| May 3, 2001 |
Web Page Address: http://diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
New issues of Tinamou and Deny Everything are inside.
I think Tinamou is on the web page, or will be, but Deny Everything
is still available only postally.....
| THE NEXT TINAMOU DEADLINE IS JUNE 4TH, 2001 - SEE TINAMOU BELOW |
I popped the deadline back a week and that now should be set for the next two
or three deadlines as it will match my schedule better.
It allows me to make this the May Day issue.
Also note that I need only ONE more player for Breaking Away!
Sign up quickly as I expect that opening will go nearly immediately.
Also, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy is FREE!!!
I ended up holding this until the ``end'' of Survivor, since I wasn't going to have time to print and mail until Friday anyway, though all but this was done a few days earlier. At the end of the day, speaking as a Diplomacy player, I think I have to say that the Survivor concept has run its course for me. I still think the basic idea is really close to putting the game of Diplomacy onto a higher level of interaction with the ``trapped'' playing the game 24-7 a huge lure. But ultimately, the design of the game fails to capture the nature of Diplomacy in one key way. Let me draw a not entirely original analogy. Imagine that we change the rules of Diplomacy to take away the 18 center victory condition and say that the goal instead is to play the game until there are just TWO powers left on the board. Then the remaining five powers eliminated vote as to which of the Final Two players is the winner. How would that change the game?? Well, it changes it a lot, and in entirely endogenous, but ultimately unpredictable ways. As one who sort of favors ``alternate goals'' for Diplomacy in general, this might surprise everyone, but it means that the closer you get to the win, the more you consider ``how you got there'' and what the players you defeated might think about you. This makes ``the game'' much closer to real life, but it blurs the line between the game and life a lot, and in ways that don't bear up to close scrutiny.
Survivor ends in a win for Tina, something that I predicted (you can check out the Diplomacy group on Yahoo if you don't believe me, I finished third in the group for predicting the outcomes of each week's action and totally aced the final episode) but that I am not totally pleased about. Because, in a Diplomacy game, Colby should have won. As I watched the floods of emotional crap come out of the video editing of Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett in the last few episodes, it became clear that in the end Colby would also win the last immunity (though they surprised me a bit with the quiz for the final three, if they had done the quiz for the final four - as I had anticipated - my fave Elisabeth would have won it and immunity and changed the endgame) and then that he would vote off Keith, thus ensuring that he would NOT win the million dollar prize. And, even though I like to see alternative goals pop up in Dip, as I said, the idea that someone would (keeping the analogy) Carebear someone into a win over themselves, when they had the win guaranteed is a bit sickening. At first, I thought that Survivors were just slowly learning how to play the game, but now I am convinced that the game will just continue to push further in this direction for the future. Rather than Richard Hatch's strategic losses of Immunities, you will have more and more static, stable alliances with relentless voting off with hugs (the way you saw Tina especially, but Colby too, do with Rodger and Elisabeth). This is NOT interesting to me. I wanted to see dynamic back and forth flows of alliances. And I just don't think you're gonna see it in Survivor III either. So, Survivor - African Serengeti (don't know if Tanzania will be the location, just a guess) is going to have significantly less interest for me. I think I also am having an acute saccharine reaction to the editing in the last episode tonight too. I do think spirituality, introspection, and ritual are extremely important. Hey, I'm an Episcopalian and that's what our religion is grounded on, but the sickly, sweet, syrupy way they did it in this last two hour episode just was so hard to take. My cradle Episcopalian wife really couldn't take it and ways that I could just tell were based right there.
I've tried to spare everyone lots of Survivor II analysis this time around, but I couldn't resist this rant. Hey, that's two rant issues in a row, could it be a trend??? Nah... I'm really busy these days but basically happy. I don't even let Red Sox losses to the Mariners on the West Coast and Pedro whining about retiring get to me. Life is good, let's get to the szine.....
The postal sub price is now
$1.50 per issue in the US and Canada,
STILL a bargain at twice the price.... but
you can double that for other foreign subbers (or $3.00 per
issue sent airmail).
Players in current games and standbys will
continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts
(except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost
$20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the
game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance).
NOTE: See the revised game start announcements below!
Plus, we are ``taking over the US hobby'' by adding significantly to my list of subszines. We have Michael Lowrey's Houdini Blues as a Southern branch office in TAP. Don Williams' sublime publication also will continue to appear here as Deny Everything's next issue appears below too.
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at: http://diplom.org/DipPouch/
I also have taken over the Postal portion of the Pouch: http://diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/
and TAP on the web is there at: http://diplom.org/DipPouch/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.meurglys.com
The most recent issue of TAP also can be accessed through Pete Sullivan's web page and very occasionally David Wang's:
1) David has grabbed and reserved the HIGHLY prized name: www.szine.com!! David Wang's site also allows you to follow (in a MUCH, MUCH improved way!) John Caruso's postal baseball league that I am in.
2) For the most recent issue of Pete Sullivan's subszine check out (this address will be changing shortly):
http://www.manorcon.demon.co.uk/octopus/index.html
Pete is looking for Railway Rivals standbys, but otherwise, he is full with games at the moment. I'm not sure what Pete is up to at the moment, but we'll hear soon.
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 MICKEY PRESTON |
I don't know much about Mickey, I think this one was submitted by Paul Kenny, Paul could you write me something about Mickey??? We'll have until Issue #250 to find Mickey Preston. You guys know the tune. I did send an issue to Mark Berch's last known address, but no contact to this point, so that one goes into the ``backlog''.
Or feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Mark, 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 Mark Berch, 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, 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 or johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk
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. There has been some interest in finding a new Australian representative. Should someone Down Under have an interest, or from anywhere else in the world, please contact me. 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 guilders or then into other continental currencies, 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.
| WORLDMASTERS00 SECTION (with letters AND a game!!) |
Worldmasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Goes ON!!
The main WWW site for Worldmasters can be found at http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Sign up for the conference board at
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
The Conference board is where day to day communications and discussions take place. Yes, and Jack McHugh is playing in there somewhere, go see if you can find him. The Second Round games have just begun, so lots of action there. Good luck to all TAPites who are involved, not just Jack.
Check out the end of the 1999 Finals game, and my impromptu commentary, at:
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters99
| Lee Simpson (England), IS THE 1999 WORLDMASTERS CHAMPION!!! |
My heartfelt and deeply deserved congratulations go out to Lee, who took over England after Toby Harris' resignation and took that country on to an 18 center win. After watching Lee, he is one of the game's truly great players. 553 players started out, ONE finishes.
| M2000 Boasters!, Worldmasters2000 Time Wasters Diplomacy |
Autumn and Winter 1903
AUSTRIA (O'Donnchu): has a GRE, a GAL, f AEG, a BUD, a SER.
ENGLAND (Setzer): bld a lvp; has a LVP, f ENG, f BEL, f SWE.
FRANCE (Pérez): R a bel-PIC; bld f bre, a mar; has f BRE, a MAR, f LON, a PIC,
f NAO, a MUN, a RUH.
GERMANY (Mehaffey): has a SIL, f KIE, f DEN, a HOL.
ITALY (Dennehy): has f ION, f TYH, a APU, a TUS.
RUSSIA (Harris): R f swe-BAL; rem a nwy; has a WAR, a MOS, f BAL, f BLA,
a UKR, a RUM.
TURKEY (Miszti): has f CON, a SMY, a BUL, f EAS.
Spring 1904
AUSTRIA (O'Donnchu): a gre-bul (d r:alb,otb), a GAL-rum, f aeg-con (d ann),
a BUD S a gal-rum, a SER S a gre-bul.
ENGLAND (Setzer): a LVP h, f eng-bre (d r:pic,wal,iri,otb), f bel-NTH,
f SWE S GERMAN f kie-bal (nso).
FRANCE (Pérez): f bre-ENG, a MAR-pie, f LON S f bre-eng, a pic-BEL,
f nao-MID, a MUN S RUSSIAN f bal-kie (nso), a RUH S a pic-bel.
GERMANY (Mehaffey): a sil-BER, f KIE S f den-bal, f den-BAL, a HOL S a kie.
ITALY (Dennehy): f ION C a apu-gre, f tyh-GOL, a apu-GRE, a TUS-pie.
RUSSIA (Harris): a WAR S a rum-gal, a mos-STP, f bal S ENGLISH f swe-den (d r:gob,lvn,pru,otb),
f BLA S TURKISH a bul, a UKR S a war, a RUM-gal.
TURKEY (Miszti): f con-AEG, a SMY h, a BUL S ITALIAN a apu-gre, f EAS S f con-aeg.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (O'Donnchu): | BUD,TRI,VIE,ser,gre | (has 5, even) |
| ENGLAND (Setzer): | LVP,EDI,bel,swe | (has 3, bld 1) |
| FRANCE (Pérez): | BRE,PAR,MAR,spa,por,lon,mun | (has 4 or 5, bld 3(r:otb) or 2) |
| GERMANY (Mehaffey): | BER,KIE,hol,den | (has 4, even) |
| ITALY (Dennehy): | ROM,VEN,NAP,tun | (has 4, even) |
| RUSSIA (Harris): | MOS,STP,WAR,SEV,rum,nwy | (has 6 or 7, even(r:otb) or rem 1) |
| TURKEY (Miszti): | ANK,SMY,CON,bul | (has 4, even) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Players
AUSTRIA: Fearghal O'Donnchu, fearghal.odonnchu of life.friendsfirst.ie or twerg_85 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Ray Setzer, mczet of acronet.net
FRANCE: Niclas Pérez, perez of astrogator.se
GERMANY: Mike Mehaffey, mehaffey of ape-i.com
ITALY: Brian Dennehy, brian.dennehy of iol.ie
RUSSIA: Toby Harris, Toby.Harris of equifax.com
TURKEY: Emeric Miszti, emeric of cloud-nine.co.uk
Game Notes:
1)
Press:
| 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.
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
The new Spring issue should be out shortly and is worth waiting for. A ``wrap-up" of the 1999 WorldMasters tournament, plus some other great articles. The New Year issue features a doozy of an interview with Brandon Clarke of New Zealand. Also, the ``Ruffians'' demo game has a write up with an introduction to the full negotiation history on the Diplomatic Pouch's Showcase web site. You can see how our very own Paul Rauterberg was screwed over by former World Champion Chris Martin not once, not twice, but at least THREE times. But Chris didn't win.... not that time. There also are some summaries on all the different ways to play Diplomacy in the World at the present time and some writeups on last year's major British Diplomacy conventions. Kath Collman's write up I found particularly gripping and illuminating reading! 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.
I will be continuing to resolve the question of the back issue subs. I have money from Doug Kent now. If you were a subber to Diplomacy World and explicitly are sure you DO NOT want your sub filled out or you are sure you DO want your sub filled out, then please contact me NOW. If you aren't sure, I will start contacting you shortly. I have begun this effort and will finish it shortly. Thank you to all those who have responded.
WHO: The Potomac Tea & Knife Society
WHAT: Third Annual Tempest in a Teapot Diplomacy Tournament
WHEN: October 5-7, 2001
WHERE: Capitol Beltway Fairfield Inn, Beltsville, Maryland
HOW: 3 rounds (Friday night, Saturday and Sunday mornings) with social night.
Registration: http://www.ptks.org for the Tempest in a Teapot registration
Information: Steve Mauris (steveoh of erols.com) or Andy Marshall (landruajm of netscape.net)
Bruce Linsey is having Lab Con IV, a gaming convention at his house from
Friday afternoon, June 29, to Wednesday evening, July 4, near Albany, NY.
This does overlap with the World Boardgaming Championships which are the
same weekend.
Bruce sent me a list of his 650 games that he owns, so lots of variety
should be expected.
If you are interested, Bruce does require RSVP by June 1 if possible,
and can provide directions and other information.
Bruce says: ``We hope to see you for the first Lab Con of the new millennium!
If you've never been to a Lab Con before, don't miss this one...it's a blast!''
| Contact Bruce at: GonzoHQ of aol.com |
((I started a discussion on rec.games.diplomacy with the following comment:
I have three week deadlines, others have longer deadlines. What
happens in a GOOD game is that people are more engaged, have more
time to get to know each other and play out diplomatic initiatives
longer. And that makes the quality of play higher.
I remain amazed, in admittedly relatively limited contact with
regular Judge games, how many people communicate in short one-two
liners. You simply CANNOT have a high quality of play this way.
I try to write concisely for effect, both here and in negotiation
letters, sometimes but I can't imagine a negotiation letter of less
than three paragraphs (i.e. about the size of this) that would have
any effect that I wanted whatsoever.))
Jody McCullough (Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:51:45 GMT)
If you're playing truly through mail, then you need these sorts of deadlines just to be able to play at all. I guess some phone calls are happening too, which certainly changes things for some of the players anyway.
Believe me, good judge players *DO NOT* communicate this way. They write in paragraphs, just as you or I do. The paragraphs are made up of - more or less - complete sentences. And they write a lot.
In a good judge game with good players you get lots of press. Lots and lots of press. Trust me on this one. It's actually pretty intense if you're not used to it.
| Jody, jodymc of telocity.com |
Doug Massey (Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:51:45 GMT)
This is true in high quality Judge games. The Vermont Group's full-press tournament is in its semi-final round and I'm GM'ing all three games. The press that flies back and forth is well written and very verbose. There were a few exceptions (players that didn't write very much), but they don't last in the game very long . . .
((How did ``bourse" stack up against that (my most recent Judge experience)? Although everyone in the game except the first Turkey negotiated fairly extensively, I found the interaction good, but far from intense (in a postal sense). And I got a sense that I communicated at least as much as anyone else. AND I was ``induced" by the common crowd to cut my intended level of broadcast press to about 1/10th of what I had planned going in. ***AND*** in good three or four week deadline postal games the intensity of the negotiation these days (including both E-Mail and phone) is on that same level, but with the longer deadline means perhaps three times as much negotiation per game turn. Though I by no means intend to undercut what I'm sure are some great games in the VG setting.))
The final will start in a month or two and I hope to run it as a showcase game - if it has any of the wild turns of the three semifinal games, it shapes up to be an amazing game to watch.
| Doug, masseyd of valhalla.btv.ibm.com |
((Indeed!))
Doug Massey (26 Apr 2001 13:42:24 GMT)
I thought `bourse' was care-bearish and a little dull. England stabbed France early, FG crushed E. AIR attacked T early and crushed him. Then FG agreed to a 2WD and walked across the board, with G passing on a forced solo to let F catch up. *Yawn*
The Full-Press tournament's first round was pretty good, with some amazing solo wins mixed with some indifferent 2WD's and 3WD's that were just positioning for the second round. The second round's objectives were just to get to the third round and I feared three seriously boring games. But it's been the exact opposite - all three are/were ferocious. I can't say more without giving away the results (I can't let the players in the on-going game know what happened in the other two).
Note that I'm not really pro-draw or anti-draw - well, I'm not a big fan of a care-bear 2WD - but I really do like constantly shifting alliances and players that will use the hatchet, then agree to bury the hatchet, then dig it up and bury it again - in his ally's back! Some games end in draws when a player sprints towards a solo and the other players organize a defense. That's the right time to call it a draw, in my opinion.
| Doug, masseyd of valhalla.btv.ibm.com |
Stephen Agar (26 Apr 2001 13:51:32 GMT)
My ``postal" games are all played by email. They differ from a classical email game in that they have longer deadlines (my life is too busy to have 48/72 hour deadlines), and they are zine based - so I get more out of it than an output file from a JUDGE.
If people want to play quick and sterile games then that's fine - each to his/her own.
| Stephen Agar, stephen of meurglys.com |
Doug Massey (Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:31:35 -0400 (EDT))
Quick games don't have to be sterile, though. It all depends on the players, of course. If you have enough Internet access to be able to respond to messages within a couple of hours, then you can play 48hr deadline games, corresponding three, five, seven times with each other player (although most other players might not require such exchanges). Quick games should be for players with a wide bandwidth of time to write email to their opponents.
No-Press games *are* sterile, of course. I use to play them a lot, but not so much anymore. I have a hard time keeping my interest up enough to make the strongest tactical moves that I can. With press, perfect tactics aren't necessary; with no-press, there's not much else.
Fast press games can be sterile, if some of the players can't really handle negotiations at that speed. When you have three or four opponents in a 48hr game who can only send press once a day, you can't get enough of an exchange going to really call it ``diplomacy".
I think players should pick lengths of games based not on how impatient they are for the next turn to process, but based upon how often they can respond to other players in the game. If you can only send email once a day, you shouldn't play faster than one-week deadlines. If you can respond in the morning and in the evening, maybe 72hr deadlines. If you can play while you ``work", maybe 48hr. If you sit at home and do nothing else, then 24hr. If *everyone* stuck to this sort of guideline, the *quality* of the games would go up, even as the *quantity* of games goes down.
Just my opinion, of course.
| Doug, masseyd of btv.ibm.com |
((I sent out a few sample issues after a mini-contest on r.g.d. This was one response.....))
Trevor Hill (Wed, 25 Apr 2001 09:46:20 -0400)
After perusing my FREE* copy of the Abyssinian Prince #244, I have reached the following conclusions:
1) Postal players are insane.
2) Jim-Bob is among the most insane of the insane postal players.
3) Fool would fit right in going postal, I mean, playing postal.
4) Postal deadlines are lonnnnnnng.
5) I couldn't afford the phone bills to play postal.
6) Jim-Bob has the messiest writing I have EVER seen.
7) Postal players are insane. :)
| -Trevor, trevor.hill of alcatel.com |
* After answering skill-testing question.
| MUSIC SECTION (WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTS AND SOCIETY) |
Tell me anything you like about the year of 2000 in music. List a top two, a top ten, or a top 100, I don't care, just tell me something!! Mine REALLY will appear next issue, it's even closer to being almost done.
Ian Moore (18-4-2001)
Hello Jim,
Gosh, I haven't written in a while. ((No, you haven't....)) In a desperate attempt to get myself into your good books I've enclosed two recent Frank's APA szines. ((That'll do it, I'm easy....)) If I'm organised, I might print out the szine I've just done for the latest mailing, so you'll have bags of Ian in Frank's APA action to wade through. ((I enjoyed the ones you sent. It sounds like Marc Gascoigne is still filling up all sorts of efforts in talking about Christmas songs again. He went ``CD'' this year, as you probably know. When you go back over ALL the years, it is just an amazing number of songs he's collected. I like the circa 1990 tapes the most and still listen to those each year.))
I was very touched by Gary Coughