f SPA(SC) S f gol-mar, a GAS-bur.
GERMANY (Williams): a KIE-mun, f BAL S f den, a war-SIL, f DEN on liberty (h),
a RUH-bur, a bel S a ruh-bur (d r:hol,otb).
ITALY (McCullough): f TYH S f tun-wes, f ION S TURKISH a gre-alb,
a VEN-tri, f tun-WES.
RUSSIA (McHugh): a MOS S a ukr-war, f SWE h, a gal-RUM, a ukr-WAR, f rum-SEV.
TURKEY (Goesle): a con-GRE, a BUL S a ser, f AEG C a con-gre, a SER S a gre-alb,
f BLA h, a gre-ALB.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Doug Kent, PO Box 783, Palmer, TX 75152
dipworld of ix.netcom.com
ENGLAND: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882 ($5)
Matt.Sundstrom of chicago.bbdo.com
FRANCE: James Alan (Jim) Tretick, 13267 Coppermill Drive, Herndon, VA 20171, (703) 713-1328 ($4)
JTretickGames of aol.com
GERMANY: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
ITALY: Jody McCullough, 1071 Brown Avenue, Lafayette, CA 94549-3153
jodymc of telocity.com
RUSSIA: Jack McHugh, P.O. Box 427, Claymont, DE 19703, (302) 792-8659
ckent7479 of yahoo.com or JMcHugh of genchemcorp.com
TURKEY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
gozcorp of iquest.net
Game Notes:
1) Much better and lots of press.... more press, more press....
Press:
(IRON DUCK to TSAR JACK): Hmm, yes, well ... we'll uh, be leaving now. Good to see you Cossacks have got your own house in order and installed a proper government, eh? Nice coup there, McHugh, and good that you got that quirky Pollard out of the Kremlin. I'm not know for the ol' talky-talk, but Pollard was even quieter than me. Look forward to working with you. We've left everything as we found it, down to the last babushka ... peace in our time and all the scheiss the British spew.
(TURKEY to ENGLAND): We need to talk. My bad.
(BERLIN to LONDON): A man with a funny accent and a turban has been telling me secrets. These secrets-no-more say you plot against me, and are secretly allied with my tormentor, a despised dog who wantonly and without provocation subdued fair Munich. As you can see, I have taken steps to avoid an entangling eastern war and to present to you my stronger, masculine side, should you chose to test it. Frankly, I hope we do not break ranks, but will rather break Frank heads together. You are the admiral of our destiny set sail for the stars, sir. Or at least for Bastille.
(IRON DUCK to YOU BETTER DUCK): I'm coming to get you, Jimmy ...
(TURKEY to NEW RUSSIA): We need to talk. Badly.
(KIEL to EDINBURGH): Now that we have a real man in Moscow, we needn't secure the Polish border. In a show of ... uh, solidarnosc with the new Tsar, we have unilaterally returned Warsaw to its rightful tyrant ... er, owner. I advise you to show proper respect and avoid the mistake of attacking St. Petersburg, est-lay ou-yay issoff-pay he-tay sar-Tay. I think English warships should make haste for the warmer waters of the Normandy Coast and the shores of Tripoli.
(TURKEY to GERMANY): You need to talk. Badly.
(GERMANY to TURKEY): You know, I think you're trying to cause trouble. I like that in a sick man of Europe.
(BOOB to TURKEY): Are you sure that you don't just want to shut him up???
(MUNICH): You idiot. I said LEFT at Reims. Dang the food Sucks here.
(WILLIAMS MUSES ALOUD): Back in the early days of the Hobby, when great Edisauruses and Beyerleinicorns and Stegaboardmans roamed the earth, there was much press. And many of the ongoing press storylines evolved and revolved around things, personages, and plights Middle-Earthian. Now, in the new millenium, a paltry 40 years after the Hobby's birth, the Lord of the Rings has rampaged onto the big screen as it was meant to, in all its dark and tremendous glory. Can the press of a thousand Diplomacy players be far behind? And is there any doubt that Goz gets to be the Balrog? As for me, hey, anyone here speak ent?
(IRON DUCK to BURGESS AND SULTAN): Pollard wasn't lost, he was shoved down the staircase from behind. With an oddly sticky dagger protruding from his back. Maple syrup, they think, left on the pommel by someone. Could that someone be Jack the Knife?
(BOOB to THE ROOM): Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear. And it shows them, pearly white.....
(IRON DUCK to THE ROOM): That's right, folks, I'll be here all week ...
(BERLIN to PARIS): I suggest you follow the Emperor and go home with both your balls, else you'll be leaving them on the cold cobblestones of a strasse somewhere in Munich. (That would make you a Munich Eunich!)
CABARET to VIENNA CHOIR: You guys know a thing or two about eunuchs, eh?
(TURKEY to FRANCE): Will you please shut up!
(BUNDESTADT to MINCING MINARET MINDER): As do you and your ... glandless minions, eh?
(RUHR to RUSSIA & ITALY): And each of you had a secret society at one time in the past that practiced a ritual self-castrastion ... I Castrati in Italy, and I forget what they were called in Russia; they were part of Rasputin's cult ...
(IRON DUCK to SUNSTORMER): ... meaning we're the only two here with any ... sense.
(TURKEY to AUSTRIA): You need to talk before the deadline.
(GERMANY to FRANCE): Of all the beer joints in all the world and you had to walk into mine. You two-timer! I thought you said we'd always have Paris. I'm very hurt. Play it again, Jim ...
(JUMPIN' GM JIMBO AT THE PIANO): Sing us a song, you're the piano man ...
(IRON DUCK to JIM): Not that song ... our song, her song ... you that one that I told you never to play ... play it, play it damn you!
(JUMPIN' GM JIMBO AT THE PIANO): Once I was a boogie singer, playin' in a rock and roll band ...
(TURKEY to ITALY): Why did you stop talking?
(60's FLASHBACK): ``I've lost my harmonica, Albert ... " (I'll buy a sixpack for the first player here who can identify the artist and song.
(BOOB to LESS MUSICALLY MINDED): Think about a sequence of four herbs.... no, not Herbie Hancock..... I'll take my sixpack off the air....
(GOZ to BOOB): NOW can we find out about Kent Pollard? Thanks Jim-Bob! Happy Holidays!
(BOOB to GOZ): I got your ``Christmas letter'', very, very funny..... I especially liked the part about the Arena Football game. As for Mr. Pollard, I do seem to have misplaced his note, but essentially he is very, very busy and doesn't have time for us anymore. Oh well..... I told him he should return when he isn't so busy, but I'm not hopeful. In a few years, I'll have to add him to a search.
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1907 IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1908 IS FEBRUARY 23RD, 2002
Fall 1907
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a bud-TRI, a pie-VEN, a TYO S a boh-vie,
a TUS S a pie-ven, f ROM S TURKISH f ion-tyh, a boh-VIE.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f ENG S a bel-bre, f GOL S f tyh, f naf-TUN, f TYH h,
a BEL-bre (imp).
FRANCE (Davis): a ven-pie (d ann).
GERMANY (Shreve): a SIL S a mun-boh, a kie-MUN, a gal-UKR, a mun-BOH,
a mar-PIE, a PRU hoists a few (h), f spa(sc)-MID, a gas-SPA, a BUR S a kie-mun.
ITALY (Tallman): a POR h.
RUSSIA (Tretick): a STP-mos, a LVN S a stp-mos, a MOS-sev,
f WES S ENGLISH f tyh, a WAR S GERMAN a gal-ukr.
TURKEY (Ellis): RESIGNS, REPLACED BY BOB ACHESON; f ION-tyh,
a APU S AUSTRIAN a pie-ven, f NAP S f ion-tyh, a SEV-mos,
a RUM h, f AEG h, a ukr-war (d ann).
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): | BUD,TRI,VIE,ser, | (has 6, even) |
| rom,ven |
| ENGLAND (Biehl): | LON,LVP,EDI,bel,tun | (has 5, even) |
| FRANCE (Davis): | none | (out) |
| GERMANY (Shreve): | BER,KIE,MUN,den,hol,par, | (has 9, even) |
| bre,spa,mar |
| ITALY (Tallman): | por | (has 1, even) |
| RUSSIA (Tretick): | MOS,STP,WAR,nwy,swe | (has 5, even) |
| TURKEY (Acheson): | ANK,SMY,CON,bul,rum,sev, | (has 6, bld 2) |
| gre,nap |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
ENGLAND: John Biehl, 8809 Delwood Drive, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 4A1 CANADA,
(604) 589-9124 ($8); jeen of telus.net
FRANCE: Rick Davis, 2420 West Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95407, (707) 544-5201,
redavis914 of aol.com
GERMANY: Dwayne Shreve, 739 Union Church Road, Elkton, MD 21921 ($5)
dwayneshreve of yahoo.com
ITALY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($2)
terryt of sinclair.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
bernietretick of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406 ($10)
bukowski64 of yahoo.com
TURKEY: New Player is Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA
racheson of magma.ca
Game Notes:
1) The seven way DIAS draw is fails. A GATE draw, which will close the gate on this game, is now proposed. But, even GREATer than that is the GREAT draw, which also is proposed. Please vote on them with your Winter orders. If you fail to vote, they cannot pass.
2) Randy Ellis resigns with these orders, I hope Bob Acheson will be willing to replace him.
3) Thanks to Rick Davis for playing out this position to the bitter end! He went down fighting to the last.
Press:
(OFFICIAL GERMAN PRESS (unlike that phony German press last time)): The Kaiser officially condemns the use of any slang in the allegedly ``German press" of the last issue of TAP. It is clear that some zines ((That must be SZINES!!! You, sir, fail the linguistic test.)) have no viable linguistic standards whatsoever for the press that appears in them. However, the One True Kaiser hereby votes for any DIAS proposal whatsoever as long as it doesn't include Austria.
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER 1758 IS DECEMBER 1ST, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1759 IS DECEMBER 22ND, 2001
Fall 1758 - Revisited
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): a venice-SWISSE, f tahiti-BISMARCK SEA,
f NAPLES S f western mediterranean sea, a BURGUNDY S a paris-flanders,
a BULGARIA S a istanbul, a AMAZON S a manaus-matto grosso, a ISTANBUL
s RUSSIAN a caucasus-armenia (nso), f MELBOURNE-coral sea, f IONIAN SEA
S f western mediterranean sea, a BOLIVIA S a manaus-matto grosso,
a paris-FLANDERS, a GREECE-jerusalem, f SAMOA S f tahiti-bismarck sea,
a RHINE S a paris-flanders, f EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA C a greece-jerusalem,
a manaus-MATTO GROSSO, f TASMAN SEA S f tahiti-bismarck sea, a SAVOY-toulon,
a colombia prays for an nmr (h) (d r:ecuador,otb), f WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA h,
f south pacific ocean-fiji (d r:tahiti,east pacific ocean,antarctic ocean,peru,chile,otb).
