THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #265

November 11, 2002

Produced by Jim Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327 USA, (401)351-0287

Web Page Address: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html

We have two issues of Michael Lowrey's subszine and one of David Partridge's in this issue. David notes a deadline of one week from today (probably not as you're going to be getting this) of November 18th. He can keep that deadline, or one near it and have his next issue go with my next issue, or he can wait. I'll leave that up to him, contact him if you are unsure of your game's status. And there is NO sign of Don Williams. I haven't talked to him in some time. He may be affected by some of the things that were affecting me....

``Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it'' The Scarecrow, from the ``second'' Oz book, The Land of Oz, being said to Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug T. E.  (as in Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated) who then when trying to read the fine academic Ode he composed for Ozma's birthday in the ``fifth'' Oz book, The Road to Oz the Scarecrow basically tells the Woggle-Bug to ``stuff it'' at the planning session for Ozma's party. Though the Woggle-Bug does eventually deliver his Ode at the party, one might wonder who or what is unusual and what one does to that which is unusual once one is accustomed to it. You also may wonder why I am suddenly resorting to quote from L. Frank Baum's books, but as a longtime fan of Baum's I recently bought a really neat biography of him by Katherine Rogers that I highly recommend. It likely will complete the resurrection of Baum as an author worthy of attention that has been coming along for some decades now. Most of you probably really only know the original Wizard of Oz movie, but I actually have always liked The Land of Oz best that tells where Ozma comes from. You read it and tell me that it is not complex literature that has a lot to say about our diverse society of today. Can we embrace diversity or will it sink us? That is the question of this century that Baum tackled a hundred years ago.

I know, I know, this was a LONG break. I needed it from three perspectives that I want to briefly explain to you all, despite the acknowledged ``lack of interest" in Szine Editors regaling you with excuses why they were late.

First off, the one you all know. If anyone ever tells you trouble or bad luck comes in threes, tell them it comes in fours, at least in Diplomacy. That run of obituaries just became more than I could stand, and I couldn't stand the idea of printing more of the comments and remembrances in this issue, so I haven't. If anyone didn't have what they wrote printed and wants to work it up into something for print and print it somewhere else, that's fine by me. Also, I'm trying to finish up Diplomacy World and anything you want to write more as an article also would be fantastic but we're done with it here to go back to life, gaming, and fun.

Second, as I told you all, I bought a summer house in Maine, that I've also been using this fall. So far, the new toy has cut into szine editing time and I'm not sure what the long run outcomes are, but the house is now shut up for the winter and I'm back with more free time. But this is a happy circumstance. And then the last weekend where I had lots of time to work on the szine I spent playing Diplomacy at ``DavidCon'' in Boston with David Norman visiting from England. We had a great time and got more people excited about coming to World DipCon in February. I have my plane tickets now, so I'm definitely going. You should be going too. There are likely to be OVER 200 players this time, be one of them!! The discounted entry fee of only $30 for World DipCon is available ONLY until the end of November! Those outside of North America get in entirely for free! See all the info you need at:

/armada/2003/

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly to me and least importantly to you, I've been getting blasted at work..... the government job part of my work. Since the Republican administration came into office they have been diligently trying to wrest control of the government bureaucracy from the bureaucrats. Part of my job, only part, is essentially as a bureaucrat. And it took awhile, but the Secretary and Deputy Secretary finally started coming after me, at least by proxy. The easiest way to put this in context is to note that this is what that debate you've been hearing about for the Homeland Security Dept. (which would NOT include me) is about. The Republicans in the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (my agency) are trying to take direct control of the over 100,000 personal services contracts in my agency. We're not sure if they actually want to manage them all, which would be impossible, OR if they just want to control which types of contracts should be allowed, OR if they actually want to encourage more of them to replace more government employees with consultant and contracted services. If it is the latter, this is backfiring in my agency as it has brought contracting to a near halt. Anyway, this is all terribly boring, but it has been consuming my energy and time with writing contract justifications, etc.

This brings me to a brief commentary on Iraq (opposing views welcome) that a couple of people in the szine have asked me to make. I would have said more or less the same thing a couple of months ago..... though what I would have said has become more topical right this instant. First of all, I get VERY conditional about what I think is adequate justification and intent to actually REALLY invade Iraq with a full frontal attack. Some of that will become clear below. I really like that the President allowed Colin Powell to do his job and work out the UN Resolution. A few months ago, I would have said that the effort was doomed without lots of Colin Powell's input.

And the key: Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons would be potentially REALLY destabilizing, so something needed to be done before he got them. The question is (and intelligence on the issue is not public, shouldn't be public, and may be wrong) when would/will he get them? I'm NOT worried about his chemical and biological stockpiles as many of them were destroyed in the 1990's with the earlier inspection efforts and Saddam doesn't have especially good delivery devices set up. But I am worried about Saddam with nukes. And even peacenik types should be as well.

So, let's assume that we have to trust our President and know he can't tell all our secrets. How do I think they came to have a ``perfect storm" of policy events (the latest buzzword for the year) that led to near unanimity in the Bush Administration? Well, mainly it was that every segment of the policy community had its issue and people could stand with people who had reasons that differed from theirs, but with similar aims. What were some of those issues? Nuclear weapons (which is ``my'' issue) certainly was one. Other people were hung up on chemical and biological weapons. With smallpox, it is HIGHLY likely that the vaccine, if widely deployed, will kill far more people than the disease WOULD have killed with no vaccinations, even if Saddam tried to release it, which I happen to think he won't do (his people likely would suffer the most). Other people were focused on the idea of bringing REAL democracy to the Middle East (I am also really sympathetic with this one, but highly skeptical about the Bush Administration's ability to carry it out, witness the current disaster in Afghanistan; BUT it could start the ``domino effect'' that brings down repressive regimes that we support in the Middle East; thus, I don't think that argument has much general sway). Yet others were worried about oil and the economy. Some were worried about the ``Axis of Evil" and international terrorism (not something I think Saddam actually is very involved in). And yet others were interested in reigning in other countries (read France and Russia) who were taking advantages of the UN sanctions to secretly trade with Iraq at a profit.

Colin Powell did a great job of working with the UN (where different countries had different degrees of concern and trust in the US across these issues, and I'm sure I've left some out - some people may actually care about the Iraqi people!!!) to work through all of this to focus on the step of weapons inspectors first. As I finish this issue up, the Iraqi legislature is finishing up their obligatory unanimous vote against the UN resolution. Now the dealing with Saddam in earnest begins. I hope we don't rush to war, but go to war we must if we don't shut down the growing nuclear capabilities. Give it time, though, why be presumptive unless we're really sure he's about to go nuclear? I don't see that.

Interesting how the government works with all of these divided opinions, interests, and loyalties. There was something of a perfect storm that brought all of this together (I'm not the only one to say this of course), but what I would emphasize is that the future is murky for the Bush Administration with those deep divisions, especially if the interests in the various driving force issues diverge as we go forward from here.

I wish we were truly interested in nation building. It would be good for our economy, our world standing, and for the only thing that will really stop terrorism - development of real trans-nation world communities, based on citizenship and democratic principles. I worry that when the other interests I mention are dealt with, just as they were with much lower stakes in Afghanistan, the US will back away. And we won't start a deluge of democracy in the region that has a chance to free even more countries from oppression.

But enough sermonizing. The tough stuff REALLY is to come. Let's see if the Bush Administration (and the diverse individuals in it) have the stomach for it.

Next up the details of the Hobby Awards. You can see the announcement electronically to freely reproduce throughout the hobby at:

/Postal/Zines/TAP/ANNOUNCE02.html

2002 HOBBY AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT

The new announcement for this year is the institution of a new award. We are going to call it the Kathy Byrne Caruso Lifetime Achievement Award and unlike the other awards it is going to be awarded by the Committee –- you know, like in the Academy Awards – but all of you are eligible to nominate people for it each year. This award is being named in loving memory of one of the greatest player personalities the game has ever seen, who also happens to be a woman. Kathy Byrne Caruso died in August 2002 from complications in her battle with lung cancer. In issues #263 and #264 of The Abyssinian Prince, you can see her picture (/Postal/Zines/TAP/tapfp264.pdf) and remembrances of her and her career. The qualifications for the Kathy Byrne Caruso Lifetime Achievement Award are that the awardee must have been: (1) Active in the Diplomacy Hobby in at least Three Separate Decades; (2) Multidimensional in their Contributions to the Hobby (e.g. writing, playing, publishing); (3) Taking Retirement or Semi-Retirement from the Diplomacy Hobby; and (4) One of the Hobby’s Unique Personalities Worthy of Being Remembered as Long as THE Game Continues to be Played. Now to the awards: thanks to all of the nominees, even though who did not win received plenty of support from the more than 75 voters. I still hope that we can have even more participation next year. Thanks as well to those who contributed money toward the plaques that all of the winners will be receiving in the mail soon. Recall that you can look at all of the nominees and the entire Ballot on the web:

/Postal/Zines/TAP/BALLOT02.html

And now to this new special lifetime achievement award and all of this year’s awards (note that there were TWO ties and that those two awards each are being awarded in duplicate!):

The 2002 Kathy Byrne Caruso Award for Lifetime Achievement is awarded to Richard Sharp

There cannot be a more appropriate winner of the first award, especially in light of the worldwide expansion of the scope of the hobby and the Hobby Awards, than Richard Sharp. Richard’s szine Dolchstoss began thirty years ago and has been a workhorse of the British Diplomacy Hobby, until recently being in semi-suspension due to Richard’s own battles with cancer. Luckily, I hear from him that he is doing better lately and we hope he is with us for many years longer. Richard also has produced one of the great books on the strategy and tactics of Diplomacy, The Game of Diplomacy (http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/god.htm), which is still widely consulted on the Web today by novice and experienced players alike. Richard’s letter columns and commentaries also always have a great deal of bite to them as he comments on events from a conservative point of view. For more detail on all of this, my interview with Richard for Diplomacy World fleshes all of this out in much greater detail:

http://www.diplomacyworld.org/issues/issue88/88interview4.htm

The Don Miller Award for Meritorious Service is awarded to Chad Schroeder

Chad is the founder and webmaster of the Redscape site (http://www.redscape.com) for the play of Diplomacy. The Redscape site started up in 1998 with just Chad and one other volunteer hosting games by hand. It then added a Redscape Forum structure in 2000 that allowed any member to host a game for the community. There are currently 68 games of Diplomacy being played and around 220 games concluded since the site inception. There are 1767 registered profiles, but Chad estimates around 400 members are active at any one time. Chad currently is working on a major redesign of the site, but this award shows how people already value what he has created to date. It seems to me as an observer that games fill with enthusiasm and with lightning quickness as Chad has built a great Internet Diplomacy gaming community.

A 2002 Rod Walker Award for Literary Achievement is awarded to Glenn Ledder

Glenn is receiving this award for his article on Stable Two-Way Draws in Standard Diplomacy, which appeared in the Spring 2001 Movement Issue of The Diplomatic Pouch:

/Zine/S2001M/Ledder/TwoWayDraws.html

Note that in the original ballot this article was listed as a joint authored article between Glenn and Karlis Povisils. After nominations, I was informed that the article is Part I of an intended two part article on this subject where Part I was authored solely by Glenn Ledder. Karlis informs me that he is working diligently on the Part II article now and we all hope to see that in print as well soon. Glenn’s article addresses a subject that the voters clearly want to hear more about -– advice on how to deal with the endgame in Diplomacy - where mistakes, as Glenn notes to me, are irredeemable.

A 2002 Rod Walker Award for Literary Achievement is awarded to Joe Brennan

Joe is receiving this award for his article on How to Solo, which appeared in the Fall 2001 Movement Issue of The Diplomatic Pouch:

/Zine/F2001M/Brennan/HowToSolo.html

Note that this article also deals with the endgame and provides loads of practical advice on this perhaps most important endgame strategy from a player who has pulled off lots of solos. This award also is richly deserved for someone relatively new to the writing ranks (he only wrote What is a Newbie /Zine/F2000M/Brennan/Newbie.html) and came off that designation just two years ago), but with lots of future potential.

A 2002 John Koning Award for Player Performance is awarded to Cyrille Sevin

Cyrille is receiving this award for winning World DipCon XI in Paris last summer to become the first Two-Time World DipCon Champion (/Face/results/zWDC2001.html). This continues a trend where the voters are putting a great deal of emphasis on successful FTF Tournament play and the Paris World DipCon arguably has the deepest and best roster of any tournament in the last five years. See Edi Birsan’s commentary on how Cyrille won in Diplomacy World:

http://www.diplomacyworld.org/issues/issue88/88voting_at_an_end.htm

Today, Cyrille actively is trying to improve his play-by-E-Mail skills.

A 2002 John Koning Award for Player Performance is awarded to Brian Dennehy

Brian is receiving this award for his play in a wide variety of forums, including finishing with the most total points at World DipCon XI in Paris (/Face/results/zWDC2001.html) last summer and losing the overall championship in the tie-breaker with Cyrille Sevin:

http://www.diplomacyworld.org/issues/issue88/88first_is_the_worst.htm

One could have hoped that the voting could have provided another answer to that Final Board tie and in a sense it did. Brian also won E-Mail games in 2001 where he has been proficient as well.

The Fred Hyatt Award for GM Performance is awarded to Tom Reinecker

Tom is a GM at Redscape (http://www.redscape.com), the Diplomacy gaming community started by Chad Schroeder, who won this year’s Don Miller Award. Like last year’s Fred Hyatt Award winner, Doug Burgoyne, Tom Reinecker is the GM of a very large world variant of his own design that he GM’s by hand. WW IV (/Postal/Zines/TAP/ww4map-ver31.jpg), depending on the version, has either 29 or 30 players. The latest game opening by Tom for this variant, that was opened recently on Redscape, filled in a day and a half. This is direct market testimony to how players think about Tom’s GM performance. You can become a member of Redscape and join new versions of this large variant.

Thanks to all of those who contributed money toward the plaques for the awards. The donations were especially generous this year. After the award plaques are produced and mailed an accounting of the expenses will be available from me or the Treasurer, Fred Davis. The Committee currently consists of myself (Chair), Fred Davis (Treasurer), Gary Behnen, Melinda Holley, Jamie Dreier, Paul Kenny, Mark Stretch, and Robert Lesco. Thanks to all who voted and made these awards the success that they have been. There were over 75 of you for the second consecutive year from all over the world and the hobby. And winners of awards came from five different countries, see their current addresses as of October 2002 below:

Current Postal and E-Mail Addresses of the Winners:

Richard Sharp, Norton House, Whielden Street, Amersham, Bucks, GREAT BRITAIN HP7 0HU (richard of dolchstoss.com)

Chad Schroeder, 1110 N. Puente St., Brea, CA 92821 USA (gmchad of redscape.com)

Glenn Ledder, 825 Oldfather Hall, Dept. of Math and Stat., PO Box 880323, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0323 USA (gledder of math.unl.edu)

Joe Brennan, 4 Terminalia Street, Redlynch, Qld, 4870, AUSTRALIA (jgbrennan of iprimus.com.au)

Cyrille Sevin, Turkenstr. 21, D-80799, Munchen, GERMANY (Cyrille.Sevin of eurocopter.com)

Brian Dennehy, 8 Parkgate Place, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8, IRELAND (denno88 of yahoo.com)

Tom Reinecker, 97 Lyndale Drive, Rochester, NY 14624 USA (treineck of rochester.rr.com)

Respectfully submitted, Jim Burgess, burgess of world.std.com , 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327 USA

Chairman of the Hobby Awards Committee

And now I finally get to the usual header stuff. 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 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. Really, you can. John's E-Mail address also is commishjohn of att.net if you want to send him E-Mail after all that. The future of the League of course is a bit up in the air, though it looks like we will have another season. John still has openings! Contact him at commishjohn of att.net if you're interested in joining us.

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 ED HENRY

Find him and win the fifty buck prize!! You have until Issue number 270 to find him. I want to tell Ed about Kathy and all sorts of other things. No one found Berry Renken, so he goes into the backlog pile. There is a ``full board'' there now, help me out and earn yourself some cash!!! Ed Henry was very active in the hobby in the 1980's. I don't think he's the same Ed Henry who's so famous right now working on Kiplinger's magazine (writes the Car reviews and is African American), but he could be. Ask him and find out!

Feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Berry, 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 Berry Renken or 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.

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 announcement for NEW WORLDMASTERS)

WorldMasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Finals Completed!!

CONGRATULATIONS to WorldMasters 200 Champion Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu!!!

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 final SC standing, which is what counts in a C-Diplo based tournament) are:

AUSTRIA: Jack Brawner - Find Jack at TrojanOwl of aol.com, stabbed viciously at the end, handing the sure win to Joe and ended up with 5 centers in 1912.

ENGLAND: Mike Weinzimer - Find Mike at mweinzimer of yahoo.com, and he continues his yo-yoing at the end and ended up back DOWN at 2 centers in 1912

FRANCE: Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu - Find Joe at janbu of online.no, and his final surge was the wildly successful one as he won the C-Diplo SC based scoring for the final round with 10 centers in 1912 and the WorldMasters Championship!

GERMANY: Douglas Vaughan - Find Douglas at vaughan4 of mindspring.com, and after his surge to seven he collapsed down to 5 centers, where he ended 1912.

ITALY: Egbert ``Egg'' Ferreira - You can find Egg at egbert of salavip.com.br, and he was eliminated at the end of 1907, poor, poor Egg....

RUSSIA: Darren Koch - You can find the Aussie Darren at koch_family of bigpond.com, and he still was holding strong at 7 centers at the end of 1912, but that was NOT enough.

TURKEY: Frank Johansen - Find Frank at frank.johansen of diplomacy.no, and he ended 1912 back down to 5 centers as his last attack collapsed.

The wondrous Peter Richardson pjrich of ntlworld.com was the GM. See other details at:

http://wwww.cat23.com/forum/default.asp?m=553 and http://www.cat23.com/wm00-finals/289.

Now, we have the NEW WorldMasters tournament coming up REAL SOON NOW. I would like to enter and play and lead a The Abyssinian Prince team again this time around after serving on the advisory committee for this one. Volunteers to join me? I need seven players!!! See http://www.cat23.com/wm02 for full details. Signup closes on November 25th, there looks like there will be about 350 players, give or take a few boards, this time around. Contact me IMMEDIATELY if you are interested!

DIPDOM NEWS SECTION (with letters)

Obscure and not-so-obscure ramblings on the state of the hobby and its publications, custodians, events, and individuals with no guarantee of relevance from the fertile keyboard of Jim-Bob, the E-Mail Dip world, and the rest of the postal hobby. My comments are in italics and ((double quotation marks)) like this. Bold face is used to set off each individual speaker. I should also make a note that I do edit for syntax and spelling on occasion.

The game Diplomacy is a copyrighted product owned by Hasbro and all reproductions or other use of that material in this szine is intended to be personal use and not infringe on those rights in any way. All reproductions are done at a heavy financial loss to the editor and thus are without the remotest possibility of commercial intent, except to promote THE game, the Game of Diplomacy, which you all should purchase from Hasbro or other duly licensed distributors.

In what I believe is a RECENT change, Hasbro also has been putting the rules to Diplomacy up on their web page along with rules for most of their other games. Not only that, but they have the ``current'' as well as an older version of the rules there. Stephen Agar has matched that and more with some of the even older rulebooks. Check these out if you like:

http://www.hasbro.com/default.asp?x=cc_gameandtoyinstructions

http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF

http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy(OlderVers).PDF

Nice of them to make BOTH of these available. And all seven different US rulebooks for Diplomacy can now be found here courtesy of Stephen Agar:

http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/old_rulebooks.htm

Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org

The 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. The Fall issue will be finished up VERY soon!

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 Hobby Awards balloting is completed. See the ballot at:

/Postal/Zines/TAP/BALLOT02.html

See the results at: /Postal/Zines/TAP/ANNOUNCE02.html.

Also see the detailed results up at the top of the szine.

Mike Barno (Wed, 16 Oct 2002 21:20:49 -0400)

Hey, Jim, you should have come to Tempest in a Teapot IV near Washington last weekend; you would have enjoyed it. Rick Desper will probably have a few notes and Andy Marshall sent out the full standings and award winners today.

There were about 45 people, up to 42 at a time so we had six boards Friday night, six boards Saturday, and five boards Sunday. There were two variants Saturday night (Double Secret Diplomacy where six players each run two countries out of twelve on a 59-dot variant map, and Payola Diplomacy where you can bribe other players' units). Also a few side games: vanilla Settlers, Munchkin, and (the only game I learned there) Plague & Pestilence. Others played at least a half-dozen other games. I saw a lot of old friends, and made a couple of new ones.

I got one board-topping result, a ten-center France in a three-way draw, but got eliminated twice, so I finished 20th of 45 players, 39 of whom played at least two rounds. Even that draw looked like I would be the first or second power eliminated, as I was reduced to 3 centers in Winter '02. But an R/T formed just to end the slow-to-resolve game, and as F/G/A/I went to stop the Steamroller, I was able to grab several dots in a couple of years to reach the high end of a 10-9-8-4-1-1-1 split. R/T wanted a three-way with a western power, and the little guys' eyes lit up when I mentioned survival points (one point per center if you're out of a voted draw)... so the vote passed. If the scoring system were C-Diplo, I would have been in glory.

One full board, seven people, came from the PiggyBack Diplomacy Society in Oregon:

(see www.piggybackdip.org)

Most are from either Eugene or Portland areas. They led the alcohol-consumption statistic. I noted, ``When you don't have Irish Dip players, you call the Piggybackers to fill their role."

My car made the DC run quite successfully, getting 30 mpg on the highway. The mileage was much worse in the city Thursday night when I drove downtown, looked around the Capitol building, and stopped at the Washington Monument (too late in the day to climb it). Traffic was slow enough to dissuade me from doing that again. But I'm glad I did it for the first time since I was a little kid, except the little bit we did one night in '82 at a CloneCon held as a satellite to Origins/DipCon at UMBC.

Kudos to Conrad Woodring who won the tournament and led Team Woodring (his father and brother) to the Saturday team title. And mad props to Andy for running a fine tournament, to his wife Martha for a Thursday night party and general support, and to Andy Bartalone for hours of shuttling people from airports. I enjoyed the event and I recommend next year's DipCon there.

- Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com

Sascha Hingst (Thu, 10 Oct 2002 09:49:17 EDT)

Dear friends, fellow dippers,

We are proud to announce the foundation of the Deutscher Diplomacy Bund, the german diplomacy association. For the first time, the german hobby has one body to represent all of us and to coordinate our projects and efforts.

Members of the two largest german player communities, Ludomaniac and Lepanto/DEAC and a number of independents; founded the DDB last saturday at the german FTF championships. The association will be registered as a non-profit organization under german law soon. The members have elected a board consisting of:

André Illievics, president, andre of diplomacy-bund.de

Sascha Hingst, vice-president, sascha of diplomacy-bund.de

Jan Baier, treasurer, Jan of diplomacy-bund.de

Bernd Wittman, Bernd of diplomacy-bund.de

Frank Hassenpflug, Frank of diplomacy-bund.de

The DDB will seek membership in international diplomacy bodies such as the EDA soon.

We will also maintain a fund to help people with less money to travel to dip events, very alike the one founded by Edi and Larry. Difference will be that we do not limit the german fund exclusivly to germans (details another time)

If you have any questions concerning our association, if you look for official contacts, or if you want our cooperation for any brilliant or crazy projects, please contact: Sascha Hingst, Silbershohl 18, 69221 Dossenheim; Tel: 49 171 416 82 54; Email: sascha of diplomacy-bund.de or sahib3000 of aol.com; any of the other board members.

For a long time you have seen or heard little of diplomacy in Germany, few germans came to the dipcons, few foreigners traveled here. We believe it´s time to change that (or, to steal a quote:) stab you soon!

Sascha, sahib3000 of aol.com

((I met and really enjoyed playing with Michael Goetze and Sascha in Paris, they both did a bit better than me! I look forward to seeing Sascha and his expanded German contingent in Denver, come meet them with me!! Also, before I move on to other topics, I should take note of a new Postal Diplomacy szine! Doug Kent's second issue should be out this week of Maniac's Paradise Lost, which I think is just a really cool title! Doug especially needs standbies and all of his old Toadies back. Check Doug out at: 1404 E. Lamar Blvd #106, Arlington, TX 76011 dipworld of ix.netcom.com))

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, but adding 2002. My beloved Mekons continue to show that they remain THE best rock and roll band on the planet with their latest release, ``OOOH! (OR, Out Of Our Heads!)''. I will have more to say soon on what should be everyone's record of the year. Boo and hiss me for hitting you with ``should's'' if you like, but it is still my claim. They really are amazing in their continuing depth and breadth, on which I will pontificate more next time. I also desperately want to convince my wife to go see ``The Ring'' with me. Help me, Steve and anyone else who might see it.... help me convince her that I'm not just on a Naomi Watts love kick! Speaking of Naomi, she and Rachel Griffiths are both supposed to be in that movie they're making about Australian Ned Kelly..... gosh, I hope I can get my wife to see that one since Heath Ledger is playing Ned Kelly in that one, I think, and she hated him in The Four Feathers.... but on to YOUR comments and reviews!

Rick Desper (Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:59:00 -0700 (PDT))

Red Dragon vs. Manhunter

Some have complained that Red Dragon is not as good as Michael Mann's Manhunter. Others have complained that neither is as good as the original book. This reviewer cannot comment upon the latter comparison, but, having rented Manhunter recently and seen Red Dragon last week, this reviewer is of the opinion that Red Dragon is the superior movie.

Manhunter was essentially an extended Miami Vice episode, lacking Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs. Pastel colors, heavy soundtrack, over-the-top emotionalism, and a focus on standard police work dominate the movie. William Petersen is solid as Will Graham, the FBI agent and title character. Dennis Farina is also very good as Jack Crawford, and Brian Cox is good as Lecter. The rest of the cast is OK, including a brief appearance by one of Michael Mann's Miami Vice flunkies, Michael Talbott. The killer himself is a bit of an afterthought. He is frightening in his anonymity.

Red Dragon has the advantage mostly in its cast. It starts with, of course, Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter for the third time, but continues with Ed Norton (the best actor of his generation, IMHO) as Graham, Harvey Keitel as Crawford, Ralph Fiennes as the killer, Emily Watson as a blind woman who works with the killer, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a tabloid reporter who works on the case. This is a heavyweight cast! Add in Mary-Louise Parker as Graham's wife and Anthony Heald reprising his role as Doctor Chilton.

Red Dragon has more of a Gothic feel than Manhunter. Manhunter focused on Graham's sanity: whether he could keep a grip on it in face of the horror of dealing with another serial killer. Red Dragon downplays Graham's experience in a psychiatric institute and his ability to ``get inside a killer's head", passing the latter off as somewhat dependent on his collaboration with Lecter before the latter was exposed as a cannibal.

Another big difference with Red Dragon is the focus. Whereas Manhunter is focused mostly on Graham, Red Dragon pays more attention to the killer, and of course to Lecter whenever he appears. Red Dragon tries a bit more to understand the killer. Ralph Fiennes is interesting in this film, not merely because he repeatedly walks around naked with fascinating tattoos. But still, he's no Buffalo Bill.

Neither film measures up to Silence of the Lambs. But what does? Aside from Se7en, no film in the serial-murder genre has come close. Why SotL remains the king:

- Multiple Miggs

- the abduction scene of the Senator's daughter

- Hannibal's escape

- Clarice's good bag and cheap shoes

- Buffalo Bill dancing around naked

- fava beans and a nice chianti

- the night vision scene

- ``It puts the lotion in the basket."

Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com

((Thanks, Rick, very insightful, I might even figure out why I don't seem motivated to see any of these movies, I've only seen Manhunter of these [I love Dennis Farina movies!].))

Steve Langley (Sun, 13 Oct 2002 19:09:48 EDT)

``Tuck Everlastin" === a movie

In 1828, while traveling west to find their new home, the family Tuck drank from a spring at the foot of an ancient oak tree. From that moment forward they were immortal. They didn't age, they didn't get ill, they could not be wounded, they seemingly could not die.

Tuck, or so they called the patriarch, was somewhat wise. He figured out that he and his were not aging like those around them. He thought of the spring because of the great sense of wellbeing they had all felt when they drank from it. He also thought that the rest of the world would not understand, they would resent the Tuck's accidental abilities. So, he and his made it be a secret.

Miles, the older Tuck son had married and started a family. He tried to bring his wife into the secret. She chose instead to believe that he must have sold his soul to the devil. She took herself and his children away. She took his joy away with them.

Jesse, the younger son, was just seventeen. He was going to be seventeen until the end of time, maybe longer.

Seventy five years later, the Tuck's have secretly returned to the woods that hides the spring. The boys are traveling the world. Tuck and his wife are living a simple life on the edge of a small lake. The year is 1915.

Winifred Foster is just fifteen years old. She is the only child of the richest man in that part of the state. Her family owns the woods. She can see through the high iron fence that divides her small world from the outside world. Her family wants her to grow up to be a lady. Winnie just wants to be free.

This is the back story for the movie ``Tuck Everlasting". It is all about young love, between an immortal and a human girl. It is also about the problems of being an immortal in a world that hardly believes such is possible, but would kill for it all the same.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Steve Langley (Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:00:31 EDT)

``The Tuxedo" - a movie

As big a Jackie Chan fan as I am and as disappointed as I have been with Jennifer Love Hewitt in the recent past I never thought I would see myself typing that she is the best part of the movie. Her very brainy, totally oblivious to what is happening around her, Del Blaine was always funny.

Jackie Chan is funny, too.

Ridiculous premise. Holes all through the plot. What the heck, it's a Jackie Chan movie, who expects a story too?

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

((Who indeed? I agree completely. Amazing that Ms. Hewitt could pull this off, really! But then, in terms of asking for a story.... I then went to see...))

Steve Langley (Sat, 12 Oct 2002 23:26:59 EDT)

``The Transporter" === a movie

Luc Bessen makes some pretty good movies. This isn't one of them. He gets half a writing credit. He has done much better work.

The action was outstanding. Jason Statham is very convincing as an action hero. Actually considering that he is a criminal, maybe anti-hero.

The plot lacks a certain cohesion. Much of what happened happened to give Statham a chance to kick butt. Qi Shu was very cute. Still, it would have been nice to have a real story too.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

((The stunts and production values (filmed mostly on the French Riviera and in those nearby mountains where you see the Tour de France bicyclists ride) were generally stupendous. And I've never seen Jason Statham before, but really liked him..... wait a second, wasn't he also ``Turkish" in the brilliantly fun ``Snatch''??? (also a Dennis Farina movie....) Yes, I'm sure he was. He has a future, he's one of those young guys, looks about 30, who looks old and can do kick ass action movies. Qi Shu was funny, if a bit over the top.... that line that ``he was a bastard, but he was still my father'' was just a BIT too much.))

((But, I'd like dispute you a bit on the ``uber'' focus of the movie. At least this is what I thought about watching it..... what happens when control freaks (and Frank is THE most extreme control freak I've ever seen on film) are taken ``out of control''. Not deep, doesn't totally overcome the over-emphasis on the stunts at the expense of serious dialogue, but it did keep my involved as I kept thinking..... he should just back off and ``take control'' like he did before.))

Steve Langley (Sat, 12 Oct 2002 23:20:09 EDT)

``Knockaround Guys" === a movie

I first saw a preview for ``Knockaround Guys" a year or so ago. Coming soon to a theatre near you. It never arrived. I figured that it had to be pretty bad. I put it on my `to see' list anyway. Vin Diesel was in the preview and I was already a big fan. I figured that even a bad movie was worth seeing for a chance to see Diesel.

I saw a second set of previews half a year later, and again, no movie. Then Vin Diesel started gaining steam, and ``Knockaround Guys" came around a third time. This time it even opened.

It was better than anticipated. The story had a plot, some character development, all the elements. I was surprised. Vin Diesel, in a small part, did his thing and was very convincing.

Still, even though it was better than I expected it really isn't all that good a movie. It's hard to feel sympathy for children of the mob whose fathers don't take them seriously. Kids whose ambitions include being members of the mob are not my first choice for central characters. Barry Pepper as `Matty Demaret' plays the conflicted character of a kid who doesn't want to be a criminal but does want to get his father's respect by being good at being a criminal was actually pretty good. Seth Green as ``Johnny Marbles" was totally miscast. ``Marbles is half an idiot, and that's the good half." At least that was the description. Seth Green comes off as too intelligent to be half an idiot.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Steve Langley (Sun, 20 Oct 2002 22:45:42 EDT)

``Abandon" === a movie

Stephan Gaghan wrote and directed ``Abandon." Really good job. The story is told in dreams, flashback, fantasy, alternate universe sort of stuff. The characters are college kids. They are smart. What is really remarkable is that they say smart things. They are really very insightful kids.

Katie Holmes plays ``Katie Burke" a very bright small town girl who has a fragile sort of thing going that makes men want to rescue her. It would be a really good artifice for getting men, except she isn't aware that she is doing it, and pretty much ignores the men that get sucked into it. It is nice to see her with a good role for a change.

Charlie Hunnam plays ``Embry Langan" a double rich, very talented, genius who also happens to be a clinical narcissist. He manages to see through Katie and works his way past her defenses and gets her to fall in love with him. Then, once he has accomplished that, he walks away.

He left school just before his graduation, cum laude, and after a spectacular good bye scene, disappears. Two years later, because there is a lot of money involved, a lawyer starts to put pressure on the authorities to find him, or his body.

Benjamin Bratt plays ``Wade Handler" a cop with a serious substance abuse problem of his own. He is given the task of finding Embry as his first assignment after his trip through detox.

The detective starts looking for the missing boy friend, and Katie starts seeing him around. She isn't really over him after two years, and seeing him stalking her both scares and elates her. But as I said, the story is told in dreams, and flashbacks and fantasy trips, so it isn't easy to know just what is happening, even when it is happening right before your eyes.

Perfect ending by the way.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Steve Langley (Sun, 20 Oct 2002 22:27:21 EDT)

``Formula 51" === a movie

``Superfly" meets ``lock stock and two smoking barrels"

There are no good guys in this one. We have a super chemist who has devised a drug that will outdo heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. Three drug lord who want to own the monopoly, various underlings, a small time crook errand boy, a killer for hire, a street gang, crooked cops, and a con man. Shake well and prepare to laugh!

Considering the body count its hard to think that this is a comedy, but some of the funniest parts are when people are getting killed.

Samuel L. Jackson produced and played ``Elmo McElroy" the kilt wearing chemist out to make one really big score. Robert Carlyle played ``Felix DeSouza" street punk and ultimately Jackson's sidekick.

The plot twists and turns, and the final twist sort of makes it all come out right.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Steve Langley (Sun, 3 Nov 2002 11:47:36 EST)

``I Spy" === a movie

Back in the day Robert Culp and Bill Cosby played ``Kelly Robinson" and ``Alexander Scott", a professional athlete and his trainer traveling around the world, secretly working for the CIA. Now Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson pick up the names, if not the characters, and play the whole thing for laughs.

These two are both good at comedy. Wilson's `almost pretty good spy' and Murphy's `I'm the king of the world boxer' have their moments. The story has just enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. What action there is, is played for laughs.

Famke Janssen played ``Rachel Wright" the girl super spy that ``Alex Scott" has a crush on. Turns out she has a good comedic sense and was pretty funny, too.

Not a really great movie, but like Wilson's character, almost pretty good.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

((Yeah, that's about it, almost pretty good. I found the ending a bit lame, but some of the early middle part of the movie was just laugh down drag out hysterical, again and again and again. When Famke came on the scene, even though I knew she was in the movie and saw her in her last movie, I was fooled completely too. The surprises actually came across as surprises, even though there were four writers.))

Steve Langley (Sat, 9 Nov 2002 19:35:12 EST)

``Femme Fatale" === a movie

``Femme Fatale" is the title role played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. She is a bad person. She is very seductive, becoming whatever the person she is seducing needs her to be. The story is fraught with coincidence. Or, possibly the whole idea is that there is no such thing as a coincidence, everything is tied to everything and nothing happens without some purpose.

Difficult to follow but possibly worth it. Interesting cinematography. Occasional split screen work that sometimes fit what was happening, and sometimes seemed pointless.

I really liked Antonio Bandaras as the part time paparazzi, rescuer, dupe.

Gregg Henry gets to play a good guy role for a change. Most of it as an off camera voice. It was a really small role and I only mention him because I recognized him when he stepped out of an elevator in one of the coincidences that was never explained.

I have nothing to say for the ending other than ``Huh?". De Palma probably had a lot of fun making this but he obviously has no idea about story construction. He is a visual director more than he is a writer.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Steve Langley (Tue, 29 Oct 2002 20:19:42 EST)

``The Truth About Charlie" === a movie

The trailers for this had a Cary Grant Aubrey Hepburn sort of look. Turns out it is a remake of `Charade'. I'm pretty sure I will rent `Charade' now that I have seen the remake.

Mark Wahlberg really doesn't cut it as Cary Grant. But then, that is a difficult job. Thandie Newton was just fine as Aubrey Hepburn. She was cute. beautiful, smart, classy, innocent, all the many wonderful parts that made up the original.

The story was much the same, which is a good thing.

Worth seeing on its own, but `Charade' is a really tough act to follow.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

((You'd like to think Hollywood could come up with some plots of their own with depth and class, but you'd be wrong....))

Steve Langley (Tue, 29 Oct 2002 20:08:53 EST)

``Time Changer" === a movie

The small blurb I read said that a man travels forward in time. That was enough to pull me into the theater. Turns out the movie is Christian Propaganda.

A Christian professor of theology in the 1890s has written a book. In it he proposes that it is important to teach Christ's message even if you can not teach about Christ. His thought was turned to people of other religions. He wants his school to endorse the book in hopes of improving sales and increasing his audience.

One of his fellows feels strongly that he is making a serious error. That it is vital to teach people about Christ first, and that Christ's teachings should never be separated from Christ. Since this professor just happens to have a time machine in his barn, he sends the author ahead in time to show him the seriousness of separating the teachings from the God.

We are the example of what can go wrong.

The traveler is amazed and appalled. He is sure that he has been projected to the end of time, that the signs of the end of the world abound.

Lots of preaching goes on. Lots of Christian testament. Not really a great movie. In my case it didn't really accomplish its goal.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

((Really? Fascinating. This is part of a large effort/trend to offer an alternative set of production values based on Christian fundamentalism that is going on right now. I have not seen the movie, nor heard of it opening anywhere near here, which doesn't surprise me too much. I think the organization that is responsible for this one is the one at ChristianCinema.com that also does a lot of alternative teen movies.))

Steve Langley (Sat, 26 Oct 2002 20:03:36 EDT)

``Punch Drunk Love" === a movie

This is an Adam Sandler movie in the way the ``The Truman Show" is a Jim Carrey movie. In short, they didn't really leave their mark and it may be their best work.

This movie starts weird. It is very loud at times. The use of light in the cinematography is unusual. There may be symbolism that has eluded me.

It's a love story that is somewhere between a little and a lot different from any love story you may have seen before.

I'm not sure that I like it. I like lots of parts of it though.

Steve, Steflan of aol.com

Rick Desper (Mon, 30 Sep 2002 16:07:46 -0700 (PDT))

Oh, I've been meaning to send some commentaries. Let's do baseball first:

The Red Sox started 40-17, but after that they were essentially a .500 team. Still, they might have made the playoffs most years, except for the red-hot finishes of both the A's and the Angels. What went wrong? I think we have to keep things in perspective: the Sox have only won more than 93 games twice since the heyday of Rice, Lynn, Fisk, Yaz and co. ((Still, put it in perspective the other way too, the Devil Rays and the Orioles were truly awful, so there were some VERY easy wins in there.))

Well, the starting pitching fell apart. Burkett, who started very hot, became very cold, and Castillo just plain sucked. Moving Wakefield to the starting rotation helped some, but with both Wakefield and Lowe moving from the pen to the rotation this year, the bullpen suddenly became a weak point, whereas it had been a strength last year. What happened to El Guapo? In any case, in the second half of the season, there were basically two Red Sox teams: the one with Lowe or Pedro starting, and the one with anybody else starting. The former team could beat anybody, and the latter team was quite awful to watch.

What positions could be improved? First base is the most obvious place to start. I don't think Brian Daubach is the answer, either. He's way too streaky: he feasts upon mediocre pitching and is easily shut down by the better pitchers. We need hitters who can hit well against good pitching. Right now, we have three, maybe four such hitters (if Cliff Floyd stays). Daubach, Varitek, Nixon, and Hillenbrand just don't inspire confidence when they face the better pitchers. ((Nixon actually hits better against better pitchers.... and his OBP isn't bad either, he gets maligned a bit too much. Eventually, he's going to be a really, really solid hitter, it just will take him a long time to get there.))

A notable stretch occurred in June, when the Sox were 5-13 against the NL. Thanks to the evil forces controlling baseball, the Sox are going to be forced to play the Braves 6 times/year while the Yankees get to play the Mets 6 times/year. In addition to those 6 rough games, the Sox got 3 nasty games against the Diamondbacks, and 3 rough games in LA against the Dodgers. No other AL team had 12 games against teams of that caliber. Late in the season I noticed that the Sox actually had a better record against AL opponents than Oakland did, but that the As had feasted upon a weak interleague schedule.

From that point in June, it became clear that good pitchers could beat the Sox. It didn't help that Manny was out for 7 weeks, and that when he came back it took him another month to regain his form.

What do the Sox need? Another starter, help in the bullpen, and more hitting at first base. It would be nice if Casey Fossum could turn into a good starter. The Sox haven't developed a home-grown reliable starter since Roger Clemens. They just cannot get away with that. Contrast that situation with the situation in Oakland, which has even more starters coming up in addition to the big three.

Playoffs: the Yankees pitching fell off a bit this year. None of the starters inspires real fear any more. Mussina is inconsistent, Clemens is getting old, and Pettite has always been on and off. Still any of those three or Wells can throw a great game on any day. The real problem is the bullpen, which has been consistently getting worse since 1998. Now Rivera is positively hittable. Good news for the rest of the league. The bad news is that the Yankees hitting is the best it has been in recent memory. The addition of Giambi and the breakout year by Soriano made a good offense into a great offense. (Why does Giambi get almost no consideration for the MVP? Writers really have no fixed criteria when it comes to MVP voting. Hasn't Giambi had a better season than Soriano? Of course, ARod really deserves the award in any case. But somehow ``most valuable player" has come to mean ``most valuable player on a team with enough other good players to contend for the a league title" even though we are constantly told baseball is a team sport, that doesn't get factored into MVP voting.) ((I agree, I don't why Giambi doesn't get more consideration, just because he had a stinko April?? Makes no sense.))

Anyway, the Yankees are the team to beat in the AL. They have to get past both the Angels and the A's to make the World Series. About the only thing I'm sure of is that the Twins won't win the AL. Yankees should be favored, but only slightly, and they face a tougher path than the As do.

To the NL: the Braves are back, thanks to the addition of Sheffield and the blossoming of Andruw Jones. They finally have some decent hitting to go with their pitching. The Cardinals appear to have a complete team, and they are playing with a ``we're on a mission from God" attitude that one has to respect. I think they will beat the D-Backs, who have run out of hitting with the recent injury to Luis Gonzalez. Of course, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling could each pitch no-hitters. I also like the Giants, but we are looking at two postseason funks which might cancel each other out. Who will continue to underperform more in the postseason, the Braves or Barry Bonds? If I were a betting man, I would go with the Cardinals here.

I won't make any other predictions because I want the Yankees to win so badly it colors my judgment. And I would hate to spoil any rooting against them by actually picking them to win something. (It was bad enough having Jorge Posada on my fantasy team.)

That's it for baseball.

Football: yes, the Pats are ``for real". In this upside down world in which political analysts write columns telling me why Gore ``lost" the 2000 election (as if the loss represented some electoral trends), we now get to witness pundits asking whether the Pats are for real AFTER they won the Super Bowl! Also, the big development for me is to see that Brady is for real. I had not been a believer in his ability last year. I wouldn't worry much about their run defense. Priest Holmes runs on everybody and Tomlinson got lucky with a few long runs. ((Interesting how your statement about the Pats went from right on, to way wrong, to right on again since you made it....))

The best story of the season has been the complete failure of the Rams. This should have been obvious after their preseason, but pundits were dismissive and certain that they would return to last year's form. I think the psychic damage of losing to the Pats was underrated. Also, I'm not sure Mike Martz is a great head coach.

Final topic: Signs. I really did not like this movie. However, I've come upon a theory which vindicates it to me somewhat.

Signs suffers from a massive case of ``Deus ex Machina", if I can say this without giving away too much. As a science fiction movie, it's crap. We have aliens who can fly millions of miles through space to Earth, but communicate to each other by making crop circles? (What, they don't have radios?) And they chose to make crop circles which were patterned after earlier crop circles which had been documented to be fakes? How bizarre! And, in spite of the fact that they have the technology to make their ships invisible as they hover, they decide that what they want to do is to take people away using a ``Night of the Living Dead" strategy. Perhaps they were all stoned?

Why would M. Night Shamalyan, who had created the brilliant movies The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, make such a piece of junk? Well, it wasn't really a sci-fi movie at all, which should be obvious. It was theological pandering. The movie isn't about aliens, it's about Mel Gibson having lost his faith because of his wife's death. But (massive spoilers here) he regains his faith because his wife told him something while she was dying which helps him fight off the aliens.

This is Shadowlands for retards. It's just stupid. I guess God didn't really want to test Mel Gibson's faith, since he provided such obvious evidence of his existence. Problem is: the entire situation is absurd and contrived. In real life, dying women don't provide pearls of coded prescience like this.

Then it occurred to me: all of the major twists in the movie, the Deus ex Machina developments occur in a direct relation to Night's character, the veterinarian. It was the vet who killed Mel's wife. The alien was trapped in his pantry. He was the one who told Mel that the aliens didn't like water. So, instead of Deus ex Machina, we have Night ex Machina. It's like he's saying: see, I control the movie. Since I'm the writer and director, I can have anything happen which I want to happen. In fact, I'll flaunt this fact by playing one of the characters myself, and having that character be the one who's pushing all the developments forward which shape Mel's life.

Once I realized that, I had to grin. Such audacity!

It's too bad, because ultimately Signs was the movie I had the highest hopes for this summer, and it fell short.

On the other hand, I watched Road to Perdition with very low expectations. I've come to get weary of Tom Hanks. He is positively smarmy at times. And he seems to carry himself with an arrogance which he never had pre-Philadelphia.

In Road to Perdition, we see a great performance by Paul Newman and a great imitation of Paul Newman by Tom Hanks. Having said that, Hanks is good enough to pull off the role, simply because he's imitating such a great actor. I was worried that the movie would be overly sappy, as happens with Hanks movies these days. And yes, it was sappy. But not overly so. (Aside: Jude Law's character was simply ridiculous in this movie. He didn't pull it off, whatever was supposed to happen there. I don't blame Law - the character was simply ill-conceived.) ((Remember it started life as a comic book/graphic novel. A bunch of scenes, including the last ones with Law, you could see how they just worked so well in a graphic novel. Jude Law's character was SUPPOSED to be just a deus ex machina (to pull in your good idea) without real character. Still, it was an OK movie.)) So, going into Road to Perdition with very low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. It was better than I had expected, but still only a moderately good film. It just reminds me how good the Godfather series was.

Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com

((Just a couple of comments.... this from Peter Gammons' sister: After the Red Sox hot streak at the beginning, every single 10 game stretch they were either 4-6, 5-5, or 6-4 until the very end where they had ONE slightly hotter streak.))

((Castillo only stunk as a starter, with the exception of that ONE game where they left him in there to ``take ten earned runs for the team" he was close to brilliant in long relief with an ERA in the Pedro/Lowe/Wake range. I say they bring Castillo back as a long reliever and he pitches very well in that role. I'm not excited about the fifth starter after those three plus Fossum..... can't we find someone new to slot in there? Unfortunately, probably not, so we're stuck with Burkett. They better get a GREAT bullpen behind that for next year.))

((I am not a ``break up the team" fan. I think they do need to consider moving Shea to first though, unless they can get him over the throwing yips. I think he ended up with 25 errors at third!! But I'd be happy with getting ONE more bat. As you say, 93 wins was pretty damned good most years. I predicted only 95 and that wouldn't have done it either, where I was sure it would have. At least I can root for Barry and my Giants in the playoffs, and the A's to beat the Yankees. Another Bay Area series would be dynamite and I predict that, for the little that's worth!))

((PS: The schedule for next year is out already. They've scrapped the ``natural rivals" bit that had the Red Sox playing and losing home and home with the Braves every year and the Red Sox Interleague entirely get junky teams like Milwaukee, the Cubs, the Pirates, and the Astros in the Central! Bet on the Sox RIGHT now to finally get the wild card next year with all those games again those plus the Tampa Bay, Baltimore, and Toronto usual suspects. They end up against almost the same teams as this year in the same order, including Tampa Bay to finish up if it's close.))

Rick Desper (Sun, 6 Oct 2002 16:09:35 -0700 (PDT))

Yankees are coming back but too little, too late....

Looks like the Twins have something to say about things..right now they lead 4-1 going into the 9th. If they can hold this lead, I'll definitely be rooting for a St. Louis-Minnesota World Series.

The Yankees fell apart in the post-season because they simply got shellacked by the Angels hitting. Is the Angels hitting that good? Well, it's good, but I think the problem which I'd been forecasting for years finally came to bear. The Yankees have a bunch of old starters, and the point finally came where they were no longer dominating. OK, Mussina and Pettite are not that old, but neither were either of those two as good as they had long been advertised.

Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com

((And that's the END of that. A's to the World Series... or maybe the Angels. That is going to be a dynamite series. I don't think the Yankees can do it. Paradoxically, I think the Red Sox lack of a late season charge HURT the Yankees in coming together as they have in the past. This is a new team and it needed to come together in challenge better. Next up, most of you know that Jim O'Kelley's sister is an actress, who seems to have a penchant for getting on series that get cancelled (her last one was Emeric?). Well, here's the next piece of bad news. He was responding to: ``But Jim, doesn't that mean she's up against PROVIDENCE!!!??? That's my home city show..... and it was almost cancelled last year [[and now too has been cancelled, probably because they stopped coming here to film scenes after 9/11]], I can't let your sister beat us out... I'm sorry she'll have to get cancelled again.... ;-) More seriously, I don't watch TV at all, especially on Friday at 8 (I never see Providence either), but I'll take your advice under advisement should I find myself watching something.))

Jim O'Kelley (Wed, 9 Oct 2002 18:29:06 -0500)

Heard from my mother today that ABC canceled That Was Then. Trish is disappointed, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she lands in a series with staying power.

((Already??? What, it was only on for three weeks! Sorry, I missed it and didn't write a letter for your sister's sake. Last Friday I went out and saw Four Feathers at the movies instead of staying in for TV. I see it actually was on at 9 and wasn't up against Providence.))

Two weeks. How was Four Feathers? I've seen two of the previous three versions. One, I think the second, was outstanding; the other, the third and starring, I think, one of the Bridges, wasn't so hot.

Jim, jimok3 of concentric.net

((Well, Goldie Hawn's daughter wasn't half bad! But the ``second male lead", who gets horribly treated by the vagaries of war, was the more charismatic of the two and his problems legitimately change his personality. The protagonist DOES change in the movie though, in ways that hold up to scrutiny. I liked it a lot more than Charlotte did, who couldn't get by her problem with the charisma of the lead. And Hounsou was tremendous.))

Steve Emmert (Thu, 3 Oct 2002 11:02:20 -0400)

And perhaps you'd be interested in something non-Dip - like, say, the beginning of hockey season? It's too late to go public with my baseball playoff predictions (Braves over Cards in the NL; Twins over Yanks in the AL), but they drop the puck in just five days. I'm psyched, and there's no reason not to inflict that on you. Thus, one man's preview of what's coming over the next few months, in the order I see the teams finishing within their divisions:

NORTHEAST

1. Ottawa - Lots of youth on offense, but they're enormously talented. Gave up a good backup goalie when they traded Jani Hurme, but they still have the best talent in the division. This team is a serious Cup contender. Best young player: Take your pick. Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Mike Fisher, Wade Redden, and Chris Phillips are all 25 or younger. Even Radek Bonk, who's been around forever, is just 26.

2. Boston - The loss of Dafoe in net will hurt. Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov are major studs on offense, but who'll anchor the blue line? Add in a weakness on the power play, and there's little chance of catching Ottawa. Of all the teams I'm ranking, this is the one most likely to finish lower than what I've ranked. Best young player: Thornton, just 23, will be a major star.

((Strangely enough, youngster Jonathan Girard is finally becoming what they said he would become (only five points so far, I think, but getting better every day), and Bryan Berard has been resurrected and has FIVE goals already!! No worry about that injured eye on that guy. The coaches are even trying to get him to SLOW THE HECK DOWN, as he skates around like a madman who has five minutes to live.))

3. Toronto - Just a few years ago, this looked to be a franchise on the rise, but their key forwards are aging. This team can still score some goals, and will win some 6-5 games; no strong defenders to take over a game anywhere in sight. Ed Belfour was brought in to mind the nets, but his best days are behind him. Best young player: Not much to choose from here, but we'll go with defenseman Tomas Kaberle, 24, who does have good potential.

4. Montreal - (Sigh.) We Habs fans have not had much to cheer about in years. Sure, there was last year's surprise win over the hated Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, and then a fast start against Carolina in the second round . . . followed by three quick losses and elimination. The chief problem is defense; the Habs haven't had a dominant blueliner since Vladimir Malakhov's heyday a few years ago. Saku Koivu's emotional return and Jose Theodore's incredible season helped the team overachieve, but it won't happen again. Best young player: There isn't one. Okay, as long as I've got to name someone, defenseman Andrei Markov, but don't tell anybody you heard it from me.

5. Buffalo - Which will be worse, missing the playoffs with a pitiful power play, or filing a Chapter 11 petition in Bankruptcy Court? The Sabres get to do all these things. At least the team has a good supply of players nearing their prime, so the bad news could end soon. But not this year. Best young player: Forward Tim Connolly.

ATLANTIC

1. Philadelphia - Mix aging forwards with aging defenders and a goalie with only a good couple of years, and maybe things don't look so good. But in the Flyers' case, they look just fine. Two good forward lines and a solid cast of defenders will get Philly the division title this year. Best young player: Gotta be left winger Simon Gagne, though Justin Williams, just 20, has the chance to catch him.

2. New York Rangers - The key here is the health of three key players: Newcomer Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros, and Mike Richter. The three of them combined for just 195 games last year, and they've all been brittle at times. The guess here is that they'll light up Manhattan with goals, but the defense will let in its share, too. Best young player: Young? Rangers? Must be a wrong number. Well, maybe Dan Blackburn, who's apprenticing under Richter. But at 19, he's a ways away from being a major player in the NHL.

3. New York Islanders - Last year's surprise surge was no fluke; the Isles stole goalie Chris Osgood - off the waiver wire! - and that, added to their offseason moves to improve the attack (Yashin and Peca), resulted in a much better team. I think it's for real, and next year, they will supplant the Rangers and challenge the Flyers for supremacy in this underrated division. Best young player: It's easy to say Rick DiPietro, the 21 year old goalie who was taken #1 a couple of years ago. But when he debuted in 2000-01, he had a porous defense in front of him, and got hammered, which can't be good for a kid's confidence. He'll recover and become a star. But not this year.

((Off to a slow start, but we love these guys and think they will turn it around....))

4. New Jersey - How the mighty have fallen. Martin Brodeur is still there, the magnificent goalie with the oh-so-ordinary save percentage. But much of the supporting cast that made this recent Cup contender is gone. The most recent departure is Petr Sykora, traded to Anaheim. The chief acquisition in that trade was offensive blueliner Oleg Tverdovsky, but there aren't too many good defensive defensemen left, and that'll make life hard on Brodeur. Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez will have to carry most of the offensive burden. The franchise is sinking. Best young player: Gomez is only 22.

5. Pittsburgh - They say Mario is going to play 70 games this year. Mmmm-hmmm. I'd love to see it, to see if he still has the wonderful touch he once had. But I seriously doubt his health will hold up. Martin Straka's recovery has been faster than expected, but he, too, has to be regarded as an injury risk. That leaves perpetual breakout candidate Alexei Kovalev to carry the offensive burden. Ain't gonna happen. Best young player: A close call between a couple of blueliners, Andrew Ference and Michal Rozsival. Ference is smallish, but has the offensive skills to complement the forwards. Rozsival will thrive if he's placed at the point on the power play.

((The new refereeing is taking hold and you could well be wrong about Mario. He might be MVP of the league so far. And he has what, 30 points, after playing in ALL 14 games??))

SOUTHEAST

1. Washington - This is a tough call, as Carolina will press the Caps hard for the division lead. The addition of Robert Lang, probably to Jaromir Jagr's line, should mean a nice boost in scoring for both of them. The concern is in net; there's really no one behind Olaf Kolzig. Best young player - The heir presumptive to Olie the Goalie is Maxime Ouellet, just 21, but he may not even make the team for a while.

2. Carolina - Last year's Cup finalists are developing into an excellent franchise, with talent on the ice and brains in the front office. Jeff O'Neill is one of the better snipers among LW's. The problem here is also in net; Arturs Irbe is a bit past his prime, and his backup, Kevin Weekes, suffered a seizure last week. Some extra depth at RW wouldn't hurt. Best young player - Look for defenseman David Tanabe, 22, to double last year's point total.

3. Tampa Bay - There's a big dropoff here from the talent level of the top two teams; it's unlikely Tampa, Florida, or Atlanta will see the playoffs. But the Lightning are loaded with youth. Last year, everyone expected center Vincent Lecavalier to develop into a star, but Brad Richards will beat him to the punch. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin will be exposed by a porous corps of defensemen. Best young player - Richards and Lecavalier are both just 22; they'll soon be joined by 19-year-old center Alexander Svitov.

4. Florida - Well, so much for the combination of Bure brothers; Pavel left for Manhattan, leaving Valerie to find his way among the wreckage of the upcoming, difficult season for this franchise. Bure and Viktor Kozlov, upon whom the Panthers will count for much of their offensive punch, are brittle, having missed a combined 83 games last year. Best young player - Roberto Luongo, 23, is perhaps the best of the young crop of goalies - and I mean in the league.

5. Atlanta - If the Thrashers could somehow find a way to play their first line of Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Slava Kozlov for 60 minutes a game, they would be awesome (or at least exciting to watch). But hockey teams generally use four lines, and there just isn't any heavy-duty talent beyond the first few forwards. Things are looking up, though, as the farm system is excellent (this is what happens when you get lots of high draft picks over time). The blue line is improving, too, but this team has a long way to go all around. Best young player - Kovalchuk is already one of the most thrilling players in the league, and he's all of 19. Within a very few years, he will be one of the top five players in the entire league, barring injury (which ended his season prematurely last year).

CENTRAL

1. Detroit - Curtis Joseph has got to be the happiest player in the NHL. He walks into the middle of a roster loaded with Hall of Famers, virtually certain to be in a position to challenge for the Stanley Cup. The good news is, the Wings are loaded again. The bad news is, they're loaded with guys who will be collecting Social Security checks in a very short time. The average age of their big guns - Yzerman, Shanahan, Fedorov, Hull, Robitaille, Larionov, Lidstrom, Chelios, and Joseph - is 36. A couple of key injuries, all too likely with an aging roster like this, might derail the Detroit Repeat Express. Best young player - Boy, you really have to hunt around for a guy born after the start of the Carter Administration here. But forward Henrik Zetterberg, 21, looks to be the real deal.

2. St. Louis - This team fell flat last year, just two years removed from a President's Cup season. They're showing signs of wear, although they're not as old as the Wings. They have lots of talent at forward, but there's trouble brewing on the blueline (Chris Pronger, perhaps the team's best player, is out for three months or so with a bum knee). And I personally believe that the team suffers from uncertainty in net; Brent Johnson and Fred Brathwaite are more or less sharing duties, but the team would be better off with a solid #1 goalie. Best young player - That's part of the problem; there really isn't one. Perhaps defensemen Mike Van Ryn or Barret Jackman, 23 and 21 respectively, but neither is likely to play a major role this season or next.

3. Chicago - This is a team that has a chance to improve on last year's disappointing finish, but I really distrust the team chemistry. Their one presumptive star player, Eric Daze, is injured. Alexei Zhamnov will be asked to pick up the slack, but he's an injury risk, too. Best young player - Probably forward Kyle Calder, though he is not exactly a budding superstar.

4. Nashville - The Preds can't score. They've got a couple of good goaltenders in Mike Dunham and Tomas Vokoun, but not much else to take the pressure off the netminders. Defenseman Kimmo Timonen is an above-average blueliner, but he doesn't have a lot of company on this team. The forward lines will probably suffer from the loss of Cliff Ronning. Best young player - Forward Scott Hartnell is 20, and looks to be a formidable player down the line.

5. Columbus - It's probably not fair to pick on recent expansion teams, but the Jacks are years away from being serious contenders. They are doing one thing right, though: Building the team from the goal outward. Goaltender Marc Denis is underappreciated; defensemen Rostislav Klesla and Jaroslav Spacek will eventually develop into stars, and the forwards, . . . well, like I said, the team is building from the goal outward. Best young player - Klesla will eventually become an elite player; he's just 20.

NORTHWEST

1. Colorado - It's been a while since anyone has seriously challenged the Avs for long-term supremacy in this division, and this season shouldn't be very different. As usual, Colorado is loaded, and the recent trade of Chris Drury for Derek Morris should improve the blueline at the expense of a surplus forward. I think both Drury and Morris will benefit from this trade. Patrick Roy shows no signs of slowing down, even at 36, and if Peter Forsberg gets to play a full, injury-free season, the Avs will run away with this division, and maybe the President's Cup, too; they're THAT talented. Best young player - The temptation is to say forward Alex Tanguay, but in reality, the best of Colorado's youngsters is backup goalie David Aebischer. When Roy steps down, the Avs won't miss a beat in goal.

2. Vancouver - Boy, can this team score. Todd Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison, and even elder statesman Trevor Linden and defenseman Ed Jovanovsky can all light up the net. Dan Cloutier is a better goalie than most people appreciate. This team is a serious contender. Best young player - The dyamic duo of twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin, 21, give Canucks fans plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future.

3. Edmonton - This franchise has great players in their 20's at every position, all of whom will be in their prime years within the next few seasons. As Colorado ages, Vancouver and Edmonton will surpass them, unless small-market economics and Canadian economic weaknesses rob them of their talent. Edmonton has a solid core of good young players, especially Ryan Smyth, Anson Carter, Janne Niinimaa, Mike York, and Mike Comrie. Expect them to make the playoffs, and maybe surprise a favorite in the first round. Best young player - Lots to choose from here, but we'll go with Comrie, just 22, and a budding star.

4. Calgary - Did anyone expect Jarome Iginla to emerge so completely last year? He became the first player in about 20 years to win the scoring title without the surname Gretzsky, Lemieux, or Jagr. The team's recent acquisition of Chris Drury from Colorado should give Iginla the impetus to continue his development, though another scoring title isn't likely. The weakness here is in net, with Roman Turek backing up a suddenly weakened defensive corps. Best young player - If you think Iginla is too old at 25, consider 20-year-old RW Chuck Kobasew.

5. Minnesota - Aside from Manny Fernandez in net and Marian Gaborik at forward, there isn't much to get excited about here. But this is a recent expansion team, and will take time to develop. Probably last in the Western Conference. Best young player - Gaborik's just 20, and will be a major star within two or three years.

PACIFIC

1. San Jose - Make no mistake: The Sharks are for real. I regard them right now as one of the three best contenders for the Stanley Cup. They have plenty of offense, a good set of blueliners, and two excellent goalies in Evgeni Nabokov and backup Miikka Kiprusoff, who could start for about 25 NHL teams right now. No apparent weaknesses. Best young player - Probably center Patrick Marleau, 23, though defenseman Brad Stuart is just 22 and should get lots of points on the power play.

2. Dallas - Last year was an aberration that few people saw (I sure didn't); this season, the Stars return to contention behind new #1 goalie Marty Turco, who brings a marvelous save percentage out from under Ed Belfour's shadow. Mike Modano is one of the five best centers in the league, and Bill Guerin was a major addition to the offense. Should go deep into the playoffs with this lineup. Best young player - The Stars aren't exactly young, but winger Brenden Morrow looks very promising.

3. Los Angeles - The Kings always tend to overachieve in the playoffs, and you have to wonder when they'll put it all together and repeat the '93 run to the Cup finals. I doubt this will be the year, but adding Ziggy Palffy to a lineup that already includes Adam Deadmarsh and Jason Allison (how many great forwards have the Bruins lost lately?) will defintely help the cause. A lot of dependable, though unspectacular, players. Best young player - Probably 20-year-old winger Jared Aulin, who's dazzling with the puck.

4. Phoenix - The 'Yotes are probably the division's fourth playoff team - this is arguably the most talented division in the NHL - with a no-name cast that manages to win games. The preseason rumors of a return by owner Wayne Gretzky are, alas, just rumors. I think this team will overachieve again, though a return to earth wouldn't surprise me. Best young player - Daniel Briere is arguably the best player on this team already, at 24.

5. Anaheim - Acquired Petr Sykora from New Jersey for Jeff Friesen and Oleg Tverdovsky. The trade will help both teams. Sykora will give the Ducks the league's best-passing first line, with Adam Oates and Paul Kariya. (Joke #1 - Kariya is so good, they named TWO countries after him - North Kariya and South Kariya. Joke #2 - If old players are long-in-the-tooth, Oates is a sabre-toothed tiger.) The blueline will now feature underappreciated Fredrik Olausson, late of the Red Wings, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere is a solid netminder. Still, not enough depth to contend in this strong division. Best young player - Stanislav Chistov, 19, is probably as good as the Thrashers' Kovalchuk. But he has more competition for a starting slot here than Ilya has in Atlanta.

Enough for you? Game on!

Steve, steve.emmert of cox.net

Russ Rusnak (Wed, 16 Oct 2002 12:00:55 -0400)

I've come to the impression that musical taste (mine anyway) is seasonal. A while back I wrote that I was happy to continually listen to 5 CD's at work. They were:

Frank Zappa, Strictly Commercial; Flo & Eddie, The Best of; Concrete Blonde, Recollections; Paul Revere & the Raiders, Anthology; Goverment Mule, With a little help from our friends.

I just realized, I now alternate between 2:

Dire Straits, On Every Street, Black Sabbath, Reunion, though I have to keep this one a little lower then usual because Ozzy's comments to the crowd aren't really conducive to an office atmosphere.

Russ, RRRRRUSNAK of AOL.com

LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK

2000G, No Lawyers Welcome, Winter 1913

Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com Retreat A Burgundy to Gascony (destroyed) Build A Budapest Has A Ankara, A Constantinople, F Bulgaria SC, A Vienna, A Smyrna, A Galicia, A Rumania, A Bohemia, A Serbia, A Budapest

France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Remove F Irish Sea Has A Brest, F Mid Atlantic Ocean, F Picardy

Italy Jim Burgess burgess of TheWorld.com Has F Eastern Mediterranean, F Ionian Sea, F Western Mediterranean, A Tyrolia, F Gulf of Lyon, A Spain

Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of comcast.net Retreat F Mid Atlantic - Gascony (destroyed) Build A Moscow & A Sevastopol Has F North Atlantic Ocean, F English Channel, F Clyde, A Burgundy, F North Sea, A Belgium, A Silisia, A Munich, A Warsaw, A Berlin, F Black Sea, A Armenia, A Liverpool, A Moscow, A Sevastopol

Spring 1914 orders are due on Wednesday, October 23rd

Winter 1913 supply center chart

Austria 10 even (+1 Marseilles based on retreat Burgundy) Smyrna, Contantinople, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ankara, Trieste, Rumania,

France 3 - 1, lost Liverpool (-2 Marseilles, based on retreat Burgundy) Brest, Paris, Marseilles

Italy 6 even Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Portugal

Russia 15 + 1 gained Liverpool Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, Denmark, Warsaw, Norway, Moscow, Edinburgh, Kiel, Holland, Belgium, Munich, London, Liverpool

2000G, No Lawyers Welcome, Spring 1914

Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com A ANKARA support F Bulgaria SC - Constantinople, A Constantinople- SMYRNA, F Bulgaria SC - CONSTANTINOPLE, A VIENNA - galicia, A Smyrna- SYRIA, A GALICIA - ukraine, A RUMANIA support A Galicia - Ukraine, A BOHEMIA support A Vienna - Galicia, A Serbia - BULGARIA, A BUDAPEST support A Vienna - Galicia

France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com A Brest - PARIS, F MID ATLANTIC OCEAN support Italian A Spain - Gascony, F picardy (dislodged) - english channel; retreat to Brest (only choice)

Italy Jim Burgess burgess of TheWorld.com F EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN support Austria A

Smyrna - Syria F Ionian Sea - TUNIS, A TYROLIA support Austrian A BOHEMIA F WESTERN

MEDITERRANEAN support French F Mid Atlantic, F Gulf of Lyon - MARSEILLES, A SPAIN - gascony

Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of comcast.net F NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN - Mid Atlantic Ocean, F Clyde - LIVERPOOL, F ENGLISH CHANNEL support A Belgium - Picardy, A BURGUNDY - gascony, F NORTH SEA hold, A Belgium - PICARDY, A SILISIA support A Munich A MUNICH support A Silisia, A WARSAW support A Silisia, A BERLIN support A Munich, F BLACK SEA - Constantinople, A ARMENIA - sevastopol, A Liverpool - YORKSHIRE, A MOSCOW Support A Sevastopol - Ukraine, A SEVASTPOL - Ukraine

Fall 1914 orders are due on Wednesday, November 20th

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.

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, Sean O'Donnell, Kevin Wilson, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, and Dan Gorham stand by for regular Diplomacy.

Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.

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!!! Especially, contact Rip Gooch for Railway Rivals as the following maps are available. Following each in parenthesis is the suggested number of players: Isle of Wight (3 or 4); Netherlands (3 or 4); Northern Italy Map P (4 to 8); Spain Map SP (4 to 7); China Mk. I (6 to 8); Austria (3 or 4); Belgium and Luxembourg (3 or 4); Southern Italy Map Q (4); South Sweden Map SWE (3 or 4); Switzerland (3 or 4). Ripping Yarns Mk III will take the form of a tiny subszine in Word as soon as Rip gets some people interested. Come on, help me out!!! Contact Rip Gooch directly at xyropedes of canada.com.

I also am starting a game of the variant I designed, Spy Diplomacy. Signups for that are now open. I'll publish the rules shortly. You also can sign up for the next Breaking Away game, which is starting now. Tom Howell currently is signed up, knock off the superstar, come on, you can do it!! So far, Eric Brosius wants to challenge Tom.

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?

Harold Reynolds is willing to start a game of Colonia and one of Aberration. I think the signup list for Colonia includes me, David Hood, Paul Rauterberg, David Partridge, and (Yes, really!!) Konrad Baumeister. That means we only need four more. In the meantime, Konrad, Paul, and David are playing a ``demo game''. I'll try to get a web address for it in here next time.

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 and Kurt Ozog are the only ones 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 1904 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

Winter 1903

AUSTRIA (Lockheardt): rem a sil; has a TRI, a BOH, a RUM, a SER, a BUL, a UKR, f GRE.

ENGLAND (Heikkinen): bld f lon; has f LON, f MID, f NTH, f PIC.

FRANCE (Kent): has a MAR, a PAR, f BRE, f POR, a GAS, a BEL.

GERMANY (Sayers): has a KIE, f BAL, a HOL, a BUR.

ITALY (Méhkeri): has a VEN, f ION, f AEG, a MUN, a TUN.

RUSSIA (Desper): bld a stp; has a STP, f BER, a MOS, a WAR.

TURKEY (Miller): bld a ank; has a ANK, a SMY, 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: Doug Kent, 1404 E. Lamar Blvd #106, Arlington, TX 76011

dipworld of ix.netcom.com

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

mehkeri of neon.polkaroo.net

RUSSIA: Rick Desper, 5440 Marinelli Road, #204, Rockville, MD 20852

(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) A concession to the Fool (Italy) is proposed along with a TIRE draw for those who TIRE of this game. Please vote with your spring orders and failure to vote ensures that both proposals pass...... mostly kidding, but please comment!

Press:

(BARON to SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS): THIS SPACE FOR RENT.

SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1905 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1906 IS JANUARY 11TH, 2003

Autumn 1905

ENGLAND (Sundstrom): has f NWG, f HOL, f NTH, f DEN, a RUH, f NWY, f NAO.

FRANCE (Tretick): R f spa(sc)-MAR; has f MAR, a BEL, f MID, a BRE.

GERMANY (Williams): has a KIE, a BER, a MUN.

ITALY (McCullough): has a TYO, a VIE, f GOL, f NAF, a TRI, f SPA(SC).

RUSSIA (McHugh): R f den-SKA; has f STP(NC), a SWE h, a GAL,

f SKA, a BOH, f RUM.

TURKEY (O'Donnell): has a GRE, a BUL, f WES, a BUD, f BLA, a SER.

Supply Center Chart

ENGLAND (Sundstrom):

EDI,LVP,LON,nwy,hol,den

(has 7, rem 1)

FRANCE (Tretick):

PAR,MAR,BRE,por,bel

(has 4, bld 1)

GERMANY (Williams):

BER,KIE,MUN

(has 3, even)

ITALY (McCullough):

ROM,VEN,NAP,tun,tri,vie,spa

(has 6, bld 1)

RUSSIA (McHugh):

MOS,STP,SEV,WAR,rum,swe

(has 6, even)

TURKEY (O'Donnell):

ANK,SMY,CON,bul,gre,ser,bud

(has 6, bld 1)

Neutral:

none

(Total=34)

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 or Xatsmann of comcast.net

TURKEY: New is Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044, (440) 926-0230

sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com or talonstalkingprey of yahoo.com

Game Notes:

1) Thank you, Sean, for volunteering to standby!!

2) Jack returns, thanks to Kevin Wilson for volunteering to standby.

Press:

(CHICAGO CALLING): My CUBS acronym got printed as press to Goz and probably made no sense. Completely Useless By September is a fond description of what Cubs really means.

(CHICAGO CALLING II): A columnist here calcualted the odds of the Cubs not winning the World Series for so long if they at least had a random chance. Suffice to say it was something that had a lot of decimals in front of it. Ouch.

(EDINBURGH-BOOB/FRANCE): I'm not sure what the plan was, but it just might work for one or both of us.

(FRANCE): Welcome to Cadiz. The Atlantic Ports tour continues in Southhampton.

(EDINBURGH-ROME): I hope you're right on the first count and I'm afraid you're right on the second.

(EDINBURGH-VIENNA): I read your article. Very enlightening. But with the Eagles trouncing the Bears last year and trading Rolen to the (ugh) Cardinals, I'm not sure I can sell the Philadelphia fan thing. At least I know I can find an obscure microbrew.

(EDINBURGH-MOSCOW): Maybe removing Norwegian can help?

FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1910 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

Summer 1910

AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): has a TRI, a VEN, a ROM, a BUD.

ENGLAND (Biehl): has f HEL, f NTH, f MID, a YOR.

GERMANY (Emmert): has f HOL, a KIE, a BOH, a BUR,

a GAL, a TYO, a VIE, a BEL, f CLY, a GAS, a SPA.

RUSSIA (Tretick): has a LVN, f NWG, a DEN, a WAR, a MOS, f NAO, a NWY.

TURKEY (Lutterbie): has f BLA, a RUM, f TUN, a NAP, f TYH, a SER, a BUL, f ION.

Addresses of the Participants

AUSTRIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)

trauterberg of wi.rr.com

ENGLAND: John Biehl, 8809 Delwood Drive, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 4A1 CANADA,

(604) 589-9124 ($7); 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)

batretick of earthlink.net

TURKEY: Vince Lutterbie, 1021 Stonehaven, Marshall, MO 65340-2837

melvin of cdsinet.net

Game Notes:

1) Buddy's change of E-Mail to buddytretick of earthlink.net didn't work because he actually had a computer virus that actually affected many of the rest of you as well! He's now at batretick of earthlink.net. Sorry about that and I hope all is well on that score now.

Press:

(GERMANY to RUSSIA): Hey, I don't know who you are, either, but that doesn't mean I'll go taking potshots at your dots. Let love rule, dude.

(USELESS INFORMATION): You guys do not understand depression. Try having a 95 year old lady you have been taking care of for 15 years die on you. Try having your last Aunt on your father's side die on you. Try visiting 23 gravesites where your ancestors are buried, seeing roots of trees lift those graves off the ground, and fallen trees crushing the slab of stone that was on top of those graves. Try having 75 of your good friends die in the same year. Try watching England go down under. [Opps, shouldn't tip my hand like that!]

(Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy

Game Notes:

1) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed draw passed and I still didn't have a chance to do the final Endgame chart. You have until then to do Endgame statements.

2) Harold Reynolds has done a lot of work with the maps and would like to volunteer to guest GM a new game of Colonia. This fits with my desire to have Spy Diplomacy be my next ``big'' game to GM, so I accept his offer. I also volunteer to get it started by signing up to play. There are nine players in the variant, could Harold give me an exact count of how many are signed up? Also, Harold is running a test game with Konrad Baumeister, Dave Partridge and Paul Rauterberg that you can watch on his website. It's possible this won't start until the test game is finished.

Press:

SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1912 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1912 IS JANUARY 11TH, 2003

Spring 1912

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 spa, a MUN s a bur, a BUR S a mun.

GERMANY (Barno): a vie-BUD.

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 UKR S a war-mos, a WAR-mos, f WES-spa(sc), a SEV S a war-mos,

f TYH-wes, a SIL-mun, a TYO S a sil-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-war, a BOH S a sil-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 695online.com

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 again but ONLY the FREGT draw is 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. A failure to vote may not veto a draw. I have noted 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 now, you have to vote EVERY season or your no vote or failure to vote becomes a ``yes''. 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. At this time, I am not warning you about this. I will do so with at least a few seasons notice.

2) I've had requests about ``speeding up'' the game. This is certainly possible, but it only can be done with the permission of all players. Thus, I'm not sure it matters in this situation, but feel free to tell me that your orders for future seasons are good for a quicker run of seasons. We could sail through a game year every other issue if you want. At this time, that request does not have unanimity.

3) I got slightly confused about what year it was last issue. This is Spring 1912.

Press:

(BLACK ARMY to WHITE ARMY): Observe the board as I demonstrate how much more free I am than you. I can wander through a half-dozen Turkish-held centers unimpeded, while you cannot even take a resourceless province from him. I can defeat your draw endlessly, and write whatever I choose, laughing at every turn; while you writhe in your soiled diaper and whine about who does and doesn't ``deserve" a place in a draw if one should come about. What have you accomplished since coming into this game? Did you build Russia into a major power? Or have you in fact lost centers, lost initiative, lost flexibility, and lost the respect of your fellow leaders? You nearly threw a way your chance at holding a stalemate line because I easily goaded you into attacking me instead of Turkey. You nearly threw it away again by failing to maintain a defensive coalition. You might yet lose it all. And you have absolutely no hope of ever eliminating me; all you can do is lose the game by erring tactically (or even strategically) out of spite for me. I can only say ``Hahahahaha" and repeat my earlier challenge: ``Come and get me, muhfugger!"

(RUSSIA to ALL): OK, I'm ready to end this in a five-way. This game is now officially a waste of my time that I no longer need.

EDWARD TELLER: 2002?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant

THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1903 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

Summer 1903

AUSTRIA (McHugh): has f TRI, a VIE, a BUD; and 5 nukes dismantled.

ENGLAND (Kenny): has f EDI, f LON, a LVP; and 5 nukes dismantled.

FRANCE (Schultz): has f BRE, a PAR, a MAR; and 5 nukes in their silos.

GERMANY (Rauterberg): has f DEN, a PRU, a RUH; and nuked SIL, LVN, ARM, GAL, GOB.

ITALY (Muller): has f NAP, a ROM, a VEN; and 5 nukes dismantled.

RUSSIA (Andruschak): has f FIN, a UKR; and nuked CON, SMY, ANK, GM (abuse!).

TURKEY (Kendter): has f BLA, a BUL; and nuked SEV, MOS, WAR, STP, ``The whole frelling game''.

Current Standings

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

TOTAL

JOHN SCHULTZ

3

3

6

PAUL RAUTERBERG

6

1

7

KARL MULLER

2

3

5

HARRY ANDRUSCHAK

4

5

9

LEE KENDTER, JR.

1

6

7

JACK MCHUGH

5

0

5

SANDY KENNY

3

1

4

Black Holed

8

14

7

29

Neutral

2

1

3

Totals(eventually)

34

34

34

34

34

34

34

238

Times GM Nuked

0

1

1

2

Whole Frelling Game

0

0

1

1

Addresses of the Participants

John Schultz plays on in our memories....

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, 734 West 214th Street, Apartment 12-A Torrance, CA 90502

(Phone number not established yet), 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) The rules I have been using for this game have been that there are no replacements or standbies. Nukes for the positions John has will remain unfired in their silos. None of his units will move or support anything. They can be attacked and dislodged and his centers can be nuked. John could win the game this way, conceivably, but likely would not.

3) That goes for the rest of you who NMR'ed as well. Though you all are free to move units in the Fall.

Press:

(TURKEY to WORLD): A line from Pink Floyd seems appropriate - Is anybody out there...

FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 2010 IS DECEMBER 7TH, 2002

THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2010 IS JANUARY 11TH, 2003

Spring 2010

BRITAIN (K. Ozog): a stp-FIN, f nth-ENG, a LAP S a stp-fin, f den-NTH,

f BAL-lat, a est-STP, f BRN-mur, f GOB S a est-stp.

EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): f ale-LBS, f cai-EME, f mor-ALG, f MAL S f apu-ion, f APU-ion,

a SYR S a irk, a tun-LIB, a IRK S a syr, f IZM-aeg.

GERMANY (Rauterberg): a ber-SIL, a SAX S a cze, a MUN S a aus, f PRU S f gda, f ham-HOL,

f GDA h, f BOR h, a VEN S a aus, a lyo-PAR, f bel-PIC, a AUS S a ven, a CZE S a aus, a mil-SWI,

f hol-BEL, a TUS S a ven.

SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): f gib-SOG, f sao-MOR, a bar-AUV, a NAV S a bar-auv, a auv-MAR, f MAO h,

a rom-NAP, f gol-TYS, a MON S a auv-mar.

UKRAINE (Partridge): a ode-ANK, a bul-GRE, a SER S a cro, a MOS-stp, a GOR S a mur, a lat-EST,

a KRA S a slo, a POD S a slo, f WBS C a ode-ank, f IST S f gre-aeg, a MUR s a mos-stp,

a SLO S a kra, a WAR-gda, f ION s f gre-aeg, a ADA S a irn, a URA S a mur, a HUN S a slo,

a bie-LAT, f gre-AEG, a LIT S a bie-lat, f ADR S f ion, a IRN S a ada, a CRO S a hun.

Addresses of the Participants

BRITAIN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813

heyday6 of yahoo.com

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, (440) 926-0230 ($3)

sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com or talonstalkingprey of yahoo.com

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 and Kurt Ozog are in to be two of the players. Any more??? We are going to do it with ``wings''.

2) We have a draw proposal for a Ukraine/Germany draw. Please vote with your Summer orders. Failure to vote vetoes the draw.

Press:

(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Forget the tomb that lies beneath the planks; then I'll come back and dance to him again.'' From ``Nocturne" off Curse of the Mekons.

(STAR TREK PRESS): This week's Star Trek press has been postponed in honor of the passing of John Schultz.

(ROMULAN ANNALS): It is as we have long suspected. Repeated use of the cloaking device in the vicinity of the aliens addles their brains. Through years of hard work and convoluted subterfuge, the animated corpse, Captain Quirk has finally achieved giving a starbase away that had been promised to Starfleet by the Empire, and has enhanced his fleet by stealing starbases from the Klingons. That he could have achieved all of this by a simple straightforward approach in less than half the time seems to have completely escaped his attention. It appears that the cloaking device scrambles Vulcan brains as well, as there is certainly no logic in use at Starfleet command. However, we do know that Starfleet has a strange fanaticism about truth in their logs, so we will take them at their word when they say ``The entire Universe is not united against the Romulans." We have an ally out there, and we promise this ally, whomever it might be, that they will be richly rewarded when they reveal themselves.

Personal Note to You (peace and health to all!!):