| March 20, 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. I forgot to announce the Tinamou deadline last time, but it appropriately is April Fool's Day, April 1st!! Joke is on all of you!!! Now get your orders in to Dave (speaking also to self).
``If we cease to judge this world, we may find ourselves, very quickly, in
one which is infinitely worse."
- Margaret Atwood; courtesy of Brent McKee.
This issue is a bit of a rush job to make it out (at least so people see
it on E-Mail) before the Sweet Sixteen round of NCAA Tournament games starts.
I'll get caught up on anything I missed next time.
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 just one team left open at the moment. LATE WORD: that might be taken.... Don't be left out. Exhibition baseball play has started and then I'll get a chance to see if I really have put together a contender.
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 was saying that he would be unlikely to be starting any new games in the Octopus until ``at least the start of 2002." He is now hearby declared to be in official indeterminate stasis and that date is now a ``whenever''. 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 really DO have Rip Gooch as the representative volunteer, more forthcoming on that.
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 TOM HURST |
Wake up, you pile of useless deadwood!!! Nothing on Tom yet. Let's go, someone find him!!!
Feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Bill, 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 Bill Quinn or Mark Berch or 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, GO TO A DIPLOMACY CONVENTION 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.
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 (with other Tournament Info) |
Worldmasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Goes ON!!
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 until later this year. The Semi-Finals are almost over. 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!!! They are jousting with each other as the Semifinal rounds work into their pressure packed C-Diplo driven supply center count based ends. Can Frank (who is leading) get into the Finals???
The main WWW site for Worldmasters used to be found at http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
And you could have signed up for the conference board at
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
But a disaster has struck Cloud Nine and its estimable CEO Emeric Miszti. You can read details of this at http://www.zetnet.com which is the ISP that Emeric sold out Cloud Nine Communications Ltd.'s contracts to.
Right now, many of you should be able to access Ray Setzer's newsgroup at:
news://www.cat23.com/wm00-semifinal which had been mirroring the Cloud Nine site. You also may find results at this place for the Road to Rio: Kill Egg game that I have been playing in with the always interesting Egbert Ferreira. We have just concluded that game with a gentleman's draw with Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu in the supply center count lead. Believe it or not, Egg and I DID ally for the last year of the game!
| 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. Stephen Agar has matched that and more with some of the even older rulebooks. 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. And all seven different US rulebooks for Diplomacy can now be found here courtesy of Stephen Agar:
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/old_rulebooks.htm
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
The new Spring issue is now out!!! For future issues, I'm also 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 appears in this latest issue.
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. Or subscribe electronically at diplomacyworld at Yahoo Groups!
Rod Walker (Sun, 17 Mar 2002 18:18:13 -0800)
Hi. Thanks again to my good friend Sharon, you've already heard that after one day at home I was back in the hospital with pneumonia. Ewww! Yuck. It's oldmonia now, but on the run. I've added 7 new prescriptions to my collection. And after 15 years of ``well, it's just borderline" pussyfooting I'm now officially diabetic. Just what you wanted to know, huh? Anyway, I'm back home recuperating and Cat (my cat) has already had a day of hysterical purring, rolling around in my lap, and all the ways cats have of saying, ``It's about damn time". I think that's about it.
| Rod, catu11us of pacbell.net |
((Thanks, Rod, great to hear that you're feeling better. In an update on the other ``great Diplomacy book author'', Richard Sharp's lung cancer has spread into his lymph system. We'll keep praying for both of you....))
| MUSIC AND MOVIES 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 continue NEXT issue!!! And it will continue to be a joint 2000 and 2001 issue.
Russ Rusnak (Fri, 15 Mar 2002 00:44:12 EST)
Over the last two years, I have would usually brought 4 CDs to work on Monday and taken them home on Friday. Those are the only ones I listen to all week. There have been a number of CDs I thought I really liked, but I got tired of them. I've found certain CDs that I can listen to over and over during the same day without getting tired of them. This is tried and true music, not the new age crap that's good for 3 plays until you realize it's just a remake of all the other shit out there. What are these great CDs you ask?
#5 Frank Zappa - Strictly Commercial
#4 Government Mule - Live with a little Help from our Friends
#3 Concrete Blonde - Recollections
#2 Paul Revere & the Raiders - The Legend of Paul Revere
#1 Flo & Eddie - The Best of Flo & Eddie
Save your money people, these 5 CDs are a complete collection in themselves, no need for anything else, unless maybe a couple of things by combinations of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.
| Russ, RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com |
((Thanks, Russ, interesting you choose that Paul Revere album, I remember listening to it over and over again as a kid, but never since. It seems we have a few ``seldom contributors" this issue! Welcome, and let's see more from the rest of you!!))
Bob Osuch (Sat, 9 Mar 2002 10:22:04 EST)
Hi Jim, Read the latest TAP, just a few comments.
The latest U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind, is by far their best effort, solid throughout. My favorite track is ``In a Little While''. You also mentioned their appearance at the Super Bowl. I saw it too, ((Actually, as I mentioned, I DIDN'T see it.... but anyway....)) and found it curious that Bono, long a detractor of American politics and foreign policy, would sell out by playing up to the crowd with the Old Glory lined jacket. Did you detect a bit of hypocrisy there?
As for my favorite albums, they're mostly from the seventies and early eighties. Since I abhor rap and most new wave stuff, there's little around today that I enjoy. One exception is the new Chris Isaak CD, Always Got Tonight. Very easy on the ears, if not a tad Orbisonesque in spots. In no particular order my ten favorites are:
Spirit's Twelve Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus. This band featured guitarist Randy California...so what if you've never heard of him, he was among the most adventurous and innovative axemen of his time. Solid vocals and production, ahead of its time.
David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. As the above, a theme album, includes ``Suffragette City" and Long John Baldry's ``It Ain't Easy". The latter doesn't fit and Bowie's version sucks, but otherwise a great album.
The Grateful Dead's American Beauty. This is my favorite Dead album, heads above the rest in my book. Not that Garcia and company put out classic stuff anyway, but this is their most listenable throughout. One of the few Dead albums that Nondeadheads would still enjoy.
King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King. Robert Fripp had a vision. Take the smaltzy crap that the Moody Blues called music, refine it and add a distinctively jazzy flavor, fill the void with real musicians (Fripp on guitar, Ian McDonald on flute and any other instrument except guitar and drums, Greg Lake on bass and Michael Giles on drums), and you have yourself a wonderful artistic success. This album never made the charts, too obscure and definitely different. Highly recommended. ((I don't consider this obscure at all, but OK if you say so. It does what it does better than almost anything else anyone has done.))
The Rolling Stones' Let it Bleed. My favorite Stones album.
The Beatles' Abbey Road. My favorite Beatles album.
Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal. This album features the twin guitar work of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter...overpowering to say the least. Arguably the best live album ever released. Reed's vocals are surprisingly strong.
The Velvet Underground's Loaded. The Velvet Underground never made it big because Lou Reed had the balls to address social matter considered verboten by popular artists and society at large. Still, VU created many electronic innovations still prevalent in punk and New Wave music today. Try this one out and you'll see what I mean.
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I suffered through Pink Floyd's earlier efforts in college. I suppose it was the original acid rock. If you enjoyed listening to a barrage of interesting noises (like a fly buzzing around for awhile in Ummagumma), they were for you. Many people think this is the band's first album, while in reality it's their eleventh. The rest is history. ((Yeah, I listened to a bit of Ummagumma recently, just to see what it sounded like to my ears today when I was ``testing out my record player'', and even though I am probably more tuned in to interesting noises than you are, I found it profoundly uninteresting. Say what you will, this changed music forever and it is precisely because you can't see where it came from out of their own history that makes it especially interesting.))
Neil Young's Harvest. You either love him or hate him. I love him. Probably his best album, Young's not afraid to wear his feelings on his sleeve. So he's not the best musician, his haunting vocals and melodies more than make up for it.
| Bob, ROsuch4082 of aol.com |
Brent McKee (Tue, 12 Mar 2002 16:31:03 -0600)
Since Rick Desper sent you some Oscar predictions I might as well weigh in with my own. Of course I only went to one movie this past year (Lord of the Rings) but that makes me as qualified as a lot of people to make predictions.
Best Picture: Lord of the Rings, A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, Moulin Rouge, In the Bedroom.
Prediction: Not Lord of the Rings. I think it comes down to ``A Beautiful Mind", ``Gosford Park" with ``In the Bedroom" as a long shot. ``A Beautiful Mind" has had a lot of buzz, not all of it positive recently (allegations from Matt Drudge that it ``overlooked" John Nash's anti-Semitism) ((Which of course is total CRAP, since the whole subject is fully covered in Sylvia Nasar's much more extensive and true biography which has been on the Best Seller Lists and was published in 1998!! Since Matt Drudge can't read, undoubtedly he didn't read the book.... one of the things that IS interesting about the 1950's is how Harvard during that period was FIERCELY anti-Semitic and how it allowed MIT (where John Nash was with all those Jews) and many other great universities like Chicago to flourish by not being exclusionary! But having that be conveniently forgotten to accuse someone like Nash of anti-Semitism is just amazing. I hope that has blown over now.)) but it is a Ron Howard film. On the other hand ``Gosford Park" is lush and English and fun - and a Robert Altman film. ((Yes, it really, really is, but I know because I've seen it.... ;-) )) ``In the Bedroom" has a shot because it is very much an actor's movie. I'm leaning towards Gosford Park. ((I would be happy with either choice, but I'm still choosing A Beautiful Mind.))
Best Actor: Russell Crowe ``A Beautiful Mind", Sean Penn ``I am Sam", Will Smith ``Ali", Denzel Washington ``Training Day", Tom Wilkinson ``In the Bedroom".