CHINA (Acheson): f YELLOW SEA-manchuria, f amoy-EAST CHINA SEA,
a wuhan-CHINGHAI, a SINKIANG S a nepal-kasmir, f kwantung-SOUTH CHINA SEA,
f south china sea-SUBIC BAY, f gulf of siam-MALAYA, a MAHRATTA S a nepal-kasmir,
a nepal-KASMIR, f sea of japan-VLADIVOSTOK, a SIAM S f gulf of siam-malaya,
f WEST PACIFIC OCEAN S f amoy-east china sea, a BURMA S a siam,
a BORNEO h, a BENGAL S a burma, a MONGOLIA-manchuria, f JAPAN S f amoy-east china sea.
ENGLAND (Power): f NORTH SEA S f edinburgh-norwegian sea, f edinburgh-NORWEGIAN SEA,
a venezuela-MANAUS, a malaya-SUMATRA, f MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN
S f central atlantic ocean-azores, a flanders s a antwerp (d r:brittany,otb),
a ghana-ASHANTI, f central atlantic ocean-AZORES, f ANDAMAN SEA C a malaya-sumatra,
f SURINAM S f west indies-venezuela, f west indies-VENEZUELA, f ONTARIO h,
f NEW ZEALAND S SPANISH f philippine sea-coral sea, a ifni-MOROCCO,
a ANTWERP s a flanders, a GABON-angola, a matto grosso-amazon
(d r:paraguay,brazil,ricefe,otb), f HUDSON BAY S f east atlantic ocean-north atlantic ocean,
f ricefe-BAHIA, f east atlantic ocean-NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, f argentina-PATAGONIA,
a CONGO S a gabon-angola, a brazil-ARGENTINA, a dakar-GHANA,
f MALAY SEA C a malaya-sumatra, f ENGLISH CHANNEL S a antwerp, f BELEM S f surinam.
FRANCE (Alme): a manitoba h (d r:yukon,otb).
OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): a BAGHDAD-armenia, a SUEZ-jerusalem,
f PERSIAN GULF S a persia, f BLACK SEA-istanbul, a ARABIA-yemen,
f IZMIR S f black sea-istanbul, a PERSIA s a baghdad-armenia, a omsk-SIBERIA.
PORTUGAL (Stimmel): f canaries-azores (nsu), f azores h
(d r:canaries,east atlantic ocean,otb).
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): f BAY OF BENGAL-andaman sea, f south indian ocean-SOMALI SEA,
f BARENTS SEA C a norway-ural, f CRIMEA-black sea, a KIEV S a norway-ural,
f NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN C a siberia-hawaii, f nizam-KHANDESH, a CAUCASUS
-armenia, a siberia-HAWAII, f west indian
ocean-ARABIAN SEA, f SE ATLANTIC OCEAN-angola, f vancouver-OREGON,
a LITHUANIA-crimea, a ROMANIA S a lithuania-crimea, a DENMARK-hanover,
f east indian ocean-JAVA, f alaska-VANCOUVER, f PUNJAB-persia,
f norwegian sea-NORWAY, a norway-URAL, a AFGHANISTAN S f punjab-persia,
a HANOVER-hague, a HAGUE-antwerp, a KATANGA S f se atlantic ocean-angola,
f bering strait-ALASKA.
SPAIN (Partridge): f GULF OF CALIFORNIA S f honduras(wc)-gulf of panama,
f CALIFORNIA h, f GULF OF MEXICO C a louisiana-colombia, f TOULON h,
f PHILIPPINE SEA-coral sea, a HUELVA h, a oregon-MANITOBA,
a PANAMA S a louisiana-colombia, f GIBRALTAR S f valencia-western
mediterranean sea, a morocco-TAUREG, f east china sea h
(d r:korea,sea of japan,kwantung,otb), f CARIBBEAN SEA C a louisiana-colombia,
f TAIWAN h, f YEMEN h, a ARAGON S f toulon, a BORDEAUX S f toulon,
f GULF OF ADEN S f yemen, f raboul-SOLOMON SEA, a NUMIDIA S a tunis,
f honduras(wc)-GULF OF PANAMA, a EGYPT S a libya, f CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN
S f wake-south pacific ocean, f wake-SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN, a lisbon-LEON,
f ALGERIA S f valencia-western mediterranean sea, f CORAL SEA-fiji,
a ethiopia-KENYA, a louisiana-COLOMBIA, a benin-FEZAN,
a TUNIS S a libya, a MISSOURI S a oregon-manitoba, a LIBYA S a egypt,
f VALENCIA-western mediterranean sea, f TARAWA S f wake-south pacific ocean.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,TRI,TAH,pps, | (has 19 or 20 or 21, even(2 r:otb) |
| sav,ecu,peru,gre,sam,bol,bul, | or rem 1(r:otb) or 2) |
| par,MEL,NAP,fij,ist,bav,ven |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,NAN, | (has 17, bld 2(S r:korea) or 3) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,kor?,nep,mah,sia,bur,cam, |
| ben,vla,MLA,bor |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,EDI,LON,kam,ire,gab, | (has 25 or 26 or 27, bld 2(2 r:otb) |
| sum,con,ant,uga,arg,togo,SUR,QUE, | or 1(r:otb) or even) |
| gha,bel,vol,bah,BRA,DAK,vza,ric,ont, |
| ifn,azo,nwz,mor |
| FRANCE (Alme): | none | (out) |
| OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): | IZM,BAG,oms,jer,persia | (has 8, rem 3) |
| PORTUGAL (Stimmel): | none | (out) |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 25, bld 3) |
| swe,mal,zam,den,rom,han,die,nwy,GOA,nat, |
| niz,hag,cey,ANG,ALA,kha,van,ore,HAW, |
| afg,jav |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MANILA,cal, | (has 33 or 34, bld 4(r:korea,otb) or 3) |
| tun,rab,eth,hon,tex,nwg,ken,lis,lag,FLO, |
| lou,iwo,num,tau,ohi,vir,gua,tar,tim,cub, |
| tai,bdx,sud,wak,mas,manit,tou,fez,egy,yem, |
| kor?,col |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=136) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Gene Prosnitz, 2600 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1116, Riverdale, NY 10463, (718) 601-8131 ($5)
ProsnitzE of aol.com
CHINA: Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA ($5)
racheson of magma.ca
ENGLAND: John Power, 18 Tilton Court, Baltimore, MD 21236, (410) 933-8827 ($4)
natjohn2 of home.com or jrpower of bechtel.com
FRANCE: Hank Alme, 506 Paige Loop, Los Alamos, NM 87544
almehj of swcp.com
OTTOMAN: Art Schleinkofer, 3120 Holly Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154-1708
Krolart of aol.com
PORTUGAL: Robert Stimmel, Apt. #57, Casa de Sherry Apts., 2462 North Sycamore Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 85712-2541, (520) 326-8369 ($5)
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
SPAIN: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Since there seems to be some confusion about where everyone is here, I'm reprinting the corrected Fall adjudication and asking again for Autumn and Winter orders for the next deadline. Below we reprint the game notes and press from the last season. I have proper orders in hand from all but one of you and will keep them on file. The one whose orders I don't have knows who he is. But I did say that one request was sufficient to delay the Winter adjudication. Apologies again for causing the confusion.
2) Thank you very much to Hank Alme and Robert Stimmel for playing out their respective positions. We are now down to six players. I'm sure about that, but please check the rest of the Supply Center Chart carefully, there were lots of changes and I'm not sure I kept up with all of them properly.
3) Mega-apologies for misplacing an order revision from Paul Rauterberg. The new results are up above, note that England has one less center, Austria has one more, as a result. I also made a few other minor corrections, so again, check me carefully.
Press:
(CHINA-RUSSIA): I think I'd be more comfortable in the Bay of Bengal.
(SPAIN - OTTOMAN): Sorry my friend, it would have been easier not to had you written.
(CHINA-SPAIN): I did pass on IWO.
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1909 IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1909 IS FEBRUARY 23RD, 2002
Spring 1909
ENGLAND (Sayers): a BEL h, f NAO S f mid, a KIE S FRENCH a mun, f MID h,
f ENG S f mid, f HEL S a kie, f POR S FRENCH f spa(sc).
FRANCE (Sasseville): NMR, STEVE EMMERT IS CALLED AS STANDBY; f MAR h, f SPA(SC) h,
a MUN h, a BUR h.
GERMANY (Barno): a TYO-ven.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a MOS S a lvn-war, a lvn-WAR, a BER S FRENCH a mun,
f BAL S a pru, a STP S a mos, a PRU S a lvn-war.
TURKEY (Linsey): f smy-AEG, a con-RUM, a rum-UKR, f ion-TUN, a SEV S a rum-ukr,
f TYH S f wes-gol, f BLA C a con-rum, a war-SIL, a bud-TRI, f tun-NAF, f adr-ION,
f rom-TUS, a PIE-mar, f wes-GOL, a GAL S a war-sil, a VEN-tyo.
Addresses of the Participants
ENGLAND: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
jimp of magna.com.au
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($0)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
FRANCE: Standby is Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 631-1842; steve.emmert of home.com or lsemmert of sykesbourdon.com
GERMANY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883
mpbarno of lightlink.com or mbarno of claritas.com
ITALY: John Schultz, 120 Pine Drive, Unit H, Porter, IN 46304, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Bruce Linsey, PO Box 234, Kinderhook, NY 12106
GonzoHQ of aol.com
Game Notes:
1) Roland is now down to zero on NMR insurance and hasn't responded to my messages, I know he is around, but.....sorry. I want to call someone from the game that just ended below, so Steve Emmert gets the call. Steve, please let me know for the Summer deadline if you are willing to take it and Roland has until then to get me FALL preliminary orders, or he will be replaced.
Press:
(RUSSIA TO ROM): I DID argue the importance of your fleet, but you didn't like what you heard ... or maybe you didn't hear it!
(GERMANY to ANTI-TURKISH COALITION): I betcha I take as many or more Turkish centers than all of you combined! If Holland is left alone, I'll give it my best shot.
(RUSSIA TO TURKEY): Just trying to shake things up a little without giving up my part of the stalemate line.
| EDWARD TELLER: 2001?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
GAME WILL START NOW!!!
Game Notes:
1) John Schultz (begins with Austria), Paul Rauterberg (begins with England), Karl Muller (begins with France), Harry Andruschak (begins with Germany), Lee Kendter, Jr. (begins with Italy), Jack McHugh (begins with Russia), and Sandy Kenny (begins with Turkey) are on board and playing. See the rules below. Please make sure that I have your correct and updated contact information. Karl, is your E-Mail address still kmuller of gelmanpension.com?? And Sandy, do you have a separate E-Mail address from Paul's at pdkenny of net-gate.com?? I think I have everyone else's contact info right and everyone else's address appears elsewhere in this issue except for Lee's which is lkendter of speakeasy.net. The official, official game start will come next issue when I am sure that I have everyone's info, but you obviously have enough to get started now. I am thinking that Spring 1901 (when the big action happens) will be due March 16th, let me know if you really want it earlier and if you have any questions about the rules. Unless superceded below, all rules are as in regular Diplomacy.
2) The game lasts seven game years (measured Winter to Winter, 1901 to 1907), with each player rotating through the powers in alphabetical order (AEFGIRT), playing each power for one game year. At the end of each game year, the game board and positions are fully reset to the initial positions.
3) Initial Positions: All units and supply center ownership are as in regular Diplomacy, except that each player has five nuclear weapons (except for Russia which has only four nuclear weapons).
4) Firing Nuclear Weapons: Each nuclear weapon (nuke) is fired at a specific province (land or sea) according to orders submitted by their owners immediately FOLLOWING the Spring moves (nuke orders are submitted with those moves and cannot be made conditional on any outcomes or moves in the Spring turn). Nuclear weapon strikes destroy the supply center in the targeted province, if any, as well as any units in that province following the Spring turn.
5) Effects of Nuclear Weapons (Black Hole Variant): The effects of the nuclear weapon strike are equivalent to those in the Black Hole variant designed by Conrad von Metzke (Conrad is the unofficial ombudsman for adjudication of paradoxes caused by this rule). Any provinces adjacent to a nuke strike province are now themselves adjacent. The effect of nuke strikes on adjacent provinces creates a cumulative effect such that all provinces adjacent to an a contiguous string of nuke strike provinces are all simultaneously adjacent. This effect applies to moves, supports, retreats, and convoys. Coastal provinces that are nuked transmit their coastal status to all adjacent provinces, which also is cumulative in effect. These coastal status changes do not interfere with any army supports, retreats, or moves between two land provinces separated by a contiguous string of nuke strike provinces.
6) Victory Conditions: The game ends at the end of the seventh winter adjustment season. Victory points are garnered by cumulatively adding supply centers owned at the end of each of the seven game years. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins. Ties are broken by sequentially comparing victory points owned in 1907 followed by each preceding year. Players earning precisely the same number of victory points in each of the seven game years remain tied.
| COME AND HAVE A GO (If You Think You're Hard Enough): 1998V, Diplomacy |
GAME ENDS - FRANCE WINS - CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT!!
Fall 1910
AUSTRIA (Kinney): a MOS s FRENCH f nwy-stp(nc), a GAL-bud.
FRANCE (Morris): f ENG S f mid, a bur-GAS, f MID S f spa(sc), a RUH S a tyo-mun,
f gol-TUS, f SPA(SC) S f mid, a PRU S a sil-war, a pie s f gol-tus (d r:mar,otb),
f NWY S f gob-stp(sc), a sil-WAR, f gob-STP(SC), a BER S a tyo-mun,
f NTH S a wal-lon, a tyo-MUN, a wal-LON.
ITALY (Emmert): f TYH S f wes-gol, a VEN S f tus-pie, a TRI S a ven, a RUM h,
f tus-PIE, f naf-WES, a ser-ALB, a BOH S a vie-tyo, f arm-ANK, f bla-CON, f lon h (d ann),
f wes-GOL, a vie-TYO, a BUD h.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a stp h (d r:lvn,otb).
TURKEY (Barno): a SEV-mos.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Kinney): | mos | (survives) |
| FRANCE (Morris): | bre,par,mar,spa,por,bel,lon, | (wins) |
| hol,den,kie,swe,lvp,edi,mun,nwy,ber,war,stp |
| ITALY (Emmert): | rom,ven,nap,tun,smy,con, | (survives) |
| vie,bud,tri,ser,gre,ank,bul,rum |
| RUSSIA (Reynolds): | none | (out) |
| TURKEY (Barno): | sev | (survives) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222,
(502) 412-3079; alberich of iglou.com
ENGLAND: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($3)
terryt of sinclair.net
FRANCE: Scott Morris, 12110 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243, (502) 893-8260 ($5)
Scottm221 of aol.com
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
jimp of magna.com.au
ITALY: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 631-1842; steve.emmert of home.com or lsemmert of sykesbourdon.com
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883 ($5)
mpbarno of lightlink.com
Game Notes:
1) Thanks to everyone for a fun game! I'll do stats on ALL the delayed games next time and get caught up and then you can send me endgame statements if you like.
2) Sorry again that I lost the note from Kent Pollard, Mark Kinney took over the position with gusto, though not perhaps the gusto some might have wished.
Press:
(ITALY to FRANCE): I got two bucks that say that YOU voted down your own concession.
(TURKEY to RUSSIA): I'll bet you fifty Ishkibibbles that Italy is taking Sevastopol. So I'm taking the Great Powers who have caused the most problems for Turkey out of the draw with this move.
(RUSSIA to FRANCE): Come and get me, Froggy!
(FRANCE): I hope this works. If it doesn't it looks like this game may be locked down. But maybe not. I am way bummed out about George Harrison right now. (he died yesterday) I have been watching the shows about his life. The TV anchors keep saying a deranged fan attacked and stabbed him in the chest in 1999. Don't you lose your ``fan" status when you try to kill some one? But back to the game. Kinney, you chucklehead. Why don't you reply to players when you just join? Sheeesh. We all know Emmert is the evil one. If my memory serves right, he was involved in some very shady dealings in Bolivia last June. Let's see what else can I ramble about? I am greatly tempted to just go on and on and see how much of this drivel that Jim-Bob will let me sneak in, but I won't tempt fate. ((You KNOW my drivel quotient is quite high, you could have gone on for at least a page without bothering me.....)) GIVE ME THE RESULTS JIM O ROONIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
(TURKEY to AUS-HUN): Sorry that this costs you a piece of a three-way draw if you and Steve play it as I think you might. But your predecessor joined me in an I-A-T early then declared a jihad on me. His play caused your nation and mine to exchange massive casualties and end up exiled from our homelands by Italians.
(BOOB to WORLD): Let's finish up with another edition of Emmert on Sports.... this time football finds his fancy....
(EMMERT ON SPORTS): Obviously, I am WAY overdue if I want to give you a hockey report; let's go with the World Cup draw instead.
GROUP A - France, Denmark, Uruguay, Senegal - The French get out of this group easily. The sensible bet is probably on the Danes to join them in the second round, but I'll go with Uruguay, which has a suffocating defense.
GROUP B - Spain, Slovenia, Paraguay, South Africa - I think this is a fascinating group, and I can see any of the four sides making it through. In any case, Spain should make it. Paraguay's best player, goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert, is currently suspended for the first two matches. If FIFA reduces the suspension from four to two games (which he's already served), then I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Paraguay make it through to the second round. South Africa is probably the best rounded African team, and if Paraguay falters, I'll go with them them for the next round.
GROUP C - Brazil, China, Turkey, Costa Rica - Brazil had an unexpectedly difficult time qualifying for the finals this year, but many pundits are still picking them to go all the way. They have enormous talent, but in my view, they don't mesh well. That won't keep them from moving on to the second round, but they're not the dominant team they have been in years past. China's great accomplishment was just qualifying for this tournament; they are serious contenders to finish last in the 32-team field. Costa Rica should give Turkey a fight, but the Turks are really the stronger side, and should make it through; I can see them making some noise in the later rounds of the finals.
GROUP D - Portugal, Poland, South Korea, USA - No one here can hang with the Portuguese, one of the great teams in the world. Luis Figo is probably one of the five best players on the planet right now, and it's probable that none of the other teams in this group can match up with Portugal's firepower. The Americans have at least a decent chance of getting through, though they'll have to deal with a probable opening game loss to Portugal, and come from behind against the other two sides. I see Korea's becoming one of the few host teams to fail to make the second round; look for Poland to move on.
GROUP E - Germany, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon - Germany, too, struggled to qualify, but find themselves one of the top eight seeds, due to FIFA's complicated seeding process. They're almost certainly the strongest side in this group. Cameroon will entertain, but probably doesn't have the depth to keep up with the Saudis or Ireland. I'd love to see the Irish in the second round, but I have a hunch that the Saudis will make it through.
GROUP F - Argentina, Sweden, England, Nigeria - Here is this year's Group of Death. There isn't a weak side anywhere to be found. England are looking forward to redemption against Argentina, and should get by Sweden and Nigeria for the other slot in the second round. I see the Argentines as winning this group, but there will be blood on the scoreboard. ((I'm sure all of our English subbers to this szine are crying in their pints over this one.))
GROUP G - Italy, Croatia, Ecuador, Mexico - If Group F is the Group of Death, this is the Group of Intensive Care. Again, all four sides are quite capable of moving on. I'm going with Italy and Mexico. Ecuador have never been to the finals before; Croatia don't have the talent of the Italians, and will probably succumb to Mexico's offensive push.
GROUP H - Japan, Belgium, Russia, Tunisia - I really think this is a free pass into the second round for Russia. Belgium are very strong, especially with the return of Michael Wilmots from a leg injury, but the Russians should win this group, perhaps winning all three first round games. The Belgians should also qualify, though Japan could surprise people and sneak into the next round.
My early picks were Italy and Argentina in the finals. A great many experts are tabbing France to repeat, and it's hard to bet against the defending champions and the current #1 side in the world. But I say Juan Sebastien Veron carries Argentina through to the championship over a talented Italian side.
Knowing you, Jim-Bob, you'll save this and reprint it next June, when the finals are underway. That's okay; I can take the heat, even if Nigeria kicks Argentina right out of the finals. ((Wrongo, Ambulance Chaser breath!!! I'm right with you on this.) Best wishes.
| SO GOOD IT HURTS: 1998 P, Regular Diplomacy |
THE RAG DRAW PASSED - GAME OVER - SEND IN END GAME STATEMENTS!
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Drew James, 3644 Whispering Woods Terr., Baldwinsville, NY 13027, (315) 652-1956 ($5)
kjames01 of twcny.rr.com
FRANCE: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079
alberich of iglou.com
GERMANY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235 ($5)
gozcorp of iquest.net
ITALY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 ($5)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
RUSSIA: Russ Rusnak, 1551 Highridge Avenue, Westchester, IL 60154-3428 ($5)
RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com
TURKEY: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452, (757) new? ($4)
steve.emmert of home.com
Game Notes:
1) I really will get caught up on final stats next issue, come hell or high water.... ;-) Players should let me know what they want done with their NMR insurance, default is that it goes to a few more issues of postal subs after we wrap the game up.
| EMBRACING THE CONSTRAINTS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules |
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 6 IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
Turn 5
| 48 (replenish with a 3): | Edi the Emu, I.K. Brunel, Beaver |
| 47 (replenish with a 6): | Alfred the Great |
| 46 (replenish with a 7): | Dave the Tinamou, Greenwich, Charlie Brown |
| 45 (replenish with a 10): | William Shakespeare, Peery the Peacock |
| 44 (replenish with a 12): | Brandon the Kiwi, Dennis the Menace |
| 43 (replenish with a 14): | Boniface, Dana |
| 42 (replenish with a 16): | Rectangle |
| 41 (replenish with a 17): | Sir Isaac Newton(1), Square(2), Alfalfa, Alice |
-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
| 40 (replenish with a 21): | Rhombus |
| 39 (replenish with a 22): | Halbert, Enfield, Christie, Prescott |
| 38 (no replenishment): | None |
| 37 (replenish with a 3): | Diamond |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (The Quabbin Reservoirs): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(0 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Dana | 16 9 3 14 (15) |
| B: Enfield | 14 18 22 (6) |
| C: Greenwich | 15 3 7 (12) |
| D: Prescott | 18 3 22 (16) |
TEAM 2 (The Flightless Birds): Rick Desper, 319 West Side Dr., #102 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(18 points) (301) 977-7691, rick_desper of yahoo.com
| Coached by Petey the Penguin |
| A: Edi the Emu | 3 3 3 3 (3) |
| B: Dave the Tinamou | 3 5 7 (3) |
| C: Brandon the Kiwi | 12 3 12 (10) |
| D: Peery the Peacock | 3 7 10 (3) |
TEAM 3 (The Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(19 points) fiendish of operamail.com, John.Harrington of tfeurope.com
| A: Alfred the Great | 12 3 4 6 (3) |
| B: William Shakespeare | 3 7 10 (3) |
| C: Sir Isaac Newton | 3 3 17 (3) |
| D: Isambard Kingdom Brunel | 5 5 3 (5) |
TEAM 4 (The Border Riders): Tom Howell, 365 Storm King Road, Port Angeles, WA 98363
(0 points) off-the-shelf of olympus.net
| Manager: the White Maid |
| A: Alice of Avenel | 14 23 18 17 (9) |
| B: abbot Boniface | 9 9 14 (11) |
| C: Christie of Clint-hill | 18 15 22 (6) |
| D: Halbert Glendinning | 12 13 22 (6) |
TEAM 5 (The Quadrilaterals): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(2 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Rhombus | 19 9 5 21 (3) |
| B: Square | 17 5 17 (3) |
| C: Rectangle | 14 3 16 (6) |
| D: Diamond | 3 17 3 (3) |
TEAM 6 (The Bad Boys): Jim Tretick, 13267 Coppermill Drive, Herndon, VA 20171, (703) 713-1328
(0 points) JTretickGames of aol.com
| A: Alfalfa: | 8 5 17 (9) |
| B: Beaver: | 18 9 3 (16) |
| C: Charlie Brown: | 18 3 7 (18) |
| D: Dennis the Menace: | 13 9 12 (12) |
Game Notes:
1) I am going BACK to the designer rules for Breaking Away that allow cards of greater than 15 to be replenished. The Breaking Away bonus is earned only on the FIRST turn that you break away from the pack. I printed the original postal rules in Issue #239, if you need a copy and don't have that issue, just ask.
2) The number in parentheses is what you played, the last card in your list is the one you replenished with.
3) Everybody regroups, except for Diamond, who had few other good choices, since if he had ``broken away'' he only would have broken away to a three card. And check out those cards Alice has garnered!! Where's that press??
Press:
(WHITE MAID to ERIC): When ya follow a cyclist in the rain, ya gotta expect a bit of mud in the water in the face...
(ERIC to WHITE MAID): It seems like I was pedaling in my sleep. A little water in the face helps wake a person up.
(ERIC to BOOB): In old zines people would write ``what if'' pieces about Diplomacy games on nationwide TV. How many of them imagined the current situation, where we actually do have a string of what are effectively Diplomacy games on nationwide TV?
(BOOB to ERIC): I don't know, but as far as I am concerned, NONE of them is as good as THE game. I think they could make Diplomacy into a better made for TV event than any of them if it were done right. They would have to put some ``socializing'' into it so that the players could get to know each other and the TV audience could see that as well. All negotiations would be filmed and then results would be edited to catch the juiciest lies and best intrigue. A map could be superimposed on the screen so that as people were talking a ``John Madden" type could be pointing out the moves they were talking about on a telestrator. People would enter their orders into a computer that would instantly make the moves at adjudication time with some flashy color (Hasbro did have a bit of the right idea there) for attacks and dislodgements. You would need expert commentary used VERY judiciously, since the main point would be to listen to the players and the negotiations. They, of course, would be playing for a whole hell of a lot of money. A whole complete show played out to the end could be eight one hour episodes or so. A continuous series would just start a new game when the last one ended. Winners might even be allowed to come back and play again, either in a winners round, or against six new players.
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2007 IS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2002
Summer 2007
BRITAIN (Schultz): has f ENG, a MUR, f DEN, f SWE, a STP, f BRN,
f GOB, f NTH.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): has f ESA, f LBS, f ION, a SYR, a APU, a IRK, f IZM.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): has f BAL, f BER, f LIT, f BOR, a AUS, a LYO,
f BEL, a WAR, a CZE, a SIL, a MIL, f HAM, a SWI.
ITALY (Ozog): R a ven-TUS, f lig-MON; has a TUS, f MON, a ROM, a MAR.
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): has a MAD, a NAV, f MAO, f LIG, f MAL, a NAP,
f TYS, a AUV.
UKRAINE (Partridge): R a stp-LAT; has a VOL, a KIE, a POD, a ANK,
f WBS, f IST, a RUM, a MOS, a SLO, a KRA, f ALB, a VEN, a ADA, a SIB,
a PRU, a HUN, a BIE, f GRE, a LAT, f ADR, a IRN, a CRO.
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, 120 Pine Drive, Unit H, Porter, IN 46304, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
EGYPT: Jeff O'Donnell, 402 Middle Ave., Elyria, OH 44035-5728, (440) 322-2920 ($4)
FRANCE: Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202 ($5)
Tapmdfrance of aol.com
GERMANY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
ITALY: Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138, (360) 691-4264 ($3)
ElfEric of Juno.com
POLAND: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
RUSSIA: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406
surfeit of swbell.net
SPAIN: Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044 ($5)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, sfo25 of netscape.net
TURKEY: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711, (209) 225-0957 ($10)
UKRAINE: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033 ($8)
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Check out the Modern Dip web page at: http://www.modernhof.webprovider.com/
2) I'm going to start a quiet interest list down here in the next Modern game. I don't want to start it until this game is done or nearly done, but with ten players it may take awhile, so I'll start now. Rick Desper is in to be one of the players. Any more??? We are going to do it with ``wings''..... I am sending this issue as a sample to Vince Mous, the game's designer.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Oh the Powers and the Horror; The more you stray, the more you're saved. Cast our mind back to the time; He lay weeping in your bed; The young man loved you so passionately; He had to leave the country.'' From ``Powers and Horror" off of Journey to the End of the Night.
(BRITAIN): A hardy HI HO SILVER and a HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON TO YOU ONE AND ALL!!!! Of course, this includes you o' Boob. Have a great year.
(AL CAPONESKI to BERLIN): Actually, I think The Trouble With Tribbles is what you're thinking of.
| SHOW ME THE MONEY: 1997Mea04, Colonial Diplomacy |
SHUT IT DOWN, A HOLLAND/JAPAN/RUSSIA DRAW IS DECLARED
BUT CAN JIM-BOB FIND TIME TO SUMMARIZE THE CHART???
Final Supply Center Chart - From the Last Season
| BRITAIN (York): | DEL,HK,SIN,mal,cey,aden,ban,mad | (has 8) |
| FRANCE (Sasseville): | TON,may,u.bur,ass,bom, | (has 7, PLAYED ONE SHORT) |
| ben,can,ran |
| HOLLAND (Desper): | BOR,SUM,JAVA,SAR,new,dav, | (has 11) |
| mna,cebu,for,ann,coc |
| JAPAN (K. Ozog): | TOK,KYU,OTA,KYO,vla,fus,sak, | (has 12) |
| p.art,seo,sha,mac,pek |
| RUSSIA (Williams): | MOS,OMSK,ODE,rum,mon,ang,tab, | (has 17) |
| con,chu,shi,egy,per,tas,kag,sik,kar,kam |
| TURKEY (Tallman): | sud,bag | (has 2) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=58) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: Andy York, PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720-1117
wandrew of compuserve.com
CHINA: Rich Goranson, 4351 Chestnut Ridge Road, #7 Amherst, NY, 14228-3227 ($5)
ForlornH of aol.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
HOLLAND: Rick Desper, 703 Monroe Street, Apt #302, Rockville, MD 20850, (301) 545-0143 (E-Mail)
rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
JAPAN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, 630-837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($0)
terryt of sinclair.net
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, (401) 351-0287
Game Notes:
1) Hey, we're already late.... SC chart forthcoming sometime. I'm waiting for Don Williams.... ;-)
Press and End Game Comments:
No more here yet..... they're probably waiting for that spellbinding SC chart. Don Williams says he is sending me an Endgame statement now, so that will finish it one way or the other. Can I get the SC chart out before Don gets me an Endgame statement..... stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion..... Rich Goranson and Andy York are relishing their free issues while we work it out.
Personal Note to You: