| July 18, 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. This issue we just have subszines from Michael Lowrey Houdini Blues and Dave Partridge Tinamou.
I just had that very quick notification of Bob Acheson's death literally
just minutes before I printed the szine last time.
I'd like to take a bit of space to reflect on that this issue and note
that I've included below the information on attending Bob's brother Doug's
Diplomacy convention, CanCon.
Bob was one of those no nonsense people who was difficult to really get to know.
I'd known him in the hobby now for two decades, but what really strikes most
of course is that he is one of the first hobby deaths in my generation.
I do know that I might well have done what he did with his szine
The Canadian Diplomat, he kept right on publishing it on a regular
schedule without talking at all in the szine about his illness right up
until the end.
I'm happy that Cal White is going to help ``deal with the cleanup of the
szine'' since the Canadian and other players that Bob had there were
focused in the hobby around that szine and its style - very different
from mine in both clientele and style.
The kinship between the few of us continuing long time szine pubbers
from the 80's to today feel doesn't ever even have to be spoken.
I understood it and him perfectly on that level.
I'm really going to miss him and of course to his family, Miss Ellie
and Doug, and all his close friends I offer sincere condolences.
There are a few other scattered comments in the szine below, some of
which Bob would have approved of much more,
since he would have hated this serious comment.
I have two brief political/economic topics that I want to throw in at the top of the szine. I hope they don't anger anyone too much. First off, President Bush's recent speech about the economy and the stock market trying to blame a ``few bad apples'' was just so wrongfully misguided in its direction (I know some liberal commentators have taken this to suggest that Bush and Cheney themselves are the bad apples....) that I was stunned. He and his advisers should have known better if they were trying cosmetic surgery and it had absolutely ZERO chance of having any real effect. I'll tell you what the speech that MIGHT have had an effect would have looked like, and the one I wanted to see, but as I reflect perhaps George is just reaping the bad luck from the process he started at the beginning of his term, when his economists planned a ``soft landing recession'' for the beginning of his term so that it would be ``all over with'' by the midterm elections. The image that I think of is of a pack of lemmings jumping off the cliff. The accounting issues that are so much a part of discourse now, I remember talking about with people back in the 1980's. None of it is new, the only thing that is new is the scope. BUT, the scope grew through the late 90's as everyone was trying to stay on the crest of the wave. That they eventually would all go over the cliff and crash on the rocks on the beach was not surprising. What the President could have done that would have woken everyone up would be to say clearly what cliff the lemmings had jumped off and describe the regulatory wall that would be built so that THAT particular cliff never would be in play again. Note that everyone collectively is in the same boat and clearly state how and why it would never happen again - that's what was needed. This, of course, would have been the Republican party of Teddy Roosevelt, who understood that being a tough, hard son-of-a-bitch referee was how the President needed to keep business operating under the rules of the game, changing the rules themselves if they weren't tough enough. Unfortunately, that Republican party doesn't seem to exist any more and self-regulation (though some corporations have been trying it in recent weeks) fundamentally fails for everyone. Please note, I am not taking a disparaging look at lemmings. Lemmings do just the right thing for protection (responding to the incentives in their environment), but then when the cliff pops up, they can't help going over the side together. But which lemming would you blame? The one who happens to go over the cliff first?? Let me finish this musing with a ``remembered" example (so, it might not be precisely accurate) from last year's movie Black Hawk Down. Remember the Colonel leading the train of jeeps trying to take injured soldiers to safety? The driver of his jeep is shot and the colonel throws the dead soldier aside and looks at a sergeant standing there, barking, ``Get in and drive.'' The sergeant replies, ``But I've been shot!'' The deep and complex response on so many levels, ``We've all been shot, c'mon let's get out together.'' That's leadership.
And then, I've been looking at Northern Ireland and Palestine and seeing a dangerous parallel that somehow I hope can be avoided. When people carefully study the relationships between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland today, when we have an existing and holding cease fire, we see an amazing degree of apartheid, far greater than it has ever been. The peace that is bought by such separation must be temporary. It is sad to say, but it is dangerous and somehow this separation must begin to recede, with real dialogue and relationships between communities, before some powderkeg sets that back off again. The direction of separation in Palestine also seems to be upward, so even when this wave of violence ends, as it someday must, it will be bought with more separation, not less, and the danger of that for the future is great. I don't know how to break the personal barriers between people and communities down, but they must be broken down. They must talk, argue, and deal with each other - not create another dangerous apartheid - and believe me, I use the word deliberately and cautiously - between them. Somehow there must be Palestinian land where Jews live and Jewish land where Palestinians live. Realizing the deeply held religious beliefs that make this seem impossible, someday it must be imposed by someone. Once there really are two states, then there can be the beginnings of solutions - long hard difficult solutions, but something.
The big picture things in the world right now don't look good, do they? I know that the only way out of them is for good people to meet other people on THEIR turf, where they are, and somehow find the connections that lead them forward into new ways of thinking. Hiding like ostriches doesn't work, even if you fool yourself into thinking it does. Ah, well, enough pontificating.
I decided to can the sub price increase, the postal rate increase
really is peanuts, or it seems so at the 3-5 ounce level that I live it.
So, no problem, let's keep selling subs when I can at this price.
You all know that I'm an incredible softie anyway.
The postal sub price is still
$1.50 per issue in the US and Canada,
with 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.diplomacy.co.uk
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. Use the Telnet button in the upper left corner, that's the easiest way to do it these days. 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.
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 hereby declared to be in official indeterminate stasis and that date is now a ``whenever''. In the meantime, Rip Gooch and Dave Partridge are picking up the choo-choo game slack in TAP. Contact Rip at xyropedes of canada.com or Dave at rebhuhn of rocketmail.com for more info.
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 BERRY RENKEN |
Find him and win the fifty buck prize!! We have a comment below....
Feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Tom, Bill, 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 Tom Hurst or Bill Quinn 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.
Toby Harris (Fri, 12 Jul 2002 06:12:19 -0500)
Cheers for The Abysmal Prince Jim , got it this morning ;-) Must give you some credit for it when we next meet : could be in Denver next year - who knows. ((I'll be in Denver, bet on it. This is going to be a GREAT con! Bear Barrow and Manus Hand will be great hosts.))
Berry Renken, huh ? He he he, I always chuckle when remembering him ! We (the British contingency, that is) met him at our hotel at WDC '97 in Gothenburg. Chunky fellow he was - as round as he was tall. We all stayed up very late in the hotel lounge one night playing games and drinking when an unusual thing happened in the early hours. Some stunning (and I mean absolutely stunning) blonde came in, sat down between Berry and Vic and started chatting to us all for an hour or so. No reason whatsoever, just for company. As Berry's body mass squeezed her closer into Vic, we all though it might be Vic's lucky night, but it was not to be. ((And for full understanding of how funny this must have been, Vic is quite small - thin and of less than average height. This figures in for the next paragraph as well, we're talking about Vic Hall.))
The following spring, 8 British Dip players went on a jaunt to Amsterdam for a long weekend of, well, whatever it is folk go to Amsterdam for. Berry joined us there (being a local) and as I didn't remember him too well from Gothenburg (too much alcohol of course), Vic described him for me before he joined us in the Amsterdam coffee shoppe. ``Well Tobes, he's got disgusting black tuff under his fingernails, hideously green teeth and there's always a wet patch under his armpits." Vic can be very descriptive when he wants to be: he once had an all-reader photo-trading game in his zine where many British Dip players were depicted in photos with points written on the back (you had to collect as many points as possible and make up a team). Anyways, Simon Hornby was new to the hobby back then and Vic ( not knowing his name) wrote on the back of Simon's photo ``Some Fat Bastard: 1 point". ((Ah, so that's where the phrase ``fat bastards'' came from! Someone else ran a photo thingie more recently in one of the other Brit szines.)) Amusing for all (except Vic) was the event which followed the next year where someone spotted Simon (and had the photo - depicting Simon in exactly the same scruffy T-shirt !) and duly handed me the photo. Which, of course, I used to blackmail Vic with in order that he not attack me in our game. Vic was more worried about Simon sitting on him (and, obviously, squashing him to pulp!) than anything else.
Anyways, Berry, obviously he wasn't 'quite' as Vic described him, but he did join us for a few games and a medicinal, herbal smoke (which was decriminalized in the UK yesterday - huzzah!). He is a true and utter numpty in every sense of the word Jim! ((Yes, I agree, but that doesn't mean he isn't a fun guy!)) We played ``Titan - The Arena" card game in which alliances are encouraged. So I invited Berry to play a card in alliance with me: a card which clearly benefitted me and weakened him, of course. So Berry plays it and I duly shafted him big-time in my next turn to go on to win the game. Needless to say everyone groaned and lobbed insults at Berry along the lines of ``how come you didn't see what Toby was going to do?". Poor Berry - an amiable gullible character if ever there was one ;-) ((And we need more of these around sometimes.... ;-) Thanks, I'd never heard these stories before and hadn't realized many of you had met Berry in person. I never did.))
My only other meeting with him was in an email Dip game and subsequent playing in my dip zine; The Freaky Fungus. Berry was the only Dutch subber and that helped the zine reach over a dozen European countries. So in this email game Berry stuck with Cyrille throughout (having already been stung by me in that card game in Amsterdam). I had to work with Bruno Giraudon to hold the line and Bruno kept saying ``Cyrille doesn't have 8 centres - he has 14" (Cyrille had 8, Berry 6 you see) which indicates very clearly which of Berry & Cyrille was the master in their alliance. It was from this game that Berry confessed to being a ``Carebear" and as this (and his other games in Fungus) continued, Berry developed his nickname throughout Europe: ``Berry Bear the Carebear". It suited him not just because of his carebear attitude but also due to his well rounded physique which resembled a teddy bear ... albeit a very ugly and, dare I say, `lumpy' teddy bear ! As others were hurling around insults at each other like ``poodle" and ``numpty", Berry contented himself with the title of king carebear ... which amounted to pretty much the same thing. His lack of strategy in Diplomacy, and all round ``help my ally win" attitude, was one which meant that every Dip game he ever played would have a very unusual outcome.
Terrific guy but an absolute numpty of the first order! ((Indeed!!! Let's find him so we can play Dip with him some more!!!))
As to where he is now and what he's up to, as you say, he's not been heard from for a while so I've no idea. I also don't know anyone who speaks about him and stays in touch - usually there's someone who would stay in touch with lapsed Dip players. And usually I'll be able to point you in the right direction for Europeans, but not in this case. I'm sure, though, that if he wants to come back to the fold he'll find a way.
Well Jim, it's Manorcon next weekend as you will no doubt know. ((Yes, I'm sorry not to be there this year.... probably I won't get there again until the World DipCon.)) There are a few hot teams this year which you may be interested to hear about. Last year's winners (Simon Bouton's Super Heroes) have reunited but are a star player down .... Twerg has been poached to join Niclas Perez' team of superstars, comprising Niclas, Leif, Twerg, Brian, Cyrille, Yann and myself. ((Oooooh, what a team!!! I look forward to hearing the results. Not a slouch among you.)) Not sure if Leif can make it so we'll have to poach another player on the day ... Simon Bouton's team could use a little more `softening up' ;-) ((Indeed, perhaps Vic Hall could be spirited away?))
On the Saturday evening Sital and I are having our housewarming party and hope to drag a few Dipsters off to join in the fun. We're just about settled now but I've still got a bit of work to do on the garage .... which I'm transforming into a pub. Got a snooker table in there, getting a Fruit machine next week, got the music, got the booze, got the comfy seats and coffee tables and now just need to put up the decor. All in all, should turn out to be a fun place to hang out - especially as Sital doesn't allow me to smoke in the house!
Anyways, thanks again for the zine - catch you soon.
| All the best, Toby, tobyh of mail.com |
((Thanks, Toby! Congratulations on the marriage, Sital seems like she has you just where you need to be... she seemed delightful when I met her in Paris. Thanks for the letter, I hope you don't mind me printing all of it, but it really is wonderful.))
| 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 Euros, 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. We are now maneuvering 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 Finals Underway!!
This is possibly the most prestigious and hard fought E-Mail tournament around (only challenged by Doug Massey's Vermont Group Tournaments or the Australian E-Mail Tournament), now with FOUR full rounds. The final players (with current SC standing, which is what counts in a C-Diplo based tournament) are:
AUSTRIA: Jack Brawner - Find Jack at TrojanOwl of aol.com, and he is up to 7 centers at the end of 1905, and taking advantage of Italy and Turkey NMRs in 1905.
ENGLAND: Mike Weinzimer - Find Mike at mweinzimer of yahoo.com, and he is down to the 3 home centers at the end of 1905, and is in lots of trouble.
FRANCE: Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu - Find Joe at janbu of online.no, and he is now up to 7 centers at the end of 1905, and is laying low for a bit, but England is about to be crunched.
GERMANY: Douglas Vaughan - Find Douglas at vaughan4 of mindspring.com, and he is up to 6 centers at the end of 1905, we read about him last time, perhaps I thought he was a darkhorse, but perhaps I was wrong.
ITALY: Egbert ``Egg'' Ferreira - You can find Egg at egbert of salavip.com.br, and he is getting crunched with only 2 centers at the end of 1905, congratulations to the Brazilian World Cup team for its victory, perhaps that will make Egg feel better.
RUSSIA: Darren Koch - You can find the Aussie Darren at koch_family of bigpond.com, and he is up to 5 centers at the end of 1905, doing a mini-comeback with a fleet in the Norwegian Sea.
TURKEY: Frank Johansen - Find Frank at frank.johansen of diplomacy.no, and he is down to only 4 centers at the end of 1905, after a disasterous NMR.
The wondrous Peter Richardson pjrich of ntlworld.com is the GM. If you want to follow the game, send an E-Mail to mailserver of cat23.com with the following message:
subscribe wm00-results
The history of the WorldMasters tournament is that it is not necessarily THE best player who wins, but the format and style seem to reward effort. The player who works the hardest likely will win. Jack, Joe, and Douglas all look good at this point, with Egg and Mike struggling to survive. I know lots of you can't stand C-Diplo, but that's the way it works....
| 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
From a number of sources (thanks especially to John Michalski), the whole treatment of the former Avalon Hill games by Hasbro since it took over has been abysmal and is taking another turn this year. This is not especially surprising because Hasbro is a large corporation focused on ``big games'' that have ``big followings'' and strategic games or other hobby oriented games don't fit that mold. Amazingly, as I keep saying, the growth of people worldwide playing Diplomacy right now is greater than ever. It probably is in the tens of thousands range. But this is still peanuts to Hasbro. www.avalonhill.com remains as basically useless and static as when it was ``relaunched'' just about two years ago this month. Since they see no hope of Diplomacy fitting into any ``multi-media'' crossover marketing (though actually I believe that assertion is wrong and there are possibilities here) the marketing types show no interest in Diplomacy. They can't even be bothered to try to fix up the failed launch of Computer Diplomacy with MicroProse. And none of what follows makes the ``breaking news'' section of www.avalonhill.com. The latest news is that all of Hasbro's AH games will be handed over to the Wizards of the Coast people that market Magic, D&D, the Harry Potter games, Pokémon, and Star Wars trading card games. This might be announced on www.wizards.com, you might think, which is their website (at least this website gets updated quite frequently!). Well, you can find out that the winner of the 2002 Magic the Gathering US National Championship received $25,000 as the first prize. Well, they might have a shot at having had 25,000 participants, that's how many people are going to GenCon these days. But there is nothing about Diplomacy or the other AH games, yet. And while this does create potential opportunities (could we see significant prize money at Diplomacy tournaments someday?), more likely the AH stable will be lumped with the SPI stable already being managed by Wizards of the Coast and more or less ignored. We'll see, Diplomacy deserves better. More knowledgeable updates for print will be welcome.
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
The new Spring issue is 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!
The 2002 Hobby Awards Ballot is out.
If you are reading this on the Internet, then go to the ballot at:
/Postal/Zines/TAP/BALLOT02.html
and if you're seeing it postally and missed it before, ask
me for another one.
Please send me your votes by the Sept. 1 deadline.
This is a great ballot and take advantage of the web links to look
at some of the nominees.
Doug Acheson (Sat, 20 Jul 2002 15:16:27 -0400)
| Can-Con 2002 - University of Toronto - Scarborough Campus |
August 16th, 17th & 18th, 2002 - contact Doug Acheson for information
Oh hey yah, here is that posting for CAN-CON '02 that you've all been waiting for. You say that you missed the first posting? Not to worry 'cause I'm in your face with the second. A few of the boys are going to whoop it up at the cult gathering known as CAN-CON under the guise of playing the ages old game of Diplomacy and other notable table-top divergences that Nelson Heintzman might smuggle across the border. His undisputed (now) eminance Cal White has offered his attendance in the place of Robert Acheson. Although tinkets cast at his feet is unacceptable behaviour, folding lucre passed along in unmarked envelopes is acceptable behaviour for opinions and rulings of any diplomatic nature. Hang on, I've got to answer the phone.
``Yah, hello! Yah, yah, yah. OK. OK. Tell Cal White what? OK. Fine. And how are things going on over there? No kidding! Better than that! Wow. You've beaten HIM?! Wow. OK, nice of you to call. Hey, why'd yah use the phone? I was just curious. Catch yah later. NO, I mean maybe just a little later - got to keep an eye on Cal. Right, bye".
Well, just to let you all know, Bob says he's keepin' an eye on Cal and anything that Cal collects, he (Bob) gets half plus an extra draft choice in this fall's NHL rotisserie draft. Now, enough of distractions. This event is played in the student housing complex of UoT Scarborough Campus with housing available for Friday and Saturday evenings. Three townhouses have been booked again allowing for 4 gamers/townhouse to actually try to sleep. UoT has always been kind enough to supply towels and fans but the rest is up to you. I, of course, will again be breakfast chef of the games with the standard egg-on-a-bun trick and coffee for a Canuck buck and all the abuse that I can hand out. Monies will be collected at the door or if Doug Acheson isn't sitting in the door jam just wave the money. He'll smell it and come running. And what are you paying for? Registration: $10 for the weekend (such a bargain as hasn't been seen since last year) or $5/game; housing: $40/night; food/beer: bring it with you or buy it there - the townhouses have kitchens and refrigerators.
Directions: Take the hwy 401 to the east side of Toronto and get off at the Morningside exit. Go south to Military Trail and follow it south past Ellesmere Rd to the main entrance of UoT. Enter there but turn left immediately to head for the south parking lots. Drive past the guard house, through the parking lot to the rear exit where you'll find an even bigger parking lot which backs onto the student housing complex. Look for the grey van with the picture of a dragon and the Nithgrove Management name on it. It should be parked just outside of the student admin. building - head for it to find out which townhouses we may have. There is supposed to be a convention of naval historians or something happening that weekend there as well.
The Diplomacy part of the Convention itself: Should be 4 rounds: 1st Friday night starting at 1900-1930hrs; 2nd Saturday morning about 1000hrs; 3rd Saturday evening about 1800hrs; and 4th 1000hrs Sunday morning which will be the leader-board ranked or fill'em as we can.
Scoring is the world famous ``Simple Cut Throat Rules", copies will be available at the door or you can request a copy e-mailed for prior perusal. All game results and scoring will be available as soon as tabulated. Time limits: the games have no time limits at CAN-CON but if no centres have changed control after 2 game years, a draw will be declared by the ConMaster. 20 minute negotiation period for spring '01 and 15 minute periods thereafter unless the whole board decides differently.
Who's coming: so far - none!!! No, a slight exaggeration. Doug Acheson (comes for the money); Cal White (comes for the adoration); Frank Easton (comes to remind us all how good he negotiates prior to crying); Robert Lesco (comes equipped with a kid over one shoulder and a bag of diapers over the other now); Vance Copeland (I will win this year!); Mario Cauz (does this game need a 7th?); Nelson Heintzman (somebody has to bring the other games!); Marc St. Rose (so close last year); Etienne Brodeur (someone has to represent the Province de Quebec); Dan Gavrilovic (needs more lawyer jokes so he can sue us all for something) and Colin William; Gary Blemings and Vincent Mous have all expressed an interest in this outing!
| Douglas Wm. Acheson, nithgrove of on.aibn.com |
((Thanks, Doug, this gets you a whole lot more publicity. Obviously there will be a lot of reminiscing about Bob at the Con and you have a great attitude about it, hope it goes swimmingly!))
Bob Osuch (Fri, 19 Jul 2002 22:41:10 EDT)
Hi J-B, I forgot to ask you if you would plug some game openings. I am the Archivist in the AOL Diplomacy Club and am trying to recruit new players. You don't have to be an AOL member to join, deadlines are around a week. You must finish one ``open" game of Dip in good standing (No more than one NMR and a completed position), then you will be eligible to join the club and participate in the club games, which are rated.
For those interested, log on to AOL and under keyword type ``Diplomacy". Simply join an open game and you will be contacted. I enjoy faster paced games and for those that concur, I recommend they give it a whirl.
| Best, Bob Osuch, Diplomacy Forum Archivist, Keyword: DIPLOMACY, ROsuch4082 of aol.com |
((Thanks, Bob, glad to put in the plug!))
| 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 soon!!! Really, it will. And it will continue to be a joint 2000 and 2001 issue. More recently, there is a new Cornershop CD out, and second/third listenings still say: stunning! More on that to come.
Bob Osuch (Thu, 18 Jul 2002 01:47:27 EDT)
Hey J-B, Who is this "Brad Wilson" character I see popping up on your standby list? Is that the same ``Brad Wilson" that played in Mass Murders years ago, the same snotnosed kid that went to Princeton in the early eighties and became a professional student? The same ``Brad Wilson" that I sent a sub check to last summer (at his request) and am still waiting for my first issue? ((Yeah, just about.... I haven't heard anything recent, but I know players in Brad's games were agitating to get their games moved to new GMs.))
To baseball. As a longtime Tiger nut, I was sorry to see Jeff Weaver go to the Yankees, and glad to see Clemens go on the DL. It's a joke. If baseball doesn't initiate some caps soon they will price themselves right out of business. Oh well, at least I will have seen my team win it all twice. Remember '68? Detroit down to the Cards, three games to one. Lolich wins his second game of the series in game five, McLain wins game six in the rain, and Lolich comes back on two days rest to win game seven against the incomparable Bob Gibson! The second best series I've seen, surpassed only by the Big Red Machine and the Bosox in, what was that, '78? ((Uh, not quite, something ELSE dented the Red Sox bandwagon in 1978.))
Finally, I see John Harrington had a bit to say on my Top Ten List. John says ``Twelve Dreams" is unavailable on CD. Not here it isn't. As a matter of fact, the buyer is treated to a few ``bonus cuts" which I'd just as soon they had left on the scrap heap. At any rate, he should be able to order it.
All in all, I wouldn't mind meeting John and tossing down a few with him. The English versus the American roots. Like saying ``Live at Leeds" is one of the top live albums. Purely subjective, but I would eliminate it on technical merit alone. OK, it admittedly packs a wallop, but oh, my aching head! Entwistle was a shame. I'm probably the only guy in town that bought ``Smash Your Head Against the Wall" and LOVED it. I don't have it in front of me, but there was one tune about believing in life ``...I hope you do, 'cause I do..." that I really liked until he ruined it at the end with a ``Rudolph" parody. I also have ``Whistle Rymes" (only fair) and didn't try his first effort (``Mad Dog"?).
Back to live albums, John mentioned ``Free Live" as his personal favorite. I'm familiar with Free and Paul Rodgers but didn't catch the live album. I understand the lead guitarist (Paul somebody, I forget his last name) died a while back. Of the other live albums that made the party circuit years ago, J Geils' ``Full House" was guaranteed to create a few holes in the wall. One of the few bands that were better live than recorded.
I agree with John about Flo and Eddie (was it Zappa that named them The Florescent Leech and Eddie?). Very creative, very talented vocalists and writers. Their stage show was supposedly hilarious, tho I never had the pleasure. They didn't come around these parts much, nor did Zappa.
Paul Revere and the Raiders! They didn't make much impact in Britain because they were designed as an anti-British answer to the Beatles. ((Yeah, I thought I said that, but I guess I wasn't forceful enough.)) Ahhh, America's band. Trouble was, they weren't nearly as talented. They had a few hits in the mid to late sixties, most notably ``Kicks", which had an anti-drug theme and wasn't all that bad. (...ah, you don't need kicks to help you face the world each day, that world goes nowhere...) After they discarded the Revolutionary War costumes and became merely The Raiders, featuring Mark Lindsay, I can't recollect a single redeeming effort.
Funny, because I was sorting out all the music I enjoy and deriving its origin. At least 70% British, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, most analysts attribute rock music to the blues, and were not the great bluesmen and women primarily American?
Which brings me to somebody I neglected to mention last time but, for all his faults, belongs ahead of most all other solo artists. Van Morrison. Ok, he's Irish but the consummate perfectionist with his art, which is both good and bad. I saw him once live and he spent more time screwing around with the instruments than he did playing. Regardless, he is more of a pioneer than just about anyone I can mention in the venue of R & B and Irish soul. ``Moondance" is a fixture in any CD collection, my favorite traditional Morrison, but ``Astral Weeks" displays some of the finest stream-of-consciousness soul riffs and vocals that one is likely to encounter in this lifetime or any other. I swear to God, the first time I heard ``Madame George" I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I'm sure you have it. I'm on my first CD after three or four albums. One got burned in a house fire and the others were ruined from overplaying.
Could you ask John what a Mod band is? I keep thinking of Link and Julie. Not Small Faces (now there's a real blast from the past.) I liked Stewart with Beck better. ((I liked the Small Faces too. I always thought that the Who (for a portion of their career) and Yardbirds were the quintessential mod bands, but I thought of that as before my time. Paul Weller and his wonderful overlooked band the Jam - ``Girl on the Phone'' from Setting Sons was glorious and hilarious, but ``Absolute Beginners'' was probably their best song; The Gift also is worth owning. This was part of the so-called ``Mod revival'' that began in 1979 and probably also includes early XTC.))
Speaking of which, I must move on to my responsibilities here.
| Best, BobO, ROsuch4082 of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Wed, 3 Jul 2002 21:26:14 EDT)
``Mr. Deeds" = = = a movie
"Deeds" is a small town nice guy who supposedly inherits a huge (4 billion dollars) communications empire from an uncle he never knew existed. He is taken to the big city where he has some small adventures. Adam Sandler plays Deeds with a bit less manic energy than usual for him. There isn't much to the story. Some of the gags are funny. Some of them aren't.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I'm a sucker for these movies, to me Adam Sandler makes two types of movies, one I like and one is just too sick and stupid even for me. This was one of the ones I liked (The Wedding Singer is also in this group) and like most of the ones I like had a killer soundtrack. But perhaps I just liked the soundtrack and this really was only another The Waterboy, which I hated. I'm surely going to pick up the soundtrack, which features songs like... ``Sweetest Thing'' from U2, ``Wrong Impression'' by Natalie Imbruglia, ``I've Seen All Good People'' from Yes, and ``Go To Town'' by Counting Crows. The Counting Crows song is new, I believe, and might be their best song to date. It even has about the only Dave Matthews Band song I've ever liked, ``Where Are You Going''. And, I don't have it yet, but if the movie is any indication, the ``Space Oddity'' track with Adam Sandler and David Bowie is going to be a killer. Everyone I know disagrees with me about this movie though, so see it at your own risk, maybe I like Winona Ryder more than I thought.))
Steve Langley (Wed, 3 Jul 2002 21:23:19 EDT)
``Lilo and Stitch" = = = a movie
A friend observed that Disney tends to have heroines that are young and alone, orphans, step-daughters Lilo is one of these. She is an orphan living with an older sister who loves her enough but is having a very tough time holding a life together. On the one hand she has her little sister who manages to be trouble. Lilo gets in fights, skips school, is a regular juvenile delinquent (for a six year old). On the other she has a hard nosed social worker who only wants what is best for the child (his phrase).
Stitch on the other hand. Not an orphan. He never had parents to start with. He was genetically engineered to be the most powerful weapon of destruction in the galaxy. The scientist who engineered him prefers to be called an evil genius. Moron is the other choice.
Stitch is sentenced by the galactic court to live out his existence on a barren asteroid. Not caring for the sentence he escapes instead and takes a police craft. His random destination turns out to be Hawaii.
Lilo's sister decides that maybe Lilo needs a pet. Stitch is hiding out in the animal shelter. The two seem to be a pretty good match. Stitch pretends to be a dog and Lilo pretends that he's Elvis.
Things get complicated when the aliens arrive.
I think this is the first time a cartoon has made me cry. When Stitch said goodby to Lilo I teared up. I'm doing it again just now.
I loved it.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I really want to get to this one, but haven't managed yet. I usually go to movies late and since this is seen as a ``kids'' movie, it never seems to be showing when I want to go! If I teared up to Mr. Deeds, surely I will do so here....))
Steve Langley (Sun, 14 Jul 2002 12:22:00 EDT)
``Road to Perdition" = = = a movie
Interesting story idea. You have a good Catholic boy, Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), raised in the church by a man, John Rooney (Paul Newman), who treated him as if he was his own son. There is a bond of love between them. The man just happens to be a mob boss and the boy works for him as an enforcer.
Michael has a family, a wife who knows what he does and loves him anyway, and two sons who think he might be a secret agent. His older son, 12 year old Michael, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin), hides in the back of his car and goes with him when he is out on business. The boy witnesses a mass murder initiated by the son, Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig), of the man who raised his father.
The rule is you leave no witnesses. But this is his son. He vouches for the boy and then his wife and other son are killed by Connor who doesn't leave witnesses. Connor is always making mistakes.
The son loves his father and his father is a killer and the two of them run. Michael tries talking to the mob in Chicago asking for permission to kill Connor. They tell him he has nothing to trade. He decides to get something to trade.
The story develops as Michael takes on the mob, and he and his son learn who each other are.
Good story. Great acting.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Sun, 14 Jul 2002 12:01:29 EDT)
``Reign of Fire" = = = a movie
``Here there be dragons"
This is science fiction rather than fantasy despite the dragons. The story is that dragons evolved in the times of the big lizards and were really the top of the food chain. They were big, flew, spit fire, and were predators. They ate the dinosaurs to extinction and then died out from starvation. When the get hungry enough they go into a metabolic stasis waiting for food to reappear. 65 million years later some unlucky humans digging a tunnel found a cave where two of them were waiting.
Hey, how else can you get dragons into a modern day world?
Anyway some fifteen years later dragons have multiplied to fill the skies and what little is left of mankind is hiding in caves or cellars, or in one case, a tank cavalry unit.
Matthew McConaughey plays ``Denton Van Zan the Dragon Slayer". He's military in the best and worst sense. His take is that dragons are beasts and they can be killed. Granted they fly, spit napalm, are nearly bullet proof, and there are millions of them, but he has a plan.
Christian Bale plays ``Quinn". As a boy he was lucky enough to be the first human to see a dragon. Now he is the leader of a community hiding in an old castle. His motto is keep your eyes on the sky and if you see one dig deep and hide. He and ``Van Zan" don't really get along.
The dragons were fantastic. Computer generated artwork in the extreme. You can see the fires through the translucent dragon wings. The sets are just as good. Take London and destroy it with fire and dragons ripping it apart and you will have a pretty good imitation of the sets. Lots of detail. Great cinematography. Good composition, good use of light and shadow.
I was blown away.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Wed, 10 Jul 2002 10:53:22 EDT)
``13 Conversations About One Thing" = = = a movie
This is a complex story about the intersection of the lives of several people. They all have one thing in common, they talk about what it means to be happy. I didn't actually count to see if there were 13 conversations but I'm sure that the writers, Jill and Karen Sprecher did. The script was too well crafted for them to have missed that. Jill gets a second credit as the film's director.
The cast was incredible. My favorite has to be Clea DuVall who played a sweet cleaning girl ``Beatrice" who is happy. She is convinced that she should have died when she was very young and so every day is a gift to her. She intersects with ``Troy" played by Matthew McConaughy who is a happy young assistant district attorney who likes putting away the bad guys. In a moment of distraction for both of them he hits her with his car and then panics and leaves her for dead.
From that moment he is followed by the furies of his own guilt and she loses her gift for being happy.
``Troy" also intersected with ``Gene" played by Alan Arkin. ``Gene" is a bitter man who distrusts happiness. They have a brief conversation in a bar. ``Gene" resents bitterly a man that works for him, a man who is always happy. ``Gene" fires him just to force the smile from his face. Later this happy man smiles at ``Beatrice" in the depth of her despair and gives her back her gift.
Brilliantly written, tightly told, great acting, outstanding movie. I left out one whole set of characters whose stories intersect with the others. I loved it.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Steve Langley (Wed, 10 Jul 2002 10:32:29 EDT)
``Powerpuff Girls, the Movie" = = = a movie
I like the Powerpuff Girls. They are sweet and destructive. They are little girls and they can fly and really destroy a city. On TV they are fun to watch. Especially ``Buttercup".
Ah well.
The movie was bigger louder with lots of flashing lights, and an origin story. But it really didn't work as well as the TV show. Too bad.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
Warren Goesle (Mon, 01 Jul 2002 21:11:53)
Jim-Bob,
A few rants (nothing new). Those of you tuning in only for the Baseball can skip the second part. Those of you tuning in only for the Soccer can skip the first part.
Part I: It's not that the Yankees went out and acquired Mondesi from Toronto. Yes, they only had to give up a 7th round draft choice from 5 years ago now playing in Double-A ball. Yes, they have to pay $12M from now until October 2003. No one else actually talked to Toronto about Mondesi, so the fact that the Yankees made a deal to fill a hole in their outfield is fair (What's that from the Red Sox contingent? You say that Mondesi is only batting .224 so the Yankees didn't really get anything good out of it? Do you play the lottery and expect to win too? Mondesi, like all players that come to NY from baseball-exile elsewhere, will exceed what he's done to date. Count on it.). The problem is that, somewhere in August, there will be a player available from another team that's dumping salary, and the Red Sox will want him. Steinbrenner, despite having just made a large outlay of cash, will get him so that Boston doesn't.
What's the difference between a die-hard Cubs fan and a die-hard Red Sox fan? A die-hard Cubs fan actually knows that the Cubs won't win, and they make a lot of money off of die-hard Red Sox fans.
Part II: Brazil 2, Germany nil. It's a good thing that my barber is closed on Sundays & Mondays, or I'd already have a Renaldo haircut. As I was having trouble sleeping I got out of bed Sunday morning and turned on the final, expecting to be able to go to sleep in the recliner. It was actually a fairly entertaining game, mostly because the Brazillians play the way you're supposed to play. No one else is at their high level. Unfortunately, for the most part, games are deadly dull. In other sports there are intermediate steps toward scoring. A nice pass. A hit-and-run. In soccer it usually comes down to a lucky pass and a quick shot. To paraphrase something I heard on ESPN radio, it's like sex without the foreplay. Nothing happens for a long time, and then suddenly everyone is yelling like a spanish soccer announcer. Hockey goals you can see coming from a much longer way out. Baseball moves the runner around much more often one base at a time than they hit a solo home run. 7-minute scoring drives are not unusual in football. But only Brazil can actually move the ball to where they want it, set up and hit a good pass without the inevitable defensive interference. No one else is worth watching. Until 2006 I won't bother watching soccer again.
| Goz, My kid sells term papers to your honor student, gozcorp of iquest.net |
PS: I'm looking for a new job. Has Selig moved out of the Commissioner's office yet?
Steve Emmert (Mon, 1 Jul 2002 08:30:36 -0400)
Back off, you ugly sonofabitch! That's MY job, you hear? Of course, if you're just a teenie bit patient, you can have it right after I take office, since my first day's changes will get me fired the second day. Specifically, punt the DH; punt the wild card (two divisions in each league; second place teams in each division get nice early tee times in October); call the high strike; daytime World Series games; and plenty of interleague play - in Spring training and in the World Series, but NOT IN JUNE!! (Okay, I'm done; I'll calm down now, really . . .)
Two things here: (1) Mondesi is a stud, depite the current batting average, and while his BA will probably rise significantly in the Bronx with all that lineup protection, the real value he gives them is an absolute cannon in RF. He can gun down runners with the best of them, and will improve the Yankees' defense, making other teams' baserunners play it station to station on hits to right. (2) That other player Goz describes is now probably Cliff Floyd, who was rumored to be already in the tailor's office, getting fitted for pinstripes, before this deal went down. I'm not sure what the Sox have in their system to offer for Floyd, but you can expect them to make a pitch, perhaps quietly for the very reason Goz mentions.
I absolutely loved the World Cup, but my interest, too, will probably go into hibernation for about three years, until qualification for WC 2006 starts heating up. I can't get too excited about a Champions' League match between Manchester United and Real Madrid, but I'd have taken any match in the Cup, even for nations I have little interest in. In the same way, my favorite golf tournament is the Ryder Cup, with absolutely no money at stake, but the unbearable pressure of national pride, of all your teammates relying on you, makes each shot far more important than in, say, the Greater Hartford Open, where they give away millions.
| Steve, MY kid is the national term paper franchisor, steve.emmert of cox.net |
((Steve, I hear Goz may be joining you in serious fatherhood, though perhaps he already is. Anyway, I'm not complaining, BUT Mondesi's arm is MUCH depleted over past years. Do any of you actually ever watch games? ;-) Obviously, I've only seen Red Sox/Blue Jays games, but Mondesi's arm wouldn't impress anyone today except that he ONCE had such a cannon. Still, I agree that Mondesi will get SLIGHTLY better in NY, but still will be huffin' and puffin' to get over .250. Next, let's discuss the All Star game and other things. I should say up front that I never watch the All Star game but I did watch the beginning this year, but just while Derek Lowe was starting.... seems like I made the right choice.))
Rick Desper (Wed, 10 Jul 2002 15:31:09 -0400 (EDT))
Nice tie, huh? Apparently the all-star managers, like the elections officials in Florida, never thought that a close contest could possibly enter the picture. The early ending could have easily been avoided had a few more pitchers pitched just a little more each. ((Seems you tell the pitchers they may not pitch and hold more of them in reserve, simple as that.))
Time to revisit my pre-season predictions.
In the AL, I picked Yankees, White Sox, and Mariners, with A's wild card (or A's with Mariners wild card?) White Sox are a bit behind the Twins, but could catch up. The surprise in the AL has been the Red Sox. Lowe has pitched better than I expected, and Damon, Henderson, and Baerga have all contributed more with the bat than I expected. But the Sox really need to start scoring runs again, or the As will pass them for the wild card.
In the NL, I really messed up badly picking the Mets. You had them pegged. ((Thanks, I don't always get 'em right, but I had that one. Speaking of the Mets, anyone who thinks Mo Vaughn has a lot left - recent hot streak aside - is nuts, totally nuts.)) I also had the Braves and D'Backs, which look like decent picks, and I think I had the Astros in the central. Well, anybody could win the central (almost anybody?) Doesn't really matter too much. ((I had the Astros doing better too, they still might, but they won't get the Wild Card. If the Cardinals make Chuck Finley replace the tragic death of Darryl Kile adequately they'll win, but if not, the 'stros could still make a run.)) Dodgers have been much better than I expected. Who knew their big payroll would finally start paying off? ((I agree, the Dodgers really surprised me so far, we'll see if they hang in there.))
from here, picks are:
AL East: Yankees - I heard they just traded a bat boy for Barry Bonds!; Central: Twins - they have a 7+ game lead. Gotta go with that. Also, they have good pitchers coming back. Getting more power from their outfield than I expected. White Sox possible; West: I'll go with the As to pass the Mariners. To be honest, both of these teams are a bit short in the hitting department; Wild Card: go with the Sox.
NL: East: Braves; Central: Reds - Griffey announces he's out for the remainder of the season, team promptly goes on a 23-8 run. (This phenomenon is really annoying me because Griffey is on my fantasy team and I still don't want to cut him.); West: Dodgers have more depth, so I'll pick them to win the division; Wild card: D'Backs (sorry Expos fans, all three of you). ((Unfortunately the Expos aren't going anywhere, except DC.))
First round: Sox beat As in 5, Yankees beat Twins in 4; D'Backs beat Braves in 5, Dodgers beat Reds in 3.
LCS: Sox beat Yankees in 7, Dodgers beat D'Backs in 6.
World Series: Dodgers beat Red Sox in 6.
The Red Sox just simply got hammered by interleague play this year. They had twelve interleague games against three teams (Braves, D'Backs, and Dodgers) who I think all will make the playoffs. Somehow that's not right. Time to start playing the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Devil Rays again!
The players realize just how bad things would go if another World Series were cancelled. However, the mess is so bad that it still won't be resolved by next Spring. They'll strike next year.
Facing a torrent of negative publicity regarding contraction, the league will back away from that plan. The Twins will stay where they are, and the Expos will move to DC to become the new Washington team!
| Rick |
((As I write this, the Red Sox and Yankees are walking into a three game series in the Bronx. I expect a classic with close games throughout. I have no idea who will win more games, but I expect it will just let everyone see how close these teams are.))
| LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK |
2000G, No Lawyers Welcome, Winter 1912
Austrian/Russian draw proposed, only a no vote (not no vote received) will stop it
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com A SMYRNA hold, A MUNICH - burgundy, A TYROLIA - piedmont, A TRIESTE hold A Vienna - BOHEMIA, A ALBANIA support A Trieste, F Constantinople - AEGEAN A GREECE support A Albania, A SERBIA support A Albania, A BULGARIA support A Greece,
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F Wales - LIVERPOOL, F CHANNEL - london, F belgium (dislodged) - north sea F NORTH ATLANTIC support F wales - liverpool, A BURGUNDY - ruhr
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of TheWorld.com F Ionian - TYRRHENIAN SEA, F Tyrrhenian - WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN F ADRIATIC SEA - venice, A Portugal - SPAIN, A VENICE - Piedmont F Aegean - IONIAN SEA
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of comcast.net A HOLLAND Support A Ruhr - Belgium, A Ruhr - BELGIUM, A KIEL - ruhr A BERLIN - kiel, F Irish Sea - MID ATLANTIC, A SILISIA - berlin, F NORTH SEA support A ruhr - belgium, F YORKSHIRE - london, A SYRIA hold F norway - NORWEGIAN SEA, F Edinburgh - CLYDE, , A St Pete - NORWAY
Fall 1912 orders and draw votes due on Wednesday, July 31st
Press
Burgess to Game: I am proposing and voting for an AR draw. If that is going to be the ultimate outcome, why not just stop now?
Winter 1911 supply center chart
Austria Smyrna, Contantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ankara, Trieste, Rumania, Munich
France Brest, Paris, London, Belgium, Marseilles
Italy Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Portugal
Russia Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, Denmark, Warsaw, Norway, Liverpool, Moscow, Edinburgh, Kiel, Holland
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 comcast.net 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 if you let me know in advance to be sure the fax machine is set up.
I am continuing to note cut or failed support orders with a small ``s'' instead of a capital ``S''. This will make it easier on the E-Mailed version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. The italics DO show on the web page just fine. I have been getting complaints and suggestions for doing underlines. Underlines are really hard to do and I've become attached to italics but I am considering this as carefully as I can. I tried an experiment but got no comments on it, so I'm going back to what I did before. In the experiment, you CAN'T tell on the html web page version or in the E-Mailed version what supports were cut and moves fail. I admit it looks a bit better in the printed version, but there you can see the italics pretty well too, can't you?
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 Osuch, Doug Kent, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Harold Reynolds was my standby for Colonia and I have had to put him into the game. Help, more are needed for this game, maps are provided for free by me.... I really need another person here!!!
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 |
We've got lots of openings in the subszines, check them out!!! I'll get serious about starting something else here as other games end. I plan to start a game of the variant I designed, Spy Diplomacy, as soon as the Colonia game ends. Early signups for that are allowed. I know Mike Barno was in the first one I ran here many, many years ago. Who else was in that game who is still around?? You also can sign up early for the next Breaking Away game, I'll start another of those as this one ends very soon.
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! I'm more likely to get these things started if I see some interest..... Eoghan is getting tired of waiting....
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 at: http://www.diplomacy.co.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 1903 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Winter 1902
AUSTRIA (Lockheardt): bld a tri, a vie, a bud; has a TRI, a VIE, a BUD,
a RUM, a SER, a BUL, a WAR, f GRE.
ENGLAND (Heikkinen): rem a nwy; has f IRI, f NTH, f ENG, f MID.
FRANCE (Mitchell): bld a mar; has a MAR, a PIC, f BRE, f POR, a GAS, a BEL.
GERMANY (Sayers): bld a kie; has a KIE, f DEN, a HOL, a BUR.
ITALY (Méhkeri): has a TYO, f ION, f EAS, a MUN, a TUN.
RUSSIA (Desper): has f BER, a MOS, a PRU.
TURKEY (Miller): bld a smy; has a SMY, f AEG, f CON, a SEV.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Chris Lockheardt, 54 Butler Avenue, Maynard, MA 01754, +1 978-897-1547
clockheardt of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Allan Heikkinen, c/o S.HELEY, 7 / 77 Phillip Street, Waterloo, NSW 2017, 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, 26 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) And here we go....
Press:
(TIM to FOOL): The silent Turk loves you.
(TIM to RICK): Finding any good lager over there in Germania?
(RUSSIA): I really don't even have a funny comment to make here.
(BOOB to ALL): And I'm very sorry about that.....
(TIM to BOARD): You know, between JADES and judge mods, it's amazing that I still am able to worry about this game. Now who wants to support me back into Bul?
(E to A): Why Baron. We thought you were concentrating on composing your exquisite S-mail pensees to instruct and entertain we peasants, and all the time you were really Slobodan Milosovitch doing a bit of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
(G to A): Well Baron, you certainly surprised us. I'm hoping a bit of the pressure will be taken off the beat-up 2nd Reich as the aggressors look to their boundaries with you. In view of our long friendship, could you please leave me until last?
(PHIL to JIM): Looking at some of the games in your last issue, imagine my surprise when I saw the Aussie Siamese twins, Jim Sayers and Allan Heikkinen, not only playing in the same game as Germany and England, but allies nonetheless. Gee, how shocking. I mean, how could I have imagined I would see this again, given the current game in ``I Digress" in which my England immediately was assailed by these wedded-at-the-hip players of France and Germany? Was there ever any possibility of something else occurring? I don't think so. And is there any possibility that, as Germany and England here, they will be broken apart? I don't think so. This is the kind of thing that all GMs in the hobby (those few of us remaining) should be warned about: Don't put these two guys in the same game together again, because they are a tag team playing at the same time, which isn't fair to other players. But if a GM has to put them in the same game, make them play Austria and Turkey - and then we'll see just how attached to each other they really are.
(JIM-BOB to ALL): I don't think I'm going to comment on that right now, perhaps later.
| SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1905 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Winter 1904
ENGLAND (Sundstrom): bld f edi; has f EDI, f HOL, f ENG, f HEL, a BEL, f NWY, f MID.
FRANCE (Tretick): rem a sil; has f GOL, a BUR, f SPA(SC), a PAR.
GERMANY (Williams): rem a sil (nsu), GM REMOVES a ruh; has a KIE, a BER, a MUN.
ITALY (McCullough): bld a ven; has a VEN, a VIE, f TYH, f NAF, a TRI, f WES.
RUSSIA (McHugh): bld f stp(nc), PLAYS ONE SHORT; has f STP(NC), a FIN, a WAR,
f DEN, a BUD, a BOH, f RUM.
TURKEY (Goesle): has a GRE, a BUL, f ION, 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 bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of directvinternet.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 ($3)
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
flapjack of comcast.net
TURKEY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
gozcorp of iquest.net
Game Notes:
1) Just another winter season... we do have one press item.
Press:
(FRANCE): Army Silesia seems to have gotten lost in the woods and did not come home for dinner last month. ``It's OK," said its Mommy, ``We have a lot more children to take its place. We're excited to visit our Aunts in Sofia. I hope the Turks are as hospitable as they say they are."
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1909 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Summer 1909
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): has a TRI, a VEN, a TUS, a BUD.
ENGLAND (Biehl): has f NTH, f ENG, f GOL, f TUN, f TYH, a BEL.
GERMANY (Emmert): has a BOH, a MUN, a GAL, a TYO, a VIE, a KIE,
f NAO, a SPA, a MAR.
RUSSIA (Tretick): has f NWY, a SWE, a MOS, a UKR, f MID, a STP.
TURKEY (Lutterbie): has f EAS, f BLA, a SEV, f ION, a ROM,
f NAP, a RUM, a BUL, f GRE.
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: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
steve.emmert of cox.net
ITALY: Terry Tallman, PO Box 782, Clinton, WA 98236, (360) 710 9613, cell (360) 710-9613 ($2)
terryt of whidbey.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
bernietretick of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Vince Lutterbie, 1021 Stonehaven, Marshall, MO 65340-2837
melvin of cdsinet.net
Game Notes:
1) The GRT draw proposal is rejected. If music be the food of love, or not, play on.... wot, no press??
Press:
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE NEW DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1760 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Pre-Spring 1760
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): has f NAPLES, f TRIESTE, a VIENNA, a BUDAPEST,
a BURGUNDY, f NEW ZEALAND, f PAPAL STATES, a PARIS, a BULGARIA, a ISTANBUL, f FIJI,
f IONIAN SEA, a PERU, a ANTWERP, a IZMIR, f SAMOA, a RHINE, f EASTERN
MEDITERRANEAN SEA, f TASMAN SEA, a TOULON, f LIGURIAN SEA, f TAHITI.
CHINA (Reynolds): has a XIAN, a WUHAN, a AMOY,
f EAST CHINA SEA, f SEA OF JAPAN, f VLADIVOSTOK, f SUBIC BAY, a SINKIANG,
a AFGHANISTAN, f SOUTH CHINA SEA, f GULF OF SIAM, f MALAYA, a MAHRATTA,
a KASMIR, f SIBERIA, a BURMA, f IWO JIMA, a BENGAL, a WESTERN DESERT,
a CIRCARS, a OMSK, f JAPAN.
ENGLAND (Power): a SURINAM, f EDINBURGH,
a MATTO GROSSO, f NORTH SEA, f NORWAY, a AMAZON, a SUMATRA, f GULF OF GUINEA,
a NIGERIA, f SE ATLANTIC OCEAN, f ANDAMAN SEA, f MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN,
f VENEZUELA, f ALASKA, a MOROCCO, a GABON, a BAHIA, f HUDSON BAY,
f BRAZIL, f NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, f SW ATLANTIC OCEAN, a UGANDA,
a ARGENTINA, a ANGOLA, f MALAY SEA, f HELGOLAND, f RICEFE.
OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): f YEMEN, a JERUSALEM.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): f EAST INDIAN OCEAN, a MOZAMBIQUE, a KATANGA, f BAY OF BENGAL,
f MALAGASY, f BARENTS SEA, a URAL, f EAST PACIFIC OCEAN, f NIZAM, a BAGHDAD,
a WAKE, f PERSIAN GULF, f SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN, f NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, a ARMENIA,
a ROMANIA, a DENMARK, f JAVA, f PUNJAB, f FINLAND(NC), a KAZAKSTAN,
a PERSIA, a HANOVER, a HAGUE, a ZAMBIA.
SPAIN (Partridge): f SOMALIA, f MANILA, f PHILIPPINE SEA, f OREGON, f KENYA,
f GULF OF CALIFORNIA, f HAWAII, f WEST ATLANTIC OCEAN, f ARAGON, f NEW GUINEA,
a HUELVA, a MANITOBA, a ECUADOR, f GIBRALTAR, a TUNIS, f SEA OF OKHOTSK,
f CARIBBEAN SEA, f ARABIAN SEA, a BORDEAUX, a BRITTANY, f SOMALI SEA, f SOLOMON
SEA, a NUMIDIA, f GULF OF PANAMA, a SUEZ, f POLYNESIA, f SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN,
a LEON, f ALGERIA, f ARAFURA SEA, a TANGANYIKA, a COLOMBIA, a CONGO, a LIBYA,
a MISSOURI, a EGYPT, f WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA, f TARAWA.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,TRI,TAH,pps,sav,peru | (has 22) |
| gre,sam,bol,bul,par,MEL,NAP,ven, |
| fij,ist,bav,nwz,ant,izm,tou |
| CHINA (Reynolds): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,NAN, | (has 22) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,nep,mah,sia, |
| bur,cam,ben,vla,MLA,bor,afg,iwo, |
| oms |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,EDI,LON,kam,ire,gab,sum, | (has 27) |
| uga,arg,togo,SUR,QUE,gha,bel,vol, |
| bah,BRA,DAK,vza,ric,ont,ifn,azo, |
| mor,nwy,ALA,ANG |
| OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): | jer,yem | (has 2) |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 25) |
| swe,mal,zam,den,rom,han,die,GOA, |
| nat,niz,hag,cey,kha,van,jav |
| bag,persia,wak |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MANILA, | (has 38) |
| cal,tun,rab,eth,hon,tex,nwg,ken, |
| lis,lag,FLO,lou,num,tau,ohi,vir, |
| gua,tar,tim,cub,tai,bdx,sud,mas, |
| manit,fez,egy,kor,col,ore,HAW,ecu,con |
| 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: Harold Reynolds, 3025 Bridletowne Circle, Scarborough, Ontario, M1W 2C9, (416) 773-0943
hjreynolds1 of rogers.com
ENGLAND: John Power, 18 Tilton Court, Baltimore, MD 21236, (410) 933-8827 ($4)
natjohn2 of comcast.net 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
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) HELP, PLEASE, would someone volunteer to be a standby for this game? I've decided to hold the game one more deadline. I have a player who is missing (it isn't much of a secret which one, Gene has been in the hospital again) and no standbys to call. I have orders on file for everyone else. I presume that Gene is not feeling up to getting orders in. Here is what we're going to do. At the next deadline, if I don't have orders from Gene he is going to go in as voting for the two draw proposals below (if both somehow pass, the smallest one will hold sway) and if neither pass and I don't have a standby volunteer then Austria will go into CD. I don't know what else to do. Orders and votes for Spring MAY be made conditional on whether or not Austria is in CD. Obviously, I hope Gene feels better very, very soon - not because of the game, but just because I hope he can beat this!
2) We'll have a slightly altered map next time.
3) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed draw and the concession to Spain are still on the table for Spring to be voted on. Again, I want to emphasize, that a few issues ago I said: ``Michael Lowrey tells me that you need only 102 centers or 3/4 approval to get a draw to pass in this, and I believe 50 centers is required for a win. Forgive me if this sounds ``weird'' since anyone except Dave Partridge theoretically could be voted out of a draw. Clarifications or comments would be welcome.'' I had some comments and clarification and want to emphasize that these ARE the rules we are playing under, as they are the standard rules for this variant.
4) I have a personal note from Harold that I'm going to stick in here as press...
Press:
(CHINA): I wasn't allowed to watch the World Cup finals - the Masters started screaming because Blues Clues was ``more important", so I had to hear it on the radio. Too bad about the outcome - I kind of wanted Brazil to get clobbered. Oh well. I'm sure they're celebrating in the Portuguese parts of town (and it's a really hot day, and there's a garbage strike on...) I was sorry to hear of the death of Bob Acheson. I've been hearing about a lot of cancer-related deaths recently for some reason. Just this morning I heard about Rosemary Clooney's passing from lung cancer. I wonder if Biography will run something on her this week... ((Yes, this game has been pretty hard hit by illness and death. I hope we can somehow get out of that mode next issue.))
In the search for Berry Renken - I was somewhat surprised to read the ``proposal" - I too was a Blues subber, played some of the games (including a Blind Dip as Germany and several of the word games) and even GM'ed a Fuzzy Borders game in it. For some reason, I didn't think that it had a very large ``circulation", but obviously I was wrong. I too would love to know what happened to him. I can't help wondering if the Y2K thing was not just a good excuse for him to throw it in, having gotten tired of running it? I have no idea, but I hope he's OK... ((See another comment on Berry up above...))
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1911 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1911 IS AUGUST 24TH, 2002
Spring 1911
ENGLAND (Sayers): f LON h, a GAS S FRENCH f mar, f NAO S f mid, a KIE S a mun, f MID h,
f ENG S f mid, f HOL h, f POR S FRENCH f spa(sc).
FRANCE (Sasseville): f MAR s f spa(sc), f SPA(SC) s f mar, a MUN s a bur, a BUR S a mun.
GERMANY (Barno): a VIE h.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a MOS h, a LVN S a mos, a BER S FRENCH a mun, f BAL S a pru, a STP S a mos, a PRU s a ber.
TURKEY (Linsey): f ION-tyh, a rum-UKR, a WAR S a sil-pru, f WES-spa(sc), a SEV-mos,
f TYH-wes, a SIL-pru, a TYO S a boh-mun, f NAF-mid, f TUN S f tyh-wes, f TUS S f gol,
a PIE-mar, f GOL S a pie-mar, a GAL S a war, a BOH-mun.
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, 692 Crest Dr., Valparaiso, IN 46383, (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) The FRET and FREGT draws are rejected and are reproposed. Please vote again with your Summer orders. Generally you need to vote again unless you insist to me that a vote you have made wants to be perpetual. Any failure to vote vetoes the draws. I should note that I don't have a specific rule about calling a draw with no movement. You just play on, BUT what I am doing is calling on my rule for allowing failure to vote on the draws counting as a ``yes''. This is done with warning. Starting with the Winter orders, you have to vote EVERY season or your no vote or failure to vote becomes a ``yes''. This is the ``fair warning'' before I do that. Initially this will NOT count those of you who have given me perpetual draw votes, but after another period of no movement, everyone will have to vote on the draws every season.
Press:
| EDWARD TELLER: 2002?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1902 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Summer 1902
AUSTRIA (Kenny): has f TRI; and nuked AEG(2), WES, ION, BLA, MID.
ENGLAND (Schultz): has f NWG; and nuked CON, SMY(2), ANK, AEG(2), BUL.
FRANCE (Rauterberg): has f PIC; and nuked ENG, WAL, MUN(2), SIL, GAL(2).
GERMANY (Muller): has f HEL, a PRU, a BOH; and nuked MAR, SMY(2), LVN, TYO, GAL(2).
ITALY (Andruschak): has f TYH, a TUS, a PIE; and nuked BER, MUN(2), KIE, BRE, GM!.
RUSSIA (Kendter): has f FIN, a UKR; and nuked PAR, VIE, SER, BUD.
TURKEY (McHugh): has none; and nukes withheld.
| Current Standings |
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | TOTAL |
| JOHN SCHULTZ | 3 | 3 |
| PAUL RAUTERBERG | 6 | 6 |
| KARL MULLER | 2 | 2 |
| HARRY ANDRUSCHAK | 4 | 4 |
| LEE KENDTER, JR. | 1 | 1 |
| JACK MCHUGH | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| SANDY KENNY | 3 | 3 |
| Black Holed | 8 | 14 | 22 |
| Neutral | 2 | 2 |
| Totals(eventually) | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 238 |
| Times GM Nuked | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Addresses of the Participants
John Schultz, 692 Crest Dr., Valparaiso, IN 46383, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
Karl Muller, 75-17 60 Place, Glendale, NY 11385-6044, (718) 416-1103
karlmuller of alumni.lemoyne.edu or pegandkarl of mindspring.com
Harry Andruschak, 20805 Margaret, Carson, CA 90745-1224, (310) 835-9202
harryandruschak of aol.com
Lee Kendter, Jr., 1503 Pilgrim Lane, Quakertown, PA 18951
lkendter of speakeasy.net
Jack McHugh, P.O. Box 427, Claymont, DE 19703, (302) 792-1998
flapjack of comcast.net
Sandy Kenny, 23 East Coulter Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 08108-1208 (609) 869-3160
KennyShire of aol.com
Game Notes:
1) 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. 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.
2) Note that Sandy Kenny has her own E-Mail address now.
3) A Viking win concession is proposed. Please vote with your Fall orders. Failure to vote will veto this.... well, strange proposal.
Press:
(SARA to GM): Hi, sweetie! The Italian Fleet can move through 15 black holes: Ionian Sea, Aegean Sea, Smyrna, Ankara, Constantinople, Black Sea, Rumania, Serbia, Budapest, Galicia, Vienna, Tyrolia, Munich, Silesia, Berlin, and Kiel; to wind up in Denmark or Holland.
(FRANCE to "BLACK" FRANCE): Your press last season offended someone (not me, and not the Italian to whom it was addressed). Ya gotta watch your mouth.
(GERMANY - FRANCE): Sorry that I couldn't keep them out any longer.
(ITALY-GERMANY): I would like to express my deepest regret that you coerced me into nuking your three home SCs. Had you not nuked me last turn in Holland, and bounced me in Denmark last turn, this unfortunate measure could have been avoided. I am sure that you will understand that I am hoping that you will refrain from moving your three units into any of Italy's home SCs or Tunis, thus sparing me the anguish of having to lambaste you again in the year 1902. Thank you for your cooperation.
(HISTORICAL NOTE): ``Pope Joan" was never elected. Marozia Theophylact was the ``power behind the throne" when her sons were popes in the 9th Century.
(KRAUT - NORSE): Nah, it wasn't that it was too cold, but we had seen enough stagings of "Hamlet" to last us for the rest of the game...
(SIR JOHN OF THE QUEEN'S ROYAL ORDER OF KNIGHTHOOD (OR WOULD THAT BE SIR JOHN OF THE ROYAL ORDER OF THE QUEENSHOOD) AND HARRY A-SCHACK OF THE QUEEN'S ROYAL ORDER OF THE NUKE BOMBERS, LUFTWAFFE WING - BYSTANDERS): Time to either play polo, dress like Ralph Laurenz ((sic)) or act like an ostrich. This game is going south in a hurry.
(ITALY-THE OTHER FIVE POWERS): I hope I have made it clear about staying out of Italy's home SCs and Tunis? This heartfelt desire applies to Austria, Russia, and Turkey as well. England can move into Norway unopposed, and France can move into Belgium unopposed.
(KENNY to MCHUGH): One more NMR Nuke and I will nuke you out of PA as well as every other province you could get to. No more cheesesteak for you.
(HARRY ANDRUSCHAK-AILULOPHILES): An update on Pearly, the 15 year old cat I adopted last February after her previous owner died. After her trip to the vet last May for an annual checkup, she was found to have weakening kidneys, a fairly common problem in elderly cats. So the vet and I agreed to put her on a special diet, ``Hill's Prescription Diet Feline K/D" dry food. It has taken me about two months to wean her away from the wet canned cat food she was used to over to the dry food. But the dry food will be better for her teeth and will not spoil in California's hot summer weather. She is now nibbling her ration of 3/8 cup of feed per day. This is the amount she needs to keep her weight at a healthy 5-1/2pounds.
(THE PRUSSIAN PURSEY): I'm holding bets on this game. Any game that has Rauterberg that is not a rout is bound to bomb. Anyone want in on the betting for the final score! Can't be any further off then the Boobs bobo-head prediction of the World Cup final. ((Thank you, thank you, thank you.... ;-) I'm gratified you noticed my ineptitude!)) Was that 0-0 (nine - cero, more appropriately)?
(ITALY-FRANCE): We are saddened to have received the following E-mail from you: ``Hi Harry: I'm holding you responsible for the "coordinated" 3 player nuking of my home centers. You'll be hurting next season, so grab what ya can this one....-Paul" Excuse me, sir, but I did not coordinate anything. I merely suggested that others note that you were in the lead. Is it my fault they decided to do something about it? Still, if you insist on a pissing contest, you will have a significant advantage over me, from your being an intact male. But it will still be M.A.D.
(ALBERT I-NSTEIN to EDDIE TELLER ON THE MOUNTAIN): Are you rolling over in your grave? Are you over the hill and everywhere? Go tell it on the mountain, to set my armies free!
(GERMANY - RUSSIA): Ha! No one annhilates on of my armies and gets away with it! Um, well, I suppose just this once.
(ANDRUSCHAK to KENDTER): Now you know what it's like to get bombed in the press, the game AND in life.
(BLACK HOLE BLACK PRESS BLACKIE): I sure am glad that kids have turned me on to MyKaZaA. The heck with Napster. Download, download, download. Anyone out there know whether MP3 technology will supercede CDs?
(BOOB to BLACKIE): I was unsure what you meant, so I put this here, like this. I have no idea since I've not taken my music joys to the Internet, not sure why, but I just haven't.
(ANDRUSCHAK-WORLD): The next two months may be busy as I continue to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, move to a new apartment (COA when known), and continue to battle health problems related to my hypogonadism.
(JIM-BOB to HARRY): Good luck!!
| EMBRACING THE CONSTRAINTS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules |
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 14 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Turn 13
| 123 (no replenishment): | Halbert (10) |
| 122 (no replenishment): | Dana (12) |
| 121 (no replenishment): | None |
-F-I-N-A-L- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
| 120 (no replenishment): | None |
| 119 (replenish with a 3): | Enfield |
| 118 (no replenishment): | None |
| 117 (no replenishment): | None |
| 116 (no replenishment): | None |
| 115 (no replenishment): | None |
| 114 (replenish with a 3): | Brandon the Kiwi, |
| 113 (no replenishment): | None |
| 112 (no replenishment): | None |
| 111 (replenish with a 3): | Alfred the Great |
| 110 (no replenishment): | None |
| 109 (no replenishment): | None |
| 108 (replenish with a 3): | Rectangle |
| 107 (replenish with a 4): | Rhombus, William Shakespeare |
| 106 (replenish with a 6): | Square |
| 105 (replenish with a 7): | Charlie Brown, Alfalfa, Dennis the Menace |
| 104 (replenish with a 10): | Greenwich, Boniface |
| 103 (replenish with a 12): | Beaver |
| 102 (replenish with a 13): | Diamond |
| 101 (no replenishment): | None |
| 100 (replenish with a 3): | Prescott |
| 99 (no replenishment): | None |
| 98 (no replenishment): | None |
| 97 (no replenishment): | None |
| 96 (no replenishment): | None |
| 95 (replenish with a 3): | Sir Isaac Newton |
| 94 (replenish with a 4): | Peery the Peacock |
| 93 (replenish with a 5): | I.K. Brunel |
| 92 (no replenishment): | None |
| 91 (no replenishment): | None |
| 90 (replenish with a 3): | Edi the Emu, Dave the Tinamou |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (The Quabbin Reservoirs): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(17 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Dana | Finished Third! (14) |
| B: Enfield | 3 3 3 (7) |
| C: Greenwich | 10 9 10 (8) |
| D: Prescott | 6 4 3 (3) |
TEAM 2 (The Flightless Birds): Rick Desper, 319 West Side Dr., #102 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(18 points) (301) 977-7691, rick_desper of yahoo.com
| Coached by Petey the Penguin |
| A: Edi the Emu | 3 3 3 3 (3) |
| B: Dave the Tinamou | 3 3 3 (3) |
| C: Brandon the Kiwi | 7 3 3 (12) |
| D: Peery the Peacock | 6 4 4 (3) |
TEAM 3 (The Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(19 points) fiendish of operamail.com, John.Harrington of tfeurope.com
| A: Alfred the Great | 8 10 5 3 (10) |
| B: William Shakespeare | 4 3 4 (15) |
| C: Sir Isaac Newton | 3 14 3 (5) |
| D: Isambard Kingdom Brunel | 18 7 5 (4) |
TEAM 4 (The Border Riders): Tom Howell, 365 Storm King Road, Port Angeles, WA 98363
(62 points) off-the-shelf of olympus.net
| Manager: the White Maid |
| A: Alice of Avenel | Finished First! |
| B: abbot Boniface | 6 5 10 (14) |
| C: Christie of Clint-hill | Finished Second! |
| D: Halbert Glendinning | Finished Fourth! (16) |
TEAM 5 (The Quadrilaterals): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(17 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Rhombus | 5 4 3 4 (9) |
| B: Square | 6 4 6 (9) |
| C: Rectangle | 3 4 3 (11) |
| D: Diamond | 3 8 13 (6) |
TEAM 6 (The Bad Boys): Jim Tretick, 13267 Coppermill Drive, Herndon, VA 20171, (703) 713-1328
(3 points) JTretickGames of aol.com
| A: Alfalfa: | 8 16 7 (10) |
| B: Beaver: | 5 4 12 (6) |
| C: Charlie Brown: | 3 3 7 (3) |
| D: Dennis the Menace: | 3 13 7 (11) |
Game Notes:
1) I am going BACK to the designer rules for Breaking Away that allow cards of greater than 15 to be replenished. The Breaking Away bonus is earned only on the FIRST turn that you break away from the pack. I printed the original postal rules in Issue #239, if you need a copy and don't have that issue, just ask.
2) The number in parentheses is what you played, the last card in your list is the one you replenished with.
3) I think all the rest of the points can be claimed next turn, but I'll let you guys figure it out, and you never know when an NMR ``play your lowest card'' could change the results. I will say publicly that a few turns ago Tom predicted the full point scoring order of finish to me and he looks like he might get it exactly right. The man's a cycling fiend! Tell me if you want into the new game!!
Press:
(ALICE to BOOB): Yeah, why coast? What's the point of having unburnt jetfuel after finishing?
(BOOB to ALICE): I don't know, mercy? If Boniface were doing a bit better, then you might have more points than all five of the others put together. You're within shouting distance of that.
(TOM to QUADS AND BAD BOYS): I'll try to organize some hints for you. Look for them next turn or in the end game statements.
(TRIUMPH - > BOOB): I have usurped the position of ``Petey the Penguin". That frigid fool played three of my players into oblivion. So now I'm running things!
(TRIUMPH - > BRANDON): Pedal that Kiwi butt as hard as you can!
(PEERY - > BOOB): Well, I may not be doing so hot in this race, but what do you expect? Be thankful I do not produce prose at the same rate as my namesake!
(DAVE & EDI - > DAVE & EDI): Sorry we've brought shame to your names.
(WHITE MAID to BRIT PACK): The old ``NMR tactic"? I know it well. I try to reserve it for ... well, ``special occasions".
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2009 IS AUGUST 3RD, 2002
Summer 2009
BRITAIN (Schultz): R a stp-EST; has a FIN, f NTH, a MUR, f DEN,
f BAL, a EST, f BRN, f GOB, f SKA.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): R f ion-APU; has f MOR, f MAL, f APU, a SYR, a NAP,
a IRK, f IZM.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): has a SAX, a MUN, f PRU, f HAM, f GDA, f BRI,
a AUS, a PAR, f BEL, a CZE, a SIL, a MIL, f HOL, a PIE.
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): has f GIB, f SAO, a BAR, a NAV, a AUV, f MAO, f MAR,
a ROM, f GOL, a MON.
UKRAINE (Partridge): has a ODE, a RUM, a VOL, a GOR, a MOS, a KRA, a POD, f WBS,
f IST, a STP, a SLO, a WAR, f ION, a VEN, a ADA, a URA, a HUN, a BIE, f GRE,
a LIT, f ADR, a IRN, a CRO.
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, 692 Crest Dr., Valparaiso, IN 46383, (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
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) 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''.
2) I'm going to put this note down here, though it probably deserves a bit more publicity. John Schultz announced his lake house purchase last week, time for me to announce mine THIS issue! Charlotte and I have bought a house on a lake in Maine. It's really exactly what we have been looking for over the last few years.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Two girls lost on a dead man's chest; doing what they like to best; pecking at unknown alphabets, alphabets that lead to gold; across seas made of stars, dreams glittering under dead men's bones!'' from ``Into the Strange", also from Pussy, King of the Pirates.
(TO THE MEKONS): ``Pussy, King of Pirates"? Shouldn't that be Pussy, Queen of Privates?
(MEKONS): See above....
(WEBSTER'S DEFINITION): Idiot - million dollar ballplayer who speaks without ``thinking about the ramifications of his statement.''
(JEFF to JIM): If there is baseball, I'll certainly be pulling for my X-Indians and your Red Sox and I understand why in the middle of a pennant race you don't want a strike. However, what I'm really pulling for is a strike and a replacement player led breaking of the Baseball Players' Association union like the NFL. It is not in my nature to pull for union busting, given the fact that my father used to run a union shop that employed 175 union painters and paper hangers (how's that for a contradiction, a ``Republican Union Shop"), but I see no other way to end the insanity.
(PS): Johnny Damon sucks! ;-)
(BOOB to JEFF): I'm sorry, he only sucks the life out of the Red Sox opponents.
(PS #2): What will you give me for Jim Thome???
(BOOB to JEFF): Won't happen, Cleveland wants too much and Thome just wants to be ``rented'' for the rest of a season that might not even happen.
(THE CONTINUING CONVERSATION KIRK AND SPOCK [K & S]):
K - I've decided to attack the Klingons.
S - Why?
K - I like killing Klingons.
S - Nuff said!
K - What are you doing, Spock?
S - In continuing my research on 21st Century baseball, in particular the famous 2002 American League pennant chase.
K - What happened?
S - The New York Yankees won a record 118 games.
K - Wow! How many games did they win the division by?
S - That's the rub, Captain, they finished second to the Boston Red Sox who won 121.
K - That's amazing, what happened when they met in the American League Championship?
S - That's just it, Captain, they didn't meet. The Red Sox were swept in 3 games in the first round by the Cleveland Indians.
K - The Indians? That must be before they changed their name to the ``Spiders'' in a settlement of a lawsuit with Native Americans.
S - That's right, Captain, but it gets better. The Indians were the only team in pro sports history to win their division with a losing record 80-82.
K - How in the world did Cleveland beat Boston?
S - It wasn't easy. Game one and two were in Boston. With the Indians leading Game One, 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th, and Bill Traber pitching a perfect game, former Indian Carlos Baerga pinch hits with two outs and nobody on. Baerga hit what looked like a game tying perfect game shattering home run over the Green Monster. In all of the excitement, Baerga misses first base on his home run trot and was called out on appeal. The game came to be known as the ``Imperfect Game.'' In Game Two, the Indians also won 1-0 in an afternoon game. The Indians were aided by former Indian slugger Manny Ramirez, who didn't show up for the game claiming he thought the game was at nite (ooops!). The bizarre turn of events turned surreal in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game Three in Cleveland. The Indians were trailing 3-0 with two outs but managed to load the bases on an infield single, a throwing error by Boston starter and eventual loser John (the Idiot!) Burkett and a hit batter. With Indian 2nd baseman John MacDonald due up, Tribe player manager Omar Vizquel decided to pinch hit former Red Sox goat Bill Buckner.
K - Wait a minute, I'm pretty familiar with that name. Didn't he play point guard for the Milwaukee Bucks?
S - No, Captain, that was Quinn Buckner.
K - OK, but wasn't he a little old to be playing for the Indians at that time?
S - Yes, and there was a lot of debate at the time that Buckner was the beneficiary of a Youthakon steroid antiagupe (anti-aging drug).
K - I've read stories about antiagupes before but I've never heard it suggested that one was ever manufactured and used for real. If Buckner was using in 2002, what happened to the drug?
S - Your question actually ties into the story. Buckner is at bat with the bases loaded and he hits a 550 foot grand slam out of Jacobs Field onto Eagle Street. At the victory celebration, urban legend has it that Buckner's older brother Skippy along with Bill went to a campfire victory celebration on a Lake Erie beach. Skippy had invented the drug. He brought the formula for the drug to the party. As the evening progressed, they wadded the formula up and were throwing it around the beach area. Unknown to the Buckners was the presence of party crasher and former Met Mookie Wilson. When the formula was randomly thrown to Mookie, he politely threw it back to Bill Buckner. The toss was a little low and was bouncing to him. When he bent over, it went between his legs and into the campfire. The formula was destroyed and Skippy (also a user) didn't have a duplicate copy. He died of withdrawal symptoms before he could reformulate the drug.
K - THere was no real evidence that the Buckners were using, was there?
S - No, but Buckner couldn't even play in the Championship Series against the Yankees after hitting 20 homers and knocking in 65 RBI's in his six week stint with the Tribe while he was playing a pretty good centerfield at the age of 55.
K - How'd the Tribe do against the Yankees?
S - They lost four straight as usual and the Yankees went on to beat the Montreal Expos in the World Series. Montreal went on to Washington the next year to become the Washington Senators in the famous baseball ``Stadium Gate'' scandal.
K - Stadium Gate?
S - Yes, the Expos bribed then Indians' general manager Mark (another real idiot!) Shapiro into trading the Expos Bartolo Colon and future Hall of Famer and top Indian prospect Tim Drew to the Expos to make them an instant pennant contender and to leverage DC voters into voting yes on a half billion domed stadium for the new Senators. Baseball commissioner Bud (yet another idiot) Selig was also in on the deal. Bud Selig and Mark Shapiro were banned for life from baseball for their participation and the scandal waas partially responsible for the Indians eventually changing their name to the Spiders and the eventual collapse of baseball as a major league sport. Baseball was eventually replaced by international domjot which was eventually embraced by the Ferengi.
K - So if Mark Shapiro doesn't trade Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew it is possible that the Ferengi never would have learned how to play and exploit the game domjot?
S - That's right, Captain.
K - Isn't ``history'' amazin'!?
S - If you say so.
Personal Note to You: