THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #334

July 7, 2012


Jim Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327 USA, (401)351-0287, jfburgess of gmail.com


E-MAIL/WEB ONLY ISSUE! PDF will be available on the website. Join the tidal wave of Dippers going to World DipCon in Chicago in August, we can overwhelm Shark Chum with 330 warm bodies!


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


Some of you are still not on the E-Mail list for this szine, I keep trying to sign you up, please accept the offer! I am being a bit more systematic about that right now. I am going ahead and finishing all the games here, and then we'll see what happens.
This issue continues the szine/subszine inversion. As most of you know, this thing began as a ßubszine" to Terry Tallman's North Sealth, West George, then became its own szine with a host of subszines. The subszines remaining will appear as sub-subszines to our new flipflopped home in Doug Kent's Eternal Sunshine. Doug will keep us on schedule so we will charge forward and finish the remaining games that I have in here. After that, we'll see how it goes and what I do next. I'd like to keep writing and doing some game GMing. You all should see first what I actually do.
For production, in addition to the HTML's of each separate product on the web page, I will also have a PDF that you can print of the entire subszine (including my famous handdrawn maps!). You can just print the maps if you like, but remember maps are for pikers anyway, you don't need no steenkin' maps, keep them up in your head where they belong. I don't think there are very many people I owe money, but if you think I owe you money, just ask and I will pay. ONE GROUP that is definitely owed money is the players with NMR insurance. NMR insurance still continues, I will still call you for it, and when your game ends, I will refund the money.
General information about the mailing list is at: /mailman/listinfo/tap You can sign up from there, or send E-Mails to: Tap-request of diplom.org; with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. You must know your password to change your options (including changing the password, itself) or to unsubscribe.


THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE LETTERS SECTION
((Let's keep talking about FTF tournament diplomacy! World DipCon is fast approaching in August, I'm putting on a real hard full-court press on getting every single one of you reading this to come. Why not? E-Mail me with your excuse and I'll shred it. The convention is in beautiful downtown Chicago and has five rounds beginning first thing Friday morning, August 10th and ending on August 12th. Find more information at: http://windycityweasels.org/wdc or contact Jim O'Kelley (aka Shark Chum) and come meet me and maybe you'll see my "Alice" T-Shirt coming out of the closet... let's especially get some of the old crowd to come join us, there remains a rumor that Pete Gaughan might show up. I have my hotel room and flights.))
((For these and other upcoming cons around the world: /Face/cons/index.php))


Warren Goesle (Tuesday, June 12, 2012 10:20 AM)
Jim-Bob,
I don't usually look ahead in the MLB schedule, since my philosophy is that teams (especially mine) can win only 1 game at a time, but I happened to see an ad on ESPN for next weekend's Sunday Night Baseball, and I find that the Red Sox are coming to Wrigley Friday through Sunday (Have the Red Sox been here since interleague started? I don't recall it happening...).
Shall we place the same bet as last year when the Cubs were at Fenway?
Goz, Warren.Goesle of Navistar.com
((What was our bet before, Goz?))


Warren Goesle (Wednesday, June 13, 2012 6:33 AM)
Last year the bet was that the fan of whichever team lost the 3 game series at Fenway (Cubs/Red Sox) had to use for a week as their Facebook profile picture, one of them wearing the other team's hat.
Ergo, for a week last Summer this was my profile picture: ((you're saved the blindness risk....))
Ok, it's not my best side.
Same again this year for the upcoming rematch at Wrigley?
And Rick, I finally found that the Red Sox had indeed been at Wrigley in 2005 as well. Don't know why I wouldn't have remembered that. I would have thought we'd have had some bet going on then too.
Goz, Warren.Goesle of Navistar.com


Warren Goesle (Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:21 AM)
And on another note, something I saw last night:
MLB game. Back and forth, home team takes 4-3 lead in bottom of the 8th. Top of the 9th, 2 out, no one on. The sellout crowd of 41,000 - none of whom has left - rises to its feet and starts yelling and screaming. 3rd batter of the inning hits a weak ground ball to the 2nd baseman for the easy 3rd out and home team wins. Crowd goes nuts, holds up banners and sings the silly song that's sung when the home team wins.
And with that the Cubs went to 21-40.
Could that possibly happen in Boston?
Goz, Warren.Goesle of Navistar.com


David Partridge (Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:48 AM)
Sure. Game 6 of the conference finals. Celtics are getting hammered. Only a few minutes left. Crowd chants Go Celtics for 3 straight minutes, prompting Celtics players to comment after the game that Boston fans are the best they've ever seen. Oh wait, did you mean for the pathetic lazy good for nothing underachieving overpaid spoiled Red Sox? Never happen.
Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
((They still dance and sing "Sweet Caroline" in the seventh inning stretch even if the Red Sox are losing 13-0.))


Warren Goesle (Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:58:54 -0500)
It's apples and oranges, but not because it's the Celtics.
I'm not the basketball specialist on this thread, but if I recall the Celtics made the conference semis. A better analogy would be if they were 10-20 in an 8 2 game season where it didn't look like they'd recover for the playoffs and they held on at the end of a close game against a good team.
Goz, Warren.Goesle of Navistar.com


Rick Desper (Friday, June 15, 2012 3:48 PM)
Who plays baseball on a Friday afternoon?
Oh right, the Cubs.
(And what's up with Ryan Dempster? Who decides at the age of 35 to drop a career whip of 1.435 to 1.027?)
Rick :(, rick_desper of yahoo.com


Warren Goesle (Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:14:00 -0400)
Bear in mind the Cubs love playing games during 92 degree afternoons instead of 78 degree evenings, and their fans love to go those games. I think it has something to do with the anti-perspirent endorsement deals.
As for Dempster, right now he's trying to get traded to a good team. Do you know one that might want him for a couple of months at the end of the year?
Goz, Warren.Goesle of Navistar.com
((The Cubbies don't do well at night.... the Red Sox lost that first game, but then won the next two to win the series. So, Goz, pay up... you asked for it!!! As we hit the All Star Break, though, the Red Sox are stuck deadset on mediocrity at .500. What will happen next???))
THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE GAMES SECTION
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. Since I'm not postal mailing the szine any more, I've dropped back to just reporting the disguised E-Mail addresses. As someone notes, if you need some more contact information, go back to past issues or ask me.
Standby lists:
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, Heath Gardner, Paul Kenny, and Jeff O'Donnell stand by for regular Diplomacy. Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF given the new policies.


GAME OPENING INFORMATION
I'm going to start the game opening list over. Under the new regime, who wants to play?
DIPLOMACY: First off, another regular Diplomacy game is open. Doug Kent and Brad Wilson are in, anyone else?
BREAKING AWAY: Also, a new Breaking Away game is open. Currently Andy York is on board. This is the game I really like running and want to start another one. It's easy, very low maintenance.


THE PHIL REYNOLDS MEMORIAL: 2006B, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1907 IS JULY 27TH, 2012
Spring 1907
AUSTRIA (Burgess): f nap-ION, a GAL-ukr, a pie-VEN, a VIE S a tyo-boh, a ven-TRI,
f rom-NAP, a SER-rum, a tyo-BOH.
ENGLAND (James): a lon-DEN, f NTH C a lon-den, f wes-TYH, f NWY S f swe, a HOL-kie,
f tyh-ROM, f SWE S a lon-den.
FRANCE (Williams): a par-GAS, f naf-MID, a BUR S a mun, f GOL s ENGLISH f tyh-tus (nso),
a MUN s ENGLISH a hol-kie.
GERMANY (Ellinger): a KIE s a ber-mun, a BER-mun, a fin-swe (d ann),
f den s a fin-swe (nsu, removed in Winter).
ITALY (Crow): f TUN S ENGLISH f wes-tyh, a mar-PIE.
RUSSIA (Barno): a SEV-ukr, a WAR-gal, a boh-SIL, a stp-FIN, f bul(ec)-CON,
a lvn-PRU, f ion-GRE, a RUM s a war-gal, f GOB S a stp-fin.


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: David Burgess, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org
ENGLAND: Drew James, kjames01 of twcny.rr.com or karelanddrew of gmail.com
FRANCE: Don Williams, wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org ($5)
GERMANY: Marc Ellinger, mellinger of blitzbardgett.com
ITALY: John Crow, johnny.crow of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: Mike Barno, mpbarno of gmail.com
TURKEY: Fred Wiedemeyer, wiedem of telus.net or wiedem of shaw.ca


Game Notes:
1) A bit of press, a bit of moves, note there are no summer retreats, you're welcome to move on to Fall if you like.


Press:
(ENGLAND to WORLD): Our focus has been on the Queen's Jubilee rather than diplomacy in Europe the past month. Apologies all around! Appears as though we aren't the only power that has been distracted, though.
(GERMANY): The battle for Europe is winding down. Maybe it’s time for a shake up? Maybe not. Attrition seems to be the name of the game.
(AH-WORLD): You can put lipstick on a pig... it's still a pig...
(ENGLAND to FRANCE): Hopefully you have improved the ciphers on your communications. Our policy isn't to spy on our friends, but when you put Top Secret messages into the wrong diplomatic pouch we have no choice, but to read it! Neither of us built a fleet so I assume we are still friends.
(BOOB OPINES): Ducks are well known for feathering the wrong nests....
(JAMES to WILLIAMS): There needs to be better earlier communication. I hope we didn't get crossed up.
(ITHACA to PROVIDENCE): Oh, you think we're doing all this for your amusement, young man? You think we spent all this money and invested years of our planning and toiling just so you could sit there and giggle, boy? One day, sonny, we'll be as gone as Geocities and you'll be all alone realizing how good you once had it. You'll be writing press to yourself and writing orders stabbing yourself just to imagine that something interesting is going on. Hmph. Go clean up your zineroom.
(PROVIDENCE to ITHACA AND EVERYONE ELSE): This month, we came up against the Diplomacy World deadline and a rash of these "communication issues". This made these results a bit late. But believe you me, I fully intend to keep going.


SPIRALS OF PARANOIA: 2005A, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1910 IS JULY 27TH, 2012
Spring 1910
FRANCE (Jim Tretick for Buddy Tretick): f bre-ENG, f NTH h, a spa-GAS, f wes-GOL,
a BUR h, f TYH S f tun-ion, f tun-ION, a MAR h, f eng-LON.
GERMANY (Ozog for Tallman): f ber-KIE, a MUN-ruh, f kie-HOL, a TYO-mun,
a PIE-mar, a SER-gre, a bud-TRI, a tri-VEN, a ROM S a ven-apu, f ska-DEN,
a ven-APU, a BEL-ruh, f nwg-EDI.
ITALY (Kent): a NAP h, f ADR-ion, a GRE h.
RUSSIA (Sundstrom): f stp(nc)-NWY, f BLA C a ank-bul, a UKR S a rum, f con-AEG,
a RUM S a ank-bul, a ank-BUL, a smy-CON, a arm-SEV.


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Paul Rauterberg, paul.rauterberg of att.net
ENGLAND: Fred Wiedemeyer, wiedem of telus.net or wiedem of shaw.ca
FRANCE: Buddy Tretick, 5023 Sewell's Pointe Way, Fredericksburg, VA 22407
FRANCE: Temporary Standby is Jim Tretick, jtretick of gmail.com
GERMANY: Terry Tallman, ($2) terryt of whidbey.net
GERMANY: Temporary Standby is Eric Ozog, ElfEric of Juno.com
ITALY: Doug Kent, dougray30 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Matt Sundstrom, Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Vince Lutterbie, melvin4852 of sbcglobal.net


Game Notes:
1) The FGR draw proposal was rejected again. The FGR, GR, and an FG are proposed for next time.
2) We now have two medical replacements, as Buddy's son Jim (who some of us played with many years ago as James Alan) will be playing for Buddy as Eric is playing for Terry.
3) Note there are no summer retreats, you're welcome to move on to Fall if you want.
Press:
(BERLIN-PARIS): Your dear ol' dad's desire was that France and Germany would be allied for the rest of the game. You're going against his wishes, prodigal son, so it appears war is unavoidable. With your move to the North Sea, you started it, not me; Uncle Bernie is going to be very disappointed with you!
(BERLIN- > MOSCOW): Let's bust this game wide open! For far too long it has been D-U-L-L Dullsville, U.S.A.


FLIP FLOP: 2003G, Regular Diplomacy
TURKEY WINS, CONGRATULATIONS AL LEVINSON!
Fall 1914
ENGLAND (Kent): a nwy-STP, a PRU S a ber-sil, f MID-wes, f WES-gol, f stp(nc)-BAR,
a LVN S a pru, a ber-SIL, f nth-ENG, f GOB S a nwy-stp, f BAL S a lvn.
FRANCE (McHugh): a bel-RUH, f NAF S f mid-wes, f MAR S f wes-gol,
a mun s a ber-sil (d r:kie,ber,otb), a BUR S a mun, f SPA(SC) S f wes-gol, a GAS S f mar.
TURKEY (Levinson): a bul-SER, a GAL S a war, a SEV-mos, a rum-UKR, f TUN h,
a MOS-stp, a TUS h, f TYH S f gol, a WAR h, a TYO S a sil-mun, f ION S f tun,
f GOL h, a BOH S a sil-mun, f PIE S f gol, a sil-MUN, a VIE h.


Supply Center Chart
ENGLAND (Kent): EDI,LVP,LON,por,den,kie,
nwy,swe,ber,stp
FRANCE (McHugh): PAR,MAR,BRE,spa,bel,hol
TURKEY (Levinson): ANK,SMY,CON,bul,sev,ser,gre, (18, WINS!)
tun,rom,rum,nap,ven,tri,mos,bud,vie,war,mun
Neutral: none (Total=34)


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Brad Wilson, bwdolphin146 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Doug Kent, dougray30 of yahoo.com
FRANCE: Jack McHugh, jwmchughjr of gmail.com
GERMANY: Matt Sundstrom, Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net
ITALY: Don Williams, wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org
RUSSIA: Sean O'Donnell, sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Alexandre Levinson, al of tolkin.nl ($5)


Game Notes:
1) I did get Fall orders from everyone, so we have continued forward.
2) And that takes us to Al's victory! Congratulations, Al, for sticking this out to the solo!!! I'll have a Supply Center Chart next time and solicit endgame statements.


LAST WORD: Well, the Supreme Court decision is in on the Affordable Care Act. I wasn't at all confident in my prediction, but I dead on nailed how the case was actually decided, right to Chief Justice Roberts calling the mandate penalty a tax and the striking down of the Medicaid provision. I had lots of people afterward saying I should have bet on it, but I probably wouldn't have, even if I could have, since I really didn't think my prediction would happen. The debate we're now having in individual states over whether they're going to allow the Medicaid coverage expansion is precisely the political battle they should have, and the variation we'll see will represent the political power set-up in those states.
I now go back to work on some of the various implementation issues in the ACA, and that allows us to go to the next steps of the healthcare debate we need to have. Part of that debate that's particularly interesting to me remains about whether we should have physicians be physicians or try to manage the health care system. We actually pay physicians too much to have them spend time managing, and they tend to like interacting with each other too much to spend all their time interacting with all the other sorts of health care providers that are multiplying out there. What fun, never a dull moment for me... it was one of the many reasons why this issue was so late, sorry about that. Down to two games left. Keep me in business and fill a new game!!
Roberts' reasoning was really intriguing, since we have "loss aversion" you don't want to take Medicaid away from people after you give it to them, so the Medicaid ruling gives states like Texas an out to not expand Medicaid. THEN, you argue that your taxes are being sucked out into other states that are doing the Medicaid expansion and focus the political argument for overturning the law in general or on those costly pieces.


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.85.
On 13 Jul 2012, 00:36.