Prediction: Drop Penn: it's a gimmick part. Drop Smith, because even though he threw himself into the part and is a good actor when he's not wasting his time with things like ``Independence Day" or ``Wild Wild West" I don't think anyone could really capture Ali's character including Ali himself (and he tried - see ``The Greatest"). I've liked Tom Wilkinson's work since I first saw him in a British TV series called ``Peak Practice" and this is a really powerful role so he's in with an outside chance. Russell Crowe is a controversial character in Hollywood, particularly after his remarks after the BAFTA awards (British Film and Television awards) and Denzel shows his acting chops playing totally against type in ``Training Day". Combine the two and Washington gets the award. ((Perhaps, but Crowe's performance was so much more nuanced. I think if they go on politics you're right though, so that's probably what will happen....))
Best Actress: Halle Barry ``Monster's Ball", Judy Dench ``Iris", Nicole Kidman ``Moulin Rouge", Sissy Spacek ``In the Bedroom", Renee Zelwegger ``Bridget Jones' Diary".
Prediction: Halle Barry would be a shoe-in for the Oscar any year but this. The part is an extremely tough and unglamorous one and she pulls it off. Still the winner is going to be Sissy Spacek because, as I've said, ``In the Bedroom" is an actor's movie and more specifically is a showcase for her acting which has matured a lot since films like ``Carrie" and ``Coal Miner's Daughter". ((Kidman's was a much edgier and difficult performance. Spacek was just being Spacek. We'll see if you're right.))
Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent ``Iris", Ethan Hawke ``Training Day", Ben Kingsley ``Sexy Beast", Ian McKellen ``Lord of the Rings", Jon Voight ``Ali".
Prediction: Every year at the Oscars you get two things happening - someone gets nominated for a life-time of accomplishments as well as this year's film, and at least one of the Supporting nominees is really a lead role nominated here because it will stand-out. Ben Kingsley in ``Sexy Beast" so stands out in this way that it isn't even funny. McKellen is great, but ``Lord of the Rings" is going to be seen as an effects picture (incidentally I see it winning any Oscars it gets in the technical categories). I think Broadbent, who has had several good parts this year including ``Moulin Rouge" is in with a chance, but in the end I think Kingsley's brutal crook is going to get it.
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Connelly ``A Beautiful Mind", Helen Mirren ``Gosford Park", Maggie Smith ``Gosford Park", Marisa Tomei ``In the Bedroom", Kate Winslet ``Iris".
Prediction: Cancel out the two ``Gosford Park" nominations simply because of the perception that the tend to split the vote. Connelly is another of those ``leads in the supporting category" and might very well win, but don't be surprised if Marisa Tomei takes it. Even though her role doesn't stand up to Spacek's in terms of quality it still shows a range that she didn't have in ``My Cousin Vinny" and she won an Oscar in that.
Best Director: Ron Howard ``A Beautiful Mind", Ridley Scott ``Black Hawk Down", Robert Altman ``Gosford Park", Peter Jackson ``Lord of the Rings", David Lynch ``Mulholland Drive".
Prediction: It comes down to Howard and Altman, with Scott having an outside shot. I think they'll give it to Altman, as much as a Lifetime Achievement Award as for the movie, even though the movie is good. I don't think they want to end up with a situation like what happened with Hitchcock who never got the big prize (of course Hitch was never even nominated). I also think there's a prejudice against Ron Howard for his youth that is at least as big as the one against Spielberg that was only broken when he created a movie that they couldn't ignore. ((This is THE most fascinating category for me. I can easily concoct arguments and scenarios where EACH of these wins. I think Ron Howard will win on the ``political'' scenario where he just is so likable. Sorry, but he is. But any of them could win and I'll be watchin'.))
Animated Film: ``Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius", ``Monsters Inc.", ``Shrek".
Prediction: ``Shrek". I don't think that even Disney has any hope of ``Monsters Inc." winning - they certainly weren't pushing their nomination with advertising dollars. This whole category is a problem though. ``Shrek" is a good enough movie to have had a shot at a nomination in the Best Picture category, following in a long line all the way back to ``Snow White" in 1937. (Did you know that ``Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" held the box office record until ``Gone With The Wind", and Disney wasn't charging the higher road show prices for this movie?) The problem was always that there were never enough animated movies released to justify a new category (maybe one a year, usually from Disney) the Academy was never going to nominate an animated film - a CARTOON - for the Best Picture of the year. You couldn't even stick them in with the rest of the cartoons because the category is very specifically Animated Short Subject, a distinction dating back to the time when studios actually released animated - and live action - shorts.
| Brent McKee, bmckee of the.link.ca |
Steve Langley (Sun, 17 Mar 2002 23:16:13 EST)
``Ice Age" - a movie
This is a kid's movie. At least all the kids in the audience seemed to love it. The story is a simple one. A band of saber tooth tigers are out for revenge against the human tribe that has been killing them so effectively. The top cat decided that the perfect revenge would be to eat the baby child of the tribe's top hunter.
He assigns the task of bringing him the child to Diego (Dennis Leary). In the mean time Manfred Mammoth and Sid the Sloth are traveling together. The child falls into their care. Sid wants to return the baby to its tribe. Manfred would just as soon do without either of them. But when Diego tries to take the baby off their hands Manfred decides to keep him.
Lots of physical gags to do with snow and ice and taking care of the baby. The four bond. The kids in the audience loved it. So did I.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((Yeah, I thought this was surprisingly a lot of fun. Plus, there were lots of ``old people'' jokes that the kids couldn't possibly have gotten and a lot of homages to Chuck Jones. Ray Romano didn't sound at all like ``Raymond'' and the guy who did Sid the Sloth had a perfect voice for the part - I heard him interviewed where he said that he tried over forty different inflections, accents and mannerisms until he found the right one. He also said that none of the principles EVER were in the same room together. Sheesh, you coulda fooled me, seamless sound editing!!!))
Steve Langley (Sun, 17 Mar 2002 23:04:57 EST)
``Showtime" - a movie
Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo, and William Shatner (as himself).
De Niro is ``Mitch Preston" a police detective who is having a really bad night. His drug sting is destroyed by `` `Ice' Trey Sellers" a patrolman who wants to be an actor, and several news coptors who come to hover over the action. When a TV cameraman gets in his way while he is pursuing a man with a really big gun it is sort of the last straw. Mitch shoots the cameraman in his camera.
Rene Russo is ``Chase Renzi" who is a producer looking for a show to produce. She sees in Mitch a real cop with more nitty and gritty than any television cop. She convinces her cable TV outlet to pressure Mitch into doing a show. She and her cameras will follow him around 24/7 recording all the loose cannon things he does.
They decide that he needs a funny minority sidekick, and Trey sets up a fake crime to audition for the role. ((This is TOTALLY obvious, but TOTALLY hysterical!!!))
After following Mitch around for a while they discover that he is really dull. Enter William Shatner to coach Mitch and Trey into being more exciting TV cops. ((And Shatner nearly steals the movie at times. He is playing himself and thus playing the actor that once was T.J. Hooker. I never saw that show, but this came across PERFECTLY anyway.))
In the meantime the man with the really big gun (it shoots Uranium bullets) is still out there.
This was a funny movie. Not a funny cop movie so much as a funny TV cop movie. Between Eddie Murphy over acting whenever he was `on camera' and De Niro getting stiff as a board at the same time, and Rene Russo making outrageous changes to Mitch's life, and Shatner as a cop coach, this was a funny movie.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((They stole some scenes and bits from that movie that Rene Russo made with.... was it Clint Eastwood, but I won't be specific so as not to ruin the movie. And the climactic money shot was telegraphed a mile away but also was still hilarious. I found this totally entertaining and didn't care how predictable it was.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 10 Mar 2002 22:25:38 EST)
``The Time Machine" - a movie
Once again Guy Pearce has blown me away. His easily distracted absentminded professor is about as far from his degenerate nobleman "Count of Monte Cristo" character as you can get, and he is thoroughly convincing in both roles. ((And don't forget his role in Memento!!!))
Given that, the movie itself has a serious problem trying to decide what it is about. It starts out being about Alex Hartdegan (Guy Pearce) inventing the time machine to go back in time to keep his one true love from dying. The original story as written by H. G. Wells was about a young man who invents a time machine and travels far into the future to meet and rescue his one true love.
The movie tries to give us both. That is one true love too many. Alex is the type of character who only has one true love in a lifetime. I can't see him giving up on trying to change the past just because the Uber Morlock tells him he can't. The reason given was pretty lame.
Most of the movie was about the H. G. Wells story. If the writers had just left off the plot device to motivate the building of the machine it would have been a better movie.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((Agreed. This was OK, but not stellar. Orlando Jones has a very small, but really fascinating role. And the costumes and portrayal of turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century New York was really good, though the need to transport the location there was motivated by silly small tie-in issues in the later time travel moments.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 10 Mar 2002 22:11:54 EST)
``We Were Soldiers" - a movie
Thanks to Tim King's review I decided to see this film.
Gripping comes to mind. Searching for ways to describe the film. Definitely gripping. The movie makes no bones about showing that war is about blood and dying, blood and killing, but mostly about blood.
It starts with a small group of the French Army being ambushed by the Vietnamese. The French had held Vietnam as an occupied country for around 100 years. In all that time the Vietnamese tried to drive them back out of their land. According to the list that Hal Moore made the French made several mistakes. They were not on their own terrain, they had poor intelligence about the location and strength of the enemy, they underestimated the quality of the enemy troops, they were badly outnumbered, they were massacred.
Hal Moore was selected to lead some of the first American troops into battle against the Vietnamese. He was selected because he was considered to be the sort of leader who would lead his troops into the teeth of death without hesitation. Brave but not too bright. One who considered himself immortal.
His troops were green. Even most of his officers were without any battle experience. He was ordered into a battle where every item in the list he had made about the French was true. He had no intelligence. He was going into a place that the enemy had chosen for an ambush. His troops were badly outnumbered, and the enemy had been fighting their war for over twenty years. They were battle hardened.
This movie is about what makes a warrior. Hal Moore out thought and out fought the enemy general. Despite having green men he managed to pull them together and keep more of them alive than was considered possible.
Despite some really poor back echelon orders he managed to win the first battle that American troops fought in Vietnam.
Gripping.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 9 Feb 2002 19:01:20 EST)
``Rollerball" a movie
Two movies actually. The first ``Rollerball" was a big action flick in the mid-seventies. The then story was about corporate Amerika controlling the world. It did so in part with the media exploitation of a blood sport called Rollerball. Part of the corporate premise was that there had to be lots of action and excitement but no stars. Stars gave people heroes, and heroes might lead to unrest. Not a truly logical premise. When James Caan's ``Jonathan E" became a star the powers that be upped the level of violence in order to take him out. Of course he turned out to be tougher and faster and stronger and ... you get the idea. So corporate Amerika didn't win and there was a hero. No mention of subsequent unrest.
No mention either of why didn't corporate Amerika just retire him like it wanted to and be done with it. After all, they did control the media. Ship him off to a private hospital, tell his fans he needs the rest. Later tell the fans he has decided to retire to a private south seas island. Pictures of him, taken from a great distance frolicking on a beach. End of problem.
``Rollerball 2002" is pretty much the same story without the obvious flaws. This time it takes place in the third world where Jean Reno (Alexi Petrovich) who doesn't own things, he owns the people who own things, is trying to launch Rollerball as the next big TV sport. In order to boost ratings he arranges for players to have bloody accidents while on camera. Chris Klein (Jonathan Cross) is an adrenaline junky who went to play rollerball when San Francisco got too hot for him following a skateboard luge race through traffic.
Jonathan is a natural athlete (a trait common to adrenaline junkies who live) and is a star. Jean Reno loves that about him. Jonathan raises the ratings. But when Jonathan and friends discover that the accidents that have been removing teammates aren't accidents they decide to leave. Reno can't let that happen. It's as much an ego thing as an economic thing.
The movie itself is part movie, part music video, with strong heavy metal accentuating the action. Lots of action. Better end to the story, too.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I haven't seen this one yet, but I love Jean Reno, he is loads of fun to watch, even in bad movies.))
Steve Langley (Sat, 16 Mar 2002 19:42:19 EST)
``Resident Evil" - a movie
``Resident Evil" won awards as a video game. Not my sort of video game. It is a shooter. I am not a shooter sort of game player. Given that I was having thoughts of going out and getting the game while watching the movie.
There is a story. The evil corporation `Umbrella' is doing illegal experiments with gene manipulation and viruses. Supposedly these are war related. Considering that the gene manipulation creates monsters and the virus turns dead people into hungry zombies you have to wonder just who the war would be against.
Anyway, `Alice' (Milla Jovich) wakes up in luxury with no memory of who she is and what she is doing there. Milla Jovich managed to communicate the amnesia and confusion without saying a word. I was impressed.
Soon there are black suited commando types crashing through windows, and much to her amazement, they seem to know who she is. She still doesn't but she starts to get flashes of memory.
``The Red Queen" the AI computer that runs the secret research complex has shut it down and apparently killed the entire staff. The commandoes are going in to shut down the computer. They take Alice along.
I suspect the movie works a lot like the game. There are lots of rooms and levels. There are lots of monsters and traps.
Good action. The story is revealed in snippits while the action moves everyone along. Not a great movie, but fun.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Richard Weiss (Mon, 4 Mar 2002 18:18:25 -0800)
Dear Jim;
I have four tickets to the first round NCAA madness that will occur in Sacramento next week. Soon I'll know who's playing and decide whether to sell or hold to see the games myself. I bought them on speculation nearly a year ago. There are still tickets available for sale, however, so don't know if there will be any purchasers.
I became a H.S. basketball official this year - men's and women's freshman and JV games. I had a lot of fun, made a little money, learned a lot and felt good about giving something back to a great sport for kids. Because of that, and my son's abilities, I've paid a little more attention to the collegians this year. I watched college games while biking on a semi-recumbent bike with a whistle in my mouth, practicing blowing my whistle, dropping it out of my mouth and raising up either my clenched fist or my open hand (foul or violation).
I've seen most of the top ranked teams at least once, and don't like the anyone of them completely. Gonzaga can't make it through. I am guessing Duke will, but would bet on ``the field" against any of the favorites.
Music. I saw a number of live performances this year, almost all in little bars. I did see the Counting Crows (nearly my all-time favorite Pop album) and they were at a spread out winery venue and it was awful. I saw Melissa Etheridge alone and she took the top performance and most enjoyable show awards this year and for quite a few years back. She was dynamite.
Of the off-label, little, blues or local bands - none stands out as one who will make it through or greater than the fun of the moment.
I can't believe I've seen all of the oscar nominated best pictures other than Tolkien's (bad mistake when a kid to avoid the books because I thought they were a fad like Harry Potter or the Smurfs. Not quite as bad as delaying to learn how to play frisbee because it also was a fad). A Beautiful Mind was my favorite and had the greatest effect on me. In the Bedroom was so dark and non-entertaining until thinking and discussing it later that I can't believe it will win. While I love Altman, and this was his best in a while, I can't believe it will win either. Which means that Lord of the Rings or A Beautiful Mind. I like the thought that ABM will win and then Denzel will win Best Actor.
Interesting story about the collegians and brain radiation. ((Thanks.... I thought YOU would appreciate it most.))
I was glad to read something from Mark Lew, although such a little about politics and only a touch of the Byzantine! Billy Beane is great and the A's are great for all of the reasons mentioned in his letter, plus they use the supplemental draft picks for losing free agents very wisely. I listen to a lot of sports radio talk shows and lots of baseball games (both the A's and the Giants) and knew nothing, nor care nothing, if Billy Beane is gay.
The Giants have some awesome broadcasting personnel with John Miller back, McCarver joining them and the former voice of the Padres and Marlins returning to the Bay. Plus, they have put their team together to win this year. It should be a fun year for baseball in NorCal again this year. Even with Jeff Kent breaking his wrist while washing his car - falling off the cab roof of his SUV while scrubbing it in a commercial car wash!
| S'later, Richard, richardweiss of mindspring.com |
((Always fun to hear from you! It seems likely, given the new NCAA rules, that you will get a Pac 10 team like Stanford in Sacramento as a draw. I love Jeff Kent as a player and am a HUGE Giants fan, as I think you know..... how could he do that!!! I thought it was a joke at first (the backup goalie for the Bruins was said to have broken his foot ``stepping off a curb" when he really kicked a bar wall or something like that last year). We had a great time playing Dip over the weekend, but could have used you! One of the players threw his back out and couldn't move. We had to call for an ambulance!))
Richard Weiss (Tue, 5 Mar 2002 14:6:36 -0800)
Jim;
I was thinking about the email I sent to you regarding music experiences of the past year, specifically the comment about the Counting Crows concert and local musicians. I believe that there are only two things that I can control in life. One is my attitude. The second is my attributions - primarily unto others, such as attribution of intention of their actions, their attitudes, etc. These beliefs have grown in substantiation over my decades reading about the human brain, consciousness and emotions. The most recent ``best" book in this evolution was ``The General Theory of Love," by Lewis, and two others.
As such, any given band was neither great nor terrible, my experience was great or terrible. In general, I do not have a great experience in a large venue. Melissa Etheridge was in a venue of about 5,000 and that is way pushing the boundaries - yet she captivated even at that distance. U2 could not captivate me at stadium seating distances and venues - no matter whether they played greatly or not, so I prefer to listen to them on a CD.
I did not wish to denigrate any local bands I saw in small clubs - and the times I experienced which were fabulously wonderful. Sort of like Erin singing while looking in your eyes. I know you share much of my sentiment in this regard, so onward.
Bush announcing 30% tariffs on steel imports?!? We have a secret, shadow administrative government in bunkers that the Congress doesn't know about?!? We disallow people kidnapped from their homeland who we house in miniscule cages the rudiments of their religion by banning sheets into turbans?!? We are going to pay peanut farmers $1.3 billion to accept $3 billion in subsidies to not grow peanuts?!? What will I have to eat now on short airplane flights? I have trouble attributing anything much rationale into the Cheney-Dubya government other than, get what you can get for the military-industrial complex while the getting seems good.
I am still daydreaming, but dawdling, about killing two birds with one stone by attending DipCon in Chapel Hill.
| S'later, Richard, richardweiss of mindspring.com |
((I hope I can print the follow up too! Yes, what I call the ``experience" issue is ``context". That is one of my new favorite words. I try to talk about music in my personal context, because that's what matters to me and you never see me put ``***" on CD's because I think they are inherently evil..... well, not really, but you get my drift. Wait until you see a discussion I have in the next issue.....))
Richard Weiss (Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:22:52 -0800)
Jim; A lovely spring weekend here.
On Friday night I went to the Fillmore to see ``Hot Tuna." Mostly to get a poster since their first album is in my shortest stack of CDs - the ones I listen to the most. Cassady and Kaukonen have been playing together for approximately 40 years and as a duet for at least 35. That alone was fairly remarkable. My girlfriend was a negative contribution to the context - telling me that her stomach was bothering her, she doesn't like feeling closed in by people (new to me) and that she had blocked out the part that we would have to stand up during the performance. Added to that was my sore tooth, just having eaten my first meal after my first ever colonoscopy (screening, no tics, no polyps, all normal - thank you. Highly recommended for everyone 50 and over at least every 10 years) and the nearly non-existent eye contact between the performers and the crowd. Positive contexual aspects were lots of happy people, lots of motion/dancing and being within 40 feet of the stage.
Before the first set, there was soft music in the background that I identified as Tom Waits. I wondered who picks the music and if there was a connection such as Marin County. During the first set I thought I heard Jorma (K) playing some rifts from Ali Farka Toure. During intermission I told Patty about my perception and asked if she had noticed. Then I realized that the intermission music was Ali Farka Toure. I had taken her to see him/them last year. And I still wonder who chooses the background music.
I realized while waiting for the show that I had neglected to mention ``Mississippi Radio" as my local favorite band and the band I've heard many, many times this year. The guitar player loves the blues and covers many styles. He is also the co-owner of the bar and with his brother, another in SF. I think he could move on in the world of music but never will.
| S'later, Richard, richardweiss of mindspring.com |
Richard Weiss (Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:31:36 -0800)
Jim; March Madness pairings out. I will be seeing Indiana-Utah; USC-UNCW (one of the schools I have attended, along with Oregon that is in the madness); and then the Midwest pod of Montana-Oregon and Wake Forest-Pepperdine. I don't think either USC or ON will have much trouble getting to the Sweet 16.
CAL and Stanford both got in but are going far away. Perhaps there will be some buyers for the Thursday games. The fun is on;
| S'later, Richard, richardweiss of mindspring.com |
John Harrington (Tue, 19 Mar 2002 18:27:43)
On the subject of Sir Isaac Newton (sort of) I saw an excellent documentary on Archimedes on the BBC last night which I hope makes it over to the US. I always knew he was a brilliant and innovative mathematician but the documentary last night indicated that he had practically invented calculus 2,000 PLUS years ago but his writings were obscured by monks who recycled his parchments for what they considered more important work. Luckily through modern techniques we have been able to read Archimedes' writings underneath the scribblings of the monks. The programme wondered how different the world would have been had this information been available in the Renaissanace period. I expect Da Vinci might have had a passing interest. Ditto Sir Isaac.
| Regards, John, johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk |
((Neat, I think all of that mathematics history is tremendously fascinating. I do recall hearing that story before at some level, but I'll watch for the documentary! Note the date on my exchange with Rick up next, I'm gonna embarrass myself by admitting how badly I did this year.... but I am still optimistic that Rick and I have picked the winner!))
Rick Desper (Thu, 14 Mar 2002 11:07:57 -0500 (EST))
NCAA picks
Well, here they come. The West is stacked!
I think it's best to start with a vague idea of which teams could be Final Four teams, and which could win it all. ((Agreed, I did that and came up with the following.... in the South obviously Duke should be the favorite, but I am convinced they will lose in the Regional Final, but to who? Why NOT Alabama? I am going to bet ``yes'' on Brandin Knight's injury for Pitt and count them out, though Alabama is going to have to get by a tough Kent State team. No one else there can beat Duke (though I really like Penn!!). In the West, I like Oklahoma, Cinci, and Ohio State as possibles for the Final Four, but Ohio State will have to get by Missouri (who will surprise Miami) and Cinci will have to get by a tough matchuup with that team or even UCLA or Miss. Gosh, that bracket is TOTALLY stacked. I like Oklahoma to keep their Conference Tournament momentum going. In the Midwest, I am very confident of Oregon making it by anyone who they will face. I like W. Kentucky to knock off Kansas, but if not them, Florida or Illinois so they won't even face Oregon. Then the East is SO obviously UConn and Maryland's to win or lose. That Regional Final will be the Great Regional Final war that will recall Duke/Kentucky and other famous battles over the years. I think Maryland will get by that to take it all.))
West: Cincinnati should cruise to the Sweet Sixteen. Picking 8/9 games is pointless - you might as well flip a coin. Buckeyes should cruise past Davidson. Buckeyes vs. either Miami or Mizzou is intriguing - I will play it safe and go with OSU. I still can't figure out if Mizzou will beat Miami - that's a good upset to go with. ((I had that one....))
The other half of the West has easy 1st round games to pick: Gonzaga over Wyoming, Arizona over UCSB, Xavier over Hawaii, and Oklahoma over Arizona. The winner of the West could be Arizona, Oklahoma, or Cincinnati. Gonzaga would likely have to beat all three of them. ((I liked Gonzaga to beat Arizona, but they didn't get there to do it. Oklahoma will make short work of Arizona who will be REALLY, REALLY strong next year.))
Poor Gonzaga some people. After all, they were rated in the Top Six. The question, though, is why? Why were they rated so highly? They didn't beat anybody of notice. They lost to both Marquette and Illinois, the only moderately good teams they played. Connecticut played a much tougher schedule, and managed to beat some good teams (Pitt, Arizona, Notre Dame,...). But they were ranked 24th at the end of the season? What's up with that? ((In retrospect these words were very, very wise.))
Poll voters are very lazy.
Anyway, Arizona is too good to lose to Gonzaga. I think. In any case, Oklahoma is the real team to beat in the whole region. I take Oklahoma over 'Zona and Cincinnati over OSU in the Regional Semis, and then Oklahoma to the Final Four. ((Agreed. I had that before the tournament started and I'm still there, but I totally blew Gonzaga as an upset special.))
Midwest:
So, given his most talented team ever, how is Roy Williams going to screw up this year? Will it be Western Ky. in the second round? Illinois in the 3rd? Oregon or Miss. State in the Regional Finals? I don't know, but I know they'll screw up somehow. Taking that as a given, I'll take the Ducks to the Final Four. Only upsets of note are Pepperdine over Wake and W. Ky over Stanford. BC against Texas is very tempting, but I'll pass. ((I thought it WOULD be W. Kentucky, but once Stanford won, I knew Stanford couldn't beat Kansas, so it's for Illinois to do it. I know BC well, and I knew that was NOT an upset special. I should have seen that Texas would also beat Miss. St. but Texas WON'T beat Oregon.))
East:
Why did UConn get put in the regional with Maryland? Boo-hoo, I thought they would match up much better against Duke. I like Maryland this year. A lot of talent, quickness, and size. Early upsets? I'll take the Salukis of So. Illinois over Texas Tech and Michigan State over NC State. Go with Maryland, Marquette, Georgia, and UConn in the Sweet Sixteen, and Maryland over UConn to reach the Final Four. Georgia/UConn could be a very interesting game. ((Yeah, I actually think seeded differently I would have picked Maryland and UConn to play a great national championship game, but we have the game to look forward to on March 24, Sunday, in the Carrier Dome. Be there or be square, greatest game of the year for sure. I got the Salukis to go Sweet 16 and then lose to UConn. Calhoun has his team SO tournament ready. He has to with Auriemma going with the Women's team for it all!! I also thought Marquette would go Sweet 16, but Kentucky is surprising me. Could they screw us both up and beat Maryland??? Nah, but if they do then we can both root for UConn!!!))
South:
There is nothing to stop Duke here. Can you see Alabama beating Duke in a regional final? I can't. Maybe Pitt if Brandin Knight hadn't hurt himself last week. But when it comes to tournament time, Duke has three tremendous advantages: (a) the best coach, (b) the best point guard, (c) good veteran teamwork.
Early upsets? I'll go with Kent State over Ok. State and Utah over Indiana. 'Bama, Pitt, USC, and Duke roll into the Sweet Sixteen. USC could give Duke headaches, but the Dukies will prevail over them and over 'Bama to reach the Final Four yet again (much to everyone's annoyance). ((I'm now firmly on Brandin Knight's and Pitt's back. They can do it, I hate Duke, I hate Duke, I hate Duke. Jason Williams did make some free throws, can he keep it up? No.))
Final Four: Duke vs. Oklahoma is intriguing. I'll go with Duke because of their experience. (Actually, I think the Bearcats would have a better chance against Duke, but Bob Huggins is one of those coaches whose teams always underwhelm in the tournament.) Other side: Maryland over the Ducks simply because the Terps have too much talent.
That leads to the long-anticipated final: Duke vs. Maryland. Maryland is the better team, but Duke is better-coached and more consistent. I think Maryland will throw the monkey off the back and win it. ((And I think Maryland will beat Oklahoma.))
In making my picks, I try to keep in mind who's been in the tournament recently, which coaches are known choke-artists, and which coaches tend to do very well. Good tournament coaches include Jim Calhoun, Mike Kryzwewski, John Chaney (alas, not in), Rick Majerus, Rick Pitino (another miss), Tubby Smith and whoever is coaching Gonzaga. Weak coaches include Lute Olson, Jim Boeheim (a pass this year), Roy and Gary Williams.
Oh heck, I'll pick Gonzaga over Arizona after all. That game is driving me nuts!
| Rick, desper of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
Rick Desper (Mon, 18 Mar 2002 15:46:36 -0500 (EST))
- Bob Huggins said that UCLA didn't play like an 8 seed. If that's true, then Missouri hasn't played anything like a 12 seed! I think Mizzou should be favored over UCLA, and could give Oklahoma a very good game. Kudos to Goz and Tim Richardson for nailing the UCLA over Cincinnati upset.
- Kansas really looked quite vulnerable against Holy Cross. I could see anybody coming from the Midwest, except Texas. I had initially picked Oregon, and then reverted to going with Kansas, the ``safer" pick. My Midwest bracket didn't do so bad.
- Duke looked very beatable against Notre Dame, a team which was, IMHO, underseeded. But I'm still not that impressed by the other teams in their bracket. I think there are probably 8 teams in the West who would have been more of a threat to Duke than the three left in the South, and that includes, of course, all four that are left in the West. Having seen Kent State play so well thus far, I would favor them over Pitt, a team which really didn't face a lot of competition this year. ((No, no, no. You didn't see enough of Brandin Knight. He is a ``take the team on the back and ride me'' player. That's why I was so worried about the injury. And Pitt's defense might be the best in the country.))
- Maryland is still the strongest overall team in the tournament. I think they have too many weapons for Kentucky, and I'll stick with my original prediction that they beat UConn in the Elite Eight. That particular game, if it happens, could represent great problems for me. I should root for UConn, but I picked Maryland in all my pools (and got some flak for it from the local Maryland alums, but hey, I want to win the pool.)
- All four of my Final Four teams are still around. I'll stick with my earlier predictions: Duke over Oklahoma, Maryland over Kansas, and then Maryland over Duke, but if I could reconsider, I would pick Oklahoma over Duke (but not Maryland). You're right to say that Duke is very vulnerable. They simply don't have much of an inside game, and I can't believe that Jason Williams is such a poor free throw shooter.
-ESPN.com has a ``second chance" tournament which people might want to get into. It involves only picking the games from here on out.
| Rick, desper of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
((Does ESPN have that ``second chance" tournament up yet? It didn't last I looked. I have been VERY, VERY poor this year at my picks. And I say that even if I ultimately get UConn on the Women's side and Maryland on the Men's side right. I really shouldn't have gone with the ``Knight is injured" crowd on Pitt, I think now that they are going Final Four as the fourth team to go with Oregon, Maryland, and Oklahoma. I didn't get my final picks into the ESPN site, as you probably saw, but my last few changes didn't help me much. I did want Oregon, Maryland, Oklahoma and Alabama to be my final four picks and only Alabama is out there. After studying Cincinnati it became clear that I was overrating them. Thanks, Rick, one more update on Eric Klien, and then I'll probably let this rest for awhile.... don't bet against Mr. Klien!!!))
Eric Klien (Tue, 5 Mar 2002 05:51:52 -0800)
LIFEBOAT NEWS - Subscribe at http://lifeboat.com/newsletter.cgi
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WORLD NEWS
ITEM 1: An innocent sounding article on Reuters called ``Cyberbabes and Orgasmatrons Heat Up the Future" pointed to predictions by a respected British Telecommunications white paper that New York City and Washington D.C. could be nuked at any time by terrorists and that within three years we could run into difficulties such as ``accidental creation of lethal organism during research", ``deliberate biotech self-destruct by malicious biotech researcher", and ``terrorism rises beyond capability of government systems". For further information go to: www.btexact.com/white_papers/downloads/WP106.pdf
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Dear Jim-Bob,
The story about the lawyers and the cigars can't be true. The standard fire policy language excludes any loss that is the result of an intentional act on the insured's part (most types of coverage have such a clause in the standard form.) It's hard to imagine that an underwriter would have written an endorsement to eliminate that exclusion.
| Eric, 72060.1540 of compuserve.com |
((Of course, for that and many other reasons, I said that it wasn't true.))
| LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK |
2000G, Lawyers not wanted, Fall 1909
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com
A BOHEMIA support A Tyrolia - Munich, F TRIESTE - Adriatic , A RUMANIA hold A Tyrolia - MUNICH, A Armenia - SMYRNA, A SERBIA sup A Albania - Trieste, A ALBANIA - Trieste, A GREECE hold, F EAST MEDITERRANEAN - Aegean A Galicia - VIENNA
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com
F KIEL - Holland, F ENGLISH CHANNEL - London, A RUHR - Kiel A PIEDMONT support Italian A Venice, F MID ATLANTIC - English Channel, A munich (dislodged) support A Ruhr - Kiel, F BELGIUM - Holland,
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of TheWorld.com
F TYRRHENIAN SEA support F Tunis - Ionian Sea, F IONIAN SEA - Aegean Sea, A VENICE support French A Piedmont, F TUNIS - Ionian, A PORTUGAL hold, F APULIA - Adriatic Sea
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com BrendanM of imclone.com
F NORTH SEA convoy A Norway - London, A PRUSSIA support A Berlin, A Warsaw - UKRAINE, A Ukraine - SEVESTOPOL, A NORWAY - London A MOSCOW support A Warsaw - Ukraine, F Norwegian sea - NORTH ATLANTIC, F North Atlantic - IRISH SEA, A Livonia - DENMARK, A BERLIN hold, F BALTIC SEA convoy A Livonia - Denmark
Winter 1909 supply center chart
Austria 11 + 1 took Munich; Smyrna, Contantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ankara, Trieste, Rumania, Munich
France 7 even (+1 if retreat off board) Lost Munich, took Kiel; Brest, Paris, London, Belgium, Marseilles, Holland, Kiel
Italy 6 even; Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Portugal
Russia 10 - 1 Lost Kiel; Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, 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!
Note that Buddy's ``sample game'' of Air Sea Diplomacy starts in this issue. I do have a copy of the rules and I will print them next issue.
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!
Right now, the other thing I am contemplating getting going is the Modern Diplomacy game with Wings. Rick Desper is the only one signed up for that.
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/
| I CAN'T FIND MY MONEY!: 2001F, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1902 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
Winter 1901
AUSTRIA (Lockheardt): bld a bud, a vie; has a BUD, a VIE, a SER, a GAL, f GRE.
ENGLAND (Heikkinen): bld f lvp, f lon; has f LVP, f LON, f BEL, f NWG, a NWY.
FRANCE (Mitchell): bld a par, f bre; has a PAR, f BRE, f POR, a SPA, a BUR.
GERMANY (Sayers): bld a ber; has a BER, f SWE, a HOL, a RUH.
ITALY (Méhkeri): bld a ven, f nap; has a VEN, f NAP, f ION, a MUN, a TUN.
RUSSIA (Desper): has f GOB, a UKR, a WAR, f SEV.
TURKEY (Miller): bld f smy; has f SMY, f BLA, a BUL, a ARM. F Smy
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: Rick Desper, 319 West Side Dr., #102 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(301) 977-7691, rick_desper of yahoo.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) Thanks, Rick, you're in, obviously.
Press:
(RUSSIA - > GM): Gee, thanks for this position.
(BOOB to RICK): You're quite welcome, it's yours.
(RUSSIA - > AUSTRIA): Since I was shanghaied into playing this game, I'm not going to make any attempt to contact other than via email. But I will do a little better than only public press. But, to answer your questions in that letter:
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) No
4) apricot jam
5) Yes, he is a little funny looking
6) but no, I've never thought he had bad breath.
7) Naomi Watts, of course ((Of course....))
8) Yes
9) Maybe; and
10) whistling ``Bridge on the River Kwai"
(RUSSIA - > GERMANY): Just what are you doing in Sweden anyway? Shouldn't you be writing me or something?
(RUSSIA - > ITALY): Hi there! Germany doesn't seem very friendly to me, does he?
(RUSSIA - > FRANCE): One of you guys is going to have to fill me in on the goings-on.
(RUSSIA - > GM): This morning, I heard Ashley Judd call up the Car Talk guys on NPR. And then, a few hours later, I saw her rooting for Kentucky as they made the Sweet Sixteen. Coincidence? I think not!
Silencio.
Silencio.
(BOOB to RUSSIA): Are those your moments of silence for Ashley Judd, Click and Clack, the fate of Tubby Smith, or the knuckleheads in this game???
(RUSSIA - > BOARD): Any of you knuckleheads going to DixieCon/DipCon?
(BOOB to RUSSIA): I should have known.... hey, you E-Mail types, how do you manage to play 48 hour games when you can't communicate in three WEEK games?? And EVERYONE should go to DixieCon, even if I don't manage to make it.
(RUSSIA - > TURKEY): Tim, I suggest going to your Diplomacy encyclopedia and scanning the `Lep' pages. I hope you have had the sense to build a fleet on the Med.
(TURKEY to ALL): This space should be filled with something witty, but I've just had 4 finals in 3 days, so I'm too tired to write it.
(BOOB to ALL): OK, we'll let the blurbist fill the witticism quotient then. Though clearly Tim has his encyclopedic knowledge straight. If you guys don't keep up with the Blurbist I'll have to give you all two minutes in the penalty box for tripping!
(BLURBIST to HIGH-BROW LITERARY CIRCLES): I was recently reviewing Harold G. Henderson's four rules for composing classic Japanese haiku-laid out in his ``Haiku in English," Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1967- when it struck me that the haiku is the perfect poetical forum for Diplomacy.
Why? Well, let's review good Mr. Henderson's rules. The first one, dictating the 5-7-5 syllable/line format, is largely irrelevant to Diplomacy (although I am sure Pope Fool could spot some nonsense on its relevancy). ((Did you mean ``spout''? Watch out, Fool needs LITTLE provocation to go off on a major league tangent.))
However the second rule states that the haiku ``contains at least some reference to nature (other than human nature)." This may also seem hardly relevant until we read ahead and learn that: ``The reference to nature is not always direct. Classical haiku almost all contain so-called `season words' which may be connected be connected with a particular season only by convention."
``Season words" . . . Well, is not Diplomacy constructed about the four seasons? And are not ``season words" something of which the vernacular of Diplomacy is chock-full? For instance, ``build" is obviously a season word for ``winter. Also, ``stab" could be considered a season word for fall, as it is generally held that spring stabs are poor form. For summer, perhaps ``regroup" as spring losses are exploited for fall gains, and for spring perhaps ``depart" as all the newly mustered units bid farewell to their loved ones back in the home centers.
However, as mentioned by Mr. Henderson, season words are the product of convention. Once the genre of ``Diplomacy Haiku" begins to flower, the conventions that bud may present us with words that are not immediately evident, but still powerfully evocative of the game's cycles. ((Oooooeeeee, I'm so deep now that I'll never claw my way out. This is incredible stuff!!!))
Henderson's third rule reads that Japanese classical haiku ``refers to a particular event (i.e., it is not a generalization.)" War (and war games) are won by generals, not by generalizations. What more perfect format then with which to laud or lambaste our general's fortunes in battle?
The fourth rule, however, narrows our rejoicing or regret to their immediacy, commanding that the haiku ``presents that event as happening *now*-not in the past." The impression must be conveyed of the battlefield witness crystallizing the chaos before him into a readibly recognizable emotional note.
``Emotional" because, as defined by Mr. Henderson, the objective of the classical haiku in following the four tenets outlined above is to be ``a record of a moment of emotion in which human nature is somehow linked to all nature." In the case of Diplomacy Haiku, that nature to which the writer seeks a connection is the nature of the game: loss, gain, tactics, treachery, etc. ((But that's right, Diplomacy is THE game that is absolutely and profoundly all encompassing in that way. Diplomacy IS haiku!))
Allow me, then, to unveil this new genre by attempting a haiku for each of the powers in ``I Can't Find My Money." I shall limit the scope of my narration to the Fall 1901 season. Perhaps future seasons will inspire other writers to further explore the frontiers of this exciting literary movement. ((I hope so!))
Austria:
| ``The troops end their march |
| Shocked to find the DMZ |
| Unguarded, unwanted" |
England
| ``The sea's grey with cold |
| But the warm Belgian cocoa |
| Sheds the crossing's chill" |
France
| ``The courier leaves |
| But warm welcome awaits not |
| From the Aussies" |
Germany
| ``The last map is sketched |
| Munich is hurriedly drawn |
| In regretful strokes" |
Italy
| ``An icy wind blows |
| Down from the Tyroleans |
| Warm beer halls beckon" |
Russia
| ``The general sighs |
| The message sent to Moscow |
| Still awaits answer" |
Turkey
| ``Challenges shouted |
| From Black and Armenia |
| Receive Sev's silence" |
| SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1904 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
Winter 1903
AUSTRIA (Kent): has a BUD, a VIE.
ENGLAND (Sundstrom): bld f lon; has f LON, f ENG, f NTH, a BEL, f NWY, f MID.
FRANCE (Tretick): has f MAR, a MUN, a GAS, f SPA(SC), a PAR.
GERMANY (Williams): rem f bal, f den; has a KIE, a SIL, a RUH, a HOL.
ITALY (McCullough): bld a ven; has a VEN, f TYH, f TUN, a TRI, f WES.
RUSSIA (McHugh): bld a mos; has a MOS, a WAR, f SWE, a RUM, a GAL, f SEV.
TURKEY (Goesle): has a GRE, a BUL, f AEG, a SER, f CON, a ALB.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Doug Kent, 1404 E. Lamar Blvd #106, Arlington, TX 76011
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) 792-1998
flapjack48 of comcast.net
TURKEY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
gozcorp of iquest.net
Game Notes:
1) Warren Goesle is planning to move soon - no address update yet.
Press:
(PARIS): The Tri-color stills flies over the largest land area of Europe.
(PARIS to MOSCOW): Thanks for rushing to the aid of our Austrian allies. They can now stand toe-to-toe with the yellow menace from the South. Stand tall Baron, help is on the way.
(EL PRESIDENTE to KAISER): Are you ready to turn south and join the cause? Are you ready to talk?
(EL PRESIDENTE to GOZ): When are you going to stop talking and start fighting?
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1908 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1908 IS APRIL 27TH, 2002
Spring 1908
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a tri-SER, a VEN-apu, a tyo-VIE, a TUS-rom, f ROM-nap, a vie-BUD.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f eng-NTH, f GOL C GERMAN a spa-tus (nso), f TUN S f tyh,
f TYH s GERMAN a spa-tus (nso), a bel-HOL.
GERMANY (Shreve): a SIL S a ukr-gal, a MUN S a pie-tyo, a ukr-GAL, a BOH S a pie-tyo,
a pie-TYO, a PRU-sil, f mid-SPA(SC), a spa-TUS, a BUR h.
ITALY (Tallman): a POR h.
RUSSIA (Tretick): a STP S a lvn-mos, a lvn-MOS, a mos-UKR, f WES h,
a WAR S GERMAN a ukr-gal.
TURKEY (Acheson): f ank-BLA, a smy-ARM, f ION-tyh, a APU s AUSTRIAN a ven (otm),
f NAP s f ion-tyh, a SEV S a rum, a RUM S a sev, f AEG-ion.
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: Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Av., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA
racheson of magma.ca
Game Notes:
1) Seems like things were a bit screwed up between players this time. We'll see how it all sorts out in the fall....
Press:
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1759 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1759 IS APRIL 27TH, 2002
Spring 1759
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): a swisse-BURGUNDY, f BISMARCK SEA S f melbourne-coral sea,
f naples-WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA, a burgundy-PARIS, a BULGARIA S a istanbul,
a amazon-ECUADOR, a ISTANBUL S a greece-izmir, f melbourne-CORAL SEA,
f IONIAN SEA S f naples-western mediterranean sea, a bolivia-PERU,
a flanders-ANTWERP, a greece-IZMIR, f SAMOA S f melbourne-coral sea,
a RHINE S a flanders-antwerp, f EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA C a greece-izmir,
f TASMAN SEA S f melbourne-coral sea, a SAVOY S a swisse-burgundy,
f western mediterranean sea-LIGURIAN SEA, f TAHITI h.
CHINA (Acheson): f peking-YELLOW SEA, f amoy-EAST CHINA SEA, f yellow sea-KOREA,
f east china sea-TAIWAN, a CHINGHAI-sinkiang, a SINKIANG h,
f SOUTH CHINA SEA S f east china sea-taiwan, f SUBIC BAY s f west pacific ocean-philippine sea,
f MALAYA-andaman sea, a MAHRATTA-circars, a KASMIR S a chinghai-sinkiang,
f VLADIVOSTOK S f yellow sea-korea, a SIAM S a burma,
f WEST PACIFIC OCEAN-philippine sea, a BURMA S a siam, a BORNEO h,
a BENGAL-circars, a mongolia-OMSK, f JAPAN-west pacific ocean.
ENGLAND (Power): a BRAZIL S a argentina, f NORTH SEA S f norwegian sea-norway,
f NORWEGIAN SEA-norway, a MANAUS S SPANISH a colombia, a SUMATRA h,
f mid-atlantic ocean-GULF OF GUINEA, a ashanti-TOGO, f azores-MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN,
f ANDAMAN SEA-east indian ocean, f surinam-CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN, f VENEZUELA h,
f ontario-YUKON, f NEW ZEALAND-coral sea, a morocco-IFNI,
a antwerp-flanders (d ann), a GABON S SPANISH a fezan-congo, a RICEFE S f belem,
f HUDSON BAY S f ontario-yukon, f BAHIA S a brazil, f NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN-norwegian sea,
f patagonia-SW ATLANTIC OCEAN, a congo-UGANDA, a ARGENTINA S a brazil,
a GHANA h, f MALAY SEA S f andaman sea-east indian ocean, f english channel-HELGOLAND,
f BELEM S f surinam-central atlantic ocean.
OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): a BAGHDAD S a persia, f PERSIAN GULF s a persia,
a arabia-JERUSALEM, f izmir S a arabia-jerusalem (d ann), a PERSIA s a armenia (nsu).
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): f goa-WEST INDIAN OCEAN, a cape colony-NATAL,
a ANGOLA h, f BAY OF BENGAL-east indian ocean, f somali sea s a katanga-tanganyika
(d r:malagasy,mozambique,south indian ocean,otb), f BARENTS SEA S f norway,
f crimea-BLACK SEA, a kiev-URAL, f north pacific ocean C a hawaii-siberia
(d r:sea of okhotsk,gulf of alaska,siberia,east pacific ocean,otb), f KHANDESH-arabian sea,
a caucasus-ARMENIA, a HAWAII-siberia, f ARABIAN SEA-persian gulf,
f SE ATLANTIC OCEAN S a angola, f OREGON h, a lithuania-CRIMEA,
a ROMANIA h, a DENMARK-hanover, f JAVA S f bay of bengal-east indian ocean,
f VANCOUVER S f oregon, f PUNJAB S a afghanistan-persia, f NORWAY h,
a ural-KAZAKSTAN, a AFGHANISTAN-persia, a HANOVER-hague, a HAGUE-antwerp,
a katanga-TANGANYIKA, f ALASKA-yukon.
SPAIN (Partridge): f MANILA-subic bay, f mexico(wc)-CALIFORNIA,
f SOMALIA S f gulf of aden-somali sea, f GULF OF CALIFORNIA S
f california-north pacific ocean, f california-NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, f gulf of mexico-SARGASSO
SEA, f TOULON h, f PHILIPPINE SEA s f taiwan-east china sea, a HUELVA h, a MANITOBA
S a missouri-oregon, a PANAMA S a colombia, f GIBRALTAR-western mediterranean sea,
a taureg-TUNIS, f korea s f taiwan-east china sea (d r:sea of japan,otb),
f CARIBBEAN SEA S a colombia, f taiwan-east china sea (d ann), f yemen-GULF OF ADEN,
a ARAGON S f toulon, a BORDEAUX S f toulon, f gulf of aden-SOMALI SEA,
f SOLOMON SEA S f central pacific ocean-polynesia, a NUMIDIA S a tunis-libya,
f GULF OF PANAMA s f mexico(wc)-gulf of california (nso), a EGYPT S a tunis-libya,
f central pacific ocean-POLYNESIA, f SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN h, a LEON-aragon,
f ALGERIA S a taureg-tunis, f coral sea-ARAFURA SEA, a KENYA S ENGLISH a congo-uganda,
a COLOMBIA h, a fezan-CONGO, a tunis-LIBYA, a MISSOURI-oregon,
a libya-SUDAN, f VALENCIA-western mediterranean sea, f tarawa-CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,TRI,TAH,pps,sav, | (has 19) |
| ecu,peru,gre,sam,bol,bul,par, |
| MEL,NAP,fij,ist,bav,ven |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,NAN, | (has 19) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,nep,mah,sia, |
| bur,cam,ben,vla,MLA,bor |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,EDI,LON,kam,ire,gab,sum, | (has 26) |
| con,ant,uga,arg,togo,SUR,QUE, |
| gha,bel,vol,bah,BRA,DAK,vza, |
| ric,ont,ifn,azo,nwz,mor |
| OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): | IZM,BAG,oms,jer,persia | (has 4) |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 26 or 27 or 28) |
| 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, | (has 35 or 36) |
| cal,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) Let's see if I got it all right. You'll let me know if I didn't.
Press:
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1910 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
Winter 1909
ENGLAND (Sayers): has a GAS, f NAO, a KIE, f MID, f ENG, f HEL, f POR.
FRANCE (Sasseville): has f MAR h, f SPA(SC), a MUN, a BUR.
GERMANY (Barno): PLAYS ONE SHORT; has a VIE.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): R a war-LVN; has a MOS, a LVN, a SIL, f BER, a STP, a PRU.
TURKEY (Linsey): rem f con; has f ION, a BUD, a UKR, f WES, a SEV, f TYH,
a WAR, a TRI, f NAF, f TUN, f TUS, a PIE, f GOL, a GAL, a 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 cox.net and ICQ: 40565030
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) Quiet winter, as Mike plays one short.
Press:
| EDWARD TELLER: 2002?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1901 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1901 IS APRIL 27TH, 2002
Spring 1901
AUSTRIA (Schultz): f tri-ALB, a VIE-ser (imp), a bud-Gal (ann), and
nukes VEN, BUL(2), RUM(3), AEG(2), TUN.
ENGLAND (Rauterberg): f LON waits (h), f edi-NWG, a lvp-WAL, and
nukes ENG(2), RUH(2), GOB, SIL(2), BAL.
FRANCE (Muller): f bre-MID, a par-PIC, a mar-Spa (ann), and
nukes PIE, BUR(3), ENG(2), HOL, RUH(2).
GERMANY (Andruschak): f KIE h, a BER h, a MUN h, and
nukes HEL, TYO, BUR(3), SIL(2), PRU(2).
ITALY (Kendter): f nap-Tyh (ann), a rom-Ven (ann), a ven-Pie (ann), and
nukes SER, SPA, CON, RUM(3), BUR(3).
RUSSIA (McHugh): f stp(sc)-LVN, a mos-WAR, a war-UKR, f SEV h, and
nukes BUL(2), GAL, PRU(2), RUM(3).
TURKEY (Kenny): f ANK h, a con-Bul (ann), a SMY h, and
nukes BLA, AEG(2), ION, WES, TYH.
| Current Standings |
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | TOTAL |
| JOHN SCHULTZ |
| PAUL RAUTERBERG |
| KARL MULLER |
| HARRY ANDRUSCHAK |
| LEE KENDTER, JR. |
| JACK MCHUGH |
| SANDY KENNY |
| Black Holed | 8 | 8 |
| Neutral |
| Totals(eventually) | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 238 |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: John Schultz, 120 Pine Drive, Unit H, Porter, IN 46304, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
ENGLAND: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
FRANCE: Karl Muller, 75-17 60 Place, Glendale, NY 11385-6044, (718) 416-1103
karlmuller of alumni.lemoyne.edu or pegandkarl of mindspring.com
GERMANY: Harry Andruschak, 20805 Margaret, Carson, CA 90745-1224, (310) 835-9202
harryandruschak of aol.com
ITALY: Lee Kendter, Jr., 1503 Pilgrim Lane, Quakertown, PA 18951
lkendter of speakeasy.net
RUSSIA: Jack McHugh, P.O. Box 427, Claymont, DE 19703, (302) 792-8659
ckent7479 of yahoo.com or JMcHugh of genchemcorp.com
TURKEY: Sandy Kenny, 23 East Coulter Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 08108-1208 (609) 869-3160
pdkenny of net-gate.com
Game Notes:
1) We finally got all of you in here, and I guess you seem to understand the rules. Now things get tricky. In the Fall, you can SKIP over all of those black holes created by your nukes. This creates all sorts of fun stuff. There still is a summer press only deadline. Ask questions if you are unsure about what moves are possible. Just as a check, so you know what one possible set of moves is, Jack can use all four of his units and attack Sweden with three supports. Sweden is considered on the shores of the Black Sea, even though the Black Sea is no longer there now - actually Sweden is on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean or the Mid-Atlantic as well... Thus F Sev can move to Sweden. And, sorry, Lee, you miss out on all the fun. All three of your units are annihilated, so you have to wait until 1902, when you will be playing Russia. We'll all move DOWN the list of countries, so feel free to begin to play ahead. 26 centers left up for grabs, 20 of them home centers and owned at present, and six neutrals that could all be taken (only one of those unopposed), if I've counted right.
2) A couple of adjudication notes.... when you guys nuke the same province more than once, I put in parentheses the number of nukes that hit that spot, see Prussia above. Also, if your move to a space succeeds and THEN you are annihilated, I capitalize the first letter of that space where you are annihilated. The reverse happens if your move bounces where I capitalize the first letter of the place you started.
Press:
(FLAPJACK to JIM-BOB): Hey I got flapjack of comcast.net as an address too....woohooo!!! Do you have to watch the movie Dr. Strangleglove while doing your moves. (Extra credit to anyone who knows the subtitle....) ((Oh, I just love the bombs....))
(SARA-GM): Hi sweetie!
(BOOB to SARA): I didn't mean YOU were the bomb that we learned to love.
(FLAPJACK-MRS. SANDY): See how nice I am...I only nuke putrid neutrals who deserve to die. The future is to the strong...
(FLAPJACK-SGT. SCHULTZ): I bet your coffee pot isn't a bug for Klink's office right? By the way if we work together I can have LeBeau make you a nice strudel. No nukes is good nukes dude.
(FLAPJACK-KAISER HARRY): You know I love you man...that's why I want you to go West. I love you so much I want to share you with the other players.
(PAUL to GM): Maybe this game should be renamed to be: The George W. Bush Axis of Evil. Ridicule for the ridiculous.
(BOOB to PAUL): Sounds like it might be a good name for the next game.
(ITALY to THE WORLD): Well if someone at talked to me... I would not have hit almost everyone.
(BOOB to ITALY): But maybe they were talking ABOUT you.... you got fragged.... but don't worry, it's early yet.
(FLAPJACK-KING LEE): You're gonna keep Kaiser John busy, right...... no wait the other way..... damn... foiled again!
(FLAPJACK-KING PAUL): I love you too so but I heard Germany and France hate you. Hey, I'm trying to help.
(LONDON): I seem to always get burned (playing as England or France) if I don't cover the Channel. Well, it's covered. I expect that Nth might be nuked, but cheerio here I go....
(FLAPJACK-JIMBOOB): Am I loved or what????
(BOOB to FLAPJACK): You surely are loved.... just look at how you got EVERYONE to nuke the non-supply center provinces, thus neutralizing your nuclear deficit. Now we've got lots of units and lots of centers to go for. Have at it!!!
(ANDRUSCHAK-WORLD): An introduction for those new to this program. On 3 February an AA lady with 5 years sobriety died from liver cancer, leaving 7 cats behind. As part of the rescue mission, I was assigned two of the orphaned cats, Pearly and Tyler. They arrived 5 February and promptly went into hiding. I was told to leave out food and water, clean the litter trays daily, and wait for them to come out of their own free will.
For a few weeks things seemed OK. It would seem as if Pearly was using the downstairs litter tray and Tyler the upstairs litter tray. Small amounts of food were eaten, and they must have been drinking the water, since the results showed up in the litter trays.
Until last week. All of a sudden most of the can of Friskies Cat Food I was putting out every evening was being eaten by morning, and the results were evident in the upper litter tray. I have also glimpsed Tyler at night when I woke up suddenly. He was scampering out of my bedroom. I talked with some cat friends, and they think Tyler is now hiding under my bed in the box springs during the daytime. Of course I have been leaving the bedroom door open to allow him in and out. It was suggested that I NOT to try to find Tyler under the bed, but just let him be and let him continue to adjust to his new home. So that is what I am doing.
Also in the last week, the lower litter tray stopped being used. All efforts to locate Pearly have failed. I have come to the conclusion that in spite of our best efforts, she somehow slipped out of the house. My two house mates have assured me that they have taken all precautions when entering and leaving. Still, there has been no activity in the lower litter tray for one week, and I have lost hope. Sunday morning, when I realized that, I suddenly broke down and went on a crying jag that lasted three hours. I had, of course, been warned by my counselors that I would encounter mood swings now that I no longer had any testosterone in my body to act as a buffer. Still, it took me completely by surprise. Another thing to get used to and accept.
I called Kay about this today, and she informed me that the other five cats were still in the process of being socialized to accept being handled by human beings. So it seems as if Tyler and Pearly had not been handled much by their former owner either, which is why Tyler is still in hiding. This may take a lot more time and patience then I originally thought it would.
| COME AND HAVE A GO (If You Think You're Hard Enough): 1998V, Diplomacy |
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) Those of you with balances (dollar figures in parentheses above) should let me know what they want done with their NMR insurance left over. Default is that it gets applied to your subscriptions (if you're in another game it will be added to that balance). Last chance for endgame statements or this disappears next time.
| SO GOOD IT HURTS: 1998 P, Regular Diplomacy |
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, ($4)
steve.emmert of home.com
Game Notes:
1) Those of you with balances (dollar figures in parentheses above) should let me know what they want done with their NMR insurance left over. Default is that it gets applied to your subscriptions (if you're in another game it will be added to that balance). Last chance for endgame statements or this disappears next time.
| EMBRACING THE CONSTRAINTS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules |
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 9 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
Turn 8
| 94 (replenish with a 10): | Christie(6, Breaking Away!) |
| 93 (no replenishment): | None |
| 92 (no replenishment): | None |
| 91 (no replenishment): | None |
| 90 (no replenishment): | None |
| 89 (no replenishment): | None |
| 88 (no replenishment): | None |
| 87 (no replenishment): | None |
| 86 (no replenishment): | None |
| 85 (no replenishment): | None |
| 84 (replenish with a 3): | Alice, Prescott(5) |
| 83 (replenish with a 5): | Rhombus(8) |
| 82 (no replenishment): | None |
| 81 (no replenishment): | None |
-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
| 80 (replenish with a 3): | Rectangle |
| 79 (replenish with a 4): | Square |
| 78 (no replenishment): | None |
| 77 (replenish with a 3): | Beaver |
| 76 (no replenishment): | None |
| 75 (no replenishment): | None |
| 74 (replenish with a 3): | Charlie Brown |
| 73 (no replenishment): | None |
| 72 (no replenishment): | None |
| 71 (no replenishment): | None |
| 70 (replenish with a 3): | Dennis the Menace |
| 69 (no replenishment): | None |
| 68 (replenish with a 3): | Alfalfa |
| 67 (replenish with a 4): | Halbert |
| 66 (no replenishment): | None |
| 65 (no replenishment): | None |
| 64 (replenish with a 3): | Sir Isaac Newton, Brandon the Kiwi |
| 63 (replenish with a 5): | Dana |
| 62 (replenish with a 6): | Edi the Emu, |
| 61 (replenish with a 7): | William Shakespeare, Boniface, Enfield, |
| Peery the Peacock, Dave the Tinamou |
| 60 (replenish with a 12): | Alfred the Great, Diamond |
| 59 (replenish with a 14): | I.K. Brunel, Greenwich |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (The Quabbin Reservoirs): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(5 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Dana | 16 14 8 5 (8) |
| B: Enfield | 18 22 7 (5) |
| C: Greenwich | 15 5 14 (3) |
| D: Prescott | 3 6 3 (5) |
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 10 6 (8) |
| B: Dave the Tinamou | 3 10 7 (7) |
| C: Brandon the Kiwi | 12 12 3 (10) |
| D: Peery the Peacock | 10 10 7 (7) |
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 8 10 12 (6) |
| B: William Shakespeare | 10 8 7 (6) |
| C: Sir Isaac Newton | 3 7 3 (3) |
| D: Isambard Kingdom Brunel | 5 5 14 (3) |
TEAM 4 (The Border Riders): Tom Howell, 365 Storm King Road, Port Angeles, WA 98363
(16 points) off-the-shelf of olympus.net
| Manager: the White Maid |
| A: Alice of Avenel | 14 18 4 3 (3) |
| B: abbot Boniface | 9 14 7 (3) |
| C: Christie of Clint-hill | 6 5 10 (15) |
| D: Halbert Glendinning | 22 8 4 (3) |
TEAM 5 (The Quadrilaterals): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(10 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Rhombus | 9 5 4 5 (3) |
| B: Square | 5 6 4 (17) |
| C: Rectangle | 3 3 3 (16) |
| D: Diamond | 3 4 12 (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 8 3 (5) |
| B: Beaver: | 9 3 3 (8) |
| C: Charlie Brown: | 3 3 3 (7) |
| D: Dennis the Menace: | 12 3 3 (4) |
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. There really isn't any excuse except that I can't count, but the last two slots should have replenished with an 8 and a 10 respectively. This is corrected above. But Alice replenished correctly, didn't she? Note that she did NOT Break Away last turn, she was on 81 and Rhombus was on 80.
3) Rectangle and Square are guaranteed 4 points and 3 points respectively for Sprint points next time. Who will step up and grab those last two slots? Beaver looks good for one of them.....
Press:
(TOM to BOOB): Looks to me like the riders on 55 and 54 should have replaced with 8 and 10 - or, have I been looking at too much snow?
(BOOB to TOM): No, you're right, see above.
(ALICE to PRESCOTT): Whee! Company! May I draft you for another turn?
(PETEY - > ALICE): Are you ten feet tall?
(QUABS to BOOB): I attribute my relative success in ``Tour de Farce'' (the Breaking Away game run by David Partridge in Tinamou ) mainly to the fact that ¼ for some reason Tom Howell is not playing!
(BRIT PACK - FLIGHTLESS BIRDS): I hope you aren't all going to lump together on the same square again. Isn't it a bit cramped sitting on the same perch? Don't you need room to spread your wings? Oh, hang on, I keep forgetting you are flightless.
(PRESCOTT to ALICE): Unfortunately, that was my only big card. I suspect you'll be drawing a big card for a breakaway this turn.
(PETEY - > RESERVOIRS): I think you may have waited one turn too long to make your move.
(ERIC to WHITE MAID): We're allowed to conspire ? No wonder I'm losing! Just watch us now.
(PETEY - > QUADS): Do you know Triangle Man?
(DANA to BOOB): I have not done any conspiring against you in ``Tour de Farce.'' Mainly I conspired against Tom in that game (by keeping him out of it¼)
(BOOB to DANA): Thank you, thank you, thank you! Tom is REALLY tough, but I'm gonna lose in ``Tour de Farce'' anyway. Part of it was too much gloating too early and then this last turn I miscalculated, ending my chances even more surely.
(WHITE MAID to BOOB): Will it do them any good?
(BOOB to WHITE MAID): I doubt it, you da man..... whoops, well, I guess you aren't.... but everyone says you are!
(PETEY - > GM): These big numbered cards make the race go too fast. :(
(BOOB to PETEY): So YOU say....
(GAME QUERY BY THE DESIGNER): Should not Alice have replenished with a 1 last time instead of a 3? ((I don't THINK so, should she have??)) Is anyone going to be noble (read: ``dumb") enough to cover Alice's break? ((I don't THINK so, should anyone have??))
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 2008 IS APRIL 6TH, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2008 IS APRIL 27TH, 2002
Spring 2008
BRITAIN (Schultz): a EDI h, f eng-NTH, a MUR, f DEN h, f swe-BAL,
a STP, f BRN, f GOB S a stp, f nth-SKA.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): f lib-TUN, f LBS-mal, f ION S a apu-nap,
a SYR S a irk, a apu-NAP, a IRK S a syr, f IZM-aeg.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): a fra-SAX, a MUN S a aus, f gda-PRU, f BER S f gda-pru,
f lit h (d r:gda,otb), f bis-BOR, a AUS s a cze-slo, a LYO S a swi-mar,
f BEL h, a CZE-slo, a SIL-war, a MIL S a aus, f HAM h, a swi-MAR.
ITALY (Ozog): f mon h (d r:pie,otb).
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): f sve-POR, a BAR S a nav, a por-MAD, a NAV S a por-mad,
f MAO S BRITISH f eng (otm), f LIG S a mar-mon, f nap s f tys-mal (d ann),
a ROM-ven, f TYS-mal, a mar-MON.
UKRAINE (Partridge): a VOL-gor, a crp-MOS, a pod-KRA, a ank-RUM, f WBS C a ank-rum,
f IST-aeg, a mos-LAT, a SLO s a pod-kra, a WAR s a pod-kra, f alb-SER,
a VEN s a hun-aus, a ADA S a irn, a URA S a vol-gor, a pru-gda (d ann),
a HUN-aus, a BIE S a lat-lit, f GRE-aeg, a lat-LIT, f ADR S a ven,
a IRN S a ada, a CRO S a ven.
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
or (440) 225-9203 (cell) ($2)
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) The Modern Dip web page at: http://www.modernhof.webprovider.com/ currently is on hiatus. I'll try to remember to let you know when it returns.
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''.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): (pre-apologies for this month's crude and rude quote.... but these ARE the Mekons!) ``The foul breath of the lower mouth becomes a jewel; Jewels can't be cut except with special tools.'' From ``Ostracism's Song to Pussycat'' which you can just TELL must be off of the Mekons' collaboration with Kathy Acker, Pussy, King of the Pirates. They've got EVERYTHING on the Vagina Monologues and more.... and speaking of births....
(BRITAIN-UKRAINE): Damn...Dave, those little u's are having babies.
(UKRAINE): Ukrainian officials announced today that they would be sending an engineering team to the Aegean sea to study traffic problems there. According to a spokesman a number of options have been considered to prevent traffic jams like those seen the previous winter. Some officials are said to be favoring a traffic light, perhaps timed with those in the Ionian and Istanbul, while other, more progressive members have been talking about installing a traffic island.
(SPAIN-UKRAINE): I'm not expecting to make Ven, so I shouldn't be sitting there this spring. I should be back in Rom where he had nothing really to do and I don't expect too much this year.
(KIRK RESPONDING TO SPOCK AFTER WAKING UP FROM DRINKING A FIFTH OF ROMULAN ALE): ``We attacked who?...''
(BOOB to SPAIN): Care to retract that ``don't expect too much this year'' comment?
(SPAIN-BOARD): My e-mail address is on the szine. Since my home internet access is attached to LCCC and to get on the internet is through my mom's user name and password. Sometimes when I write someone it sometimes has my moms e-mail address as the person who sent the mail. ((So, does that mean that both of the addresses above are good or not? I think you are telling us to use the hotmail account....))
Personal Note to You: