ABOUT THE POUCH

by the Interim Editor


Welcome to the Winter 2014 Adjustment issue of The Pouch! We’re a bit late this issue but given Charles travels over the holidays and my Code Blue trip to the hospitals (two of them, no less) over Christmas I guess that can be over-looked. This concludes my two issue tour as TDP’s Interim Editor and I want to thank everyone who helped out in the last few months. In the Spring Chris and the crew will be back with a new and exciting TDP to launch its third decade.

This issue celebrates the end of TDP’s first twenty years of publication and looks forward to the beginning of its next incarnation as it seeks to keep up with the changes taking place in the hobby devoted to Allan Calhamer’s classic game Diplomacy. You’ll see a good mix of articles in this issue about the zine’s past and some exciting new ideas for the future, as well as old friends and some new faces from parts of the hobby you probably didn’t even know existed. Here are some of the highlights of this issue in no particular order: Chris, Rick and Jim talk about the future of TDP; Geoff and Edi comment on Peter Koch’s story on Smyrna & Syria; you might not guess who has the largest collection of Diplomacy games in the hobby but here’s your chance to find out; are robots likely to replace humans at DipCons anytime soon?; Melinda Holley explores the role of women in Diplomacy and diplomacy shows how the hobby is badly trailing the real world in this area; some pointers on how to improve your diplomatic manners; Henry Kissinger is a titan of diplomacy who never quite made it as a cross-over dot snatcher as two articles in TDP and another in this month’s Diplomacy World reveal; a simple question about zero-sum-games and Diplomacy on Facebook provoked a lot of feedback and you can read the whole discussion here; Mario concludes the latest Sherlock Holmes story; there’s news about the newest members of the IDHOF, the FOTOBANK revival, and hobby events in the past year.

Pete McNamara looks at some of his favorite articles from past issues of TDP and Tom, the hobby BNC, offers some facts and insights into where the hobby’s oldest institution appears to be headed. A few reviews and some limericks from Harold will hopefully bring a smile to your face as we wrap up this issue.

My doctors and I had an interesting discussion in the hospital while discussing my a-fib condition. In fact, with doctors from the United States, El Salvador, Vietnam, Belorussia, and Korea it felt a bit like a Diplomacy game at times. One of the doctors commented, “About this game you play and the writing you’re doing: I’m not sure if that’s killing you or keeping you alive, or perhaps a bit of both.”

Enjoy the Pouch!



Larry Peery
The Interim Editor
(editor@diplom.org)

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