About The Diplomatic Pouch

Manus Hand, Publisher


One Score and Zero Issues Ago

Well, here we are for the twentieth time. Another Pouch issue. Another couple weeks late getting to you. Another nice crop of articles.

Again, I never got back to the bunch of volunteer editors (thus explaining the issue's tardiness), so Simon and I put this issue together. Again, I promise to get back to them soon. (If anyone can tell me what I mean by that, I'll ally with you for a season or something. Or at least for a retreat phase.)

Oh, and -- since I've been asked -- don't worry; even though he is sitting another issue out, the Great Detective has neither retired nor fallen from a cliff. Sherlock Holmes is busy solving another Diplomatic mystery, and I'm sure Dr. Watson will catch us all up next issue....

Can I Quote You On That?

Since the last issue, the collection of witty, pithy, and even sometimes intelligent quotes about diplomacy -- from which one is shown randomly each time you load the front page of The Pouch -- has grown to 380. A quote for every day of the year and then some! (Which is good, since I'm sure you visit The Pouch more than once a day, right? I mean, doesn't everyone?)

The Discovery Pouch??

Simon reports that television has taken note of The Pouch! Well, at least a television-related Website. On one of his forays to see who all out in Webland has links to The Pouch, he found someone in TVland. The Discovery Channel has an online "school" with lessons on various topics in conjunction with their Assignment Discovery TV program. One of the lesson topics is Sun Tzu's Art of War. If you head for the Webpage for that lesson, then click on "Links," you get a list of online resources intended to supplement the lesson. One of them is the article Simon wrote for the Zine: The Art of Diplomacy in The Art of War!

Pretty cool! (Though you have to wonder if they actually read the article since it's about the game of Diplomacy and not the concept of diplomacy.) But anyway....

Almost as Many Queue Games As Years In The Millennium!

The Diplomatic Pouch Game Queues are just a few games short of starting their thousandth game! Will you be the lucky GM to start game number 1000? Will you be one of the lucky seven players who gets to play it? The whole Internet Diplomacy hobby is on the edge of their seat as the milestone nears! It's like a lottery atmosphere! (Well, not quite, I suppose -- actually, I haven't heard word one about it -- but it is kind of neat, huh?)

Speaking of the Game Queues...

One of the recent developments at The Pouch saw the addition of a new queue. In case you missed the announcement, you can now get into a queue if you're willing to be a replacement player, and if you're a GM of a game in need of that kind of assistance, you can grab willing players (bless their hearts!) from the top of the queue just by asking. Help out your fellow judge PBEM players by using the Replacement player queue.

What's In Store?

In case you don't know because you didn't skim the table of contents, I'll tell you that you've got a very good issue in front of you, if I do say so myself (and it looks like I do, doesn't it?) Among the other treasures in the issue -- and it's chock full of them -- is a spread on Hasbro Interactive's forthcoming release of Diplomacy!

So, with no further ado, I'll get out of your way and let you get to the good stuff.

As Always, Enjoy The Pouch!

Manus Hand
Publisher
(manus@manushand.com)

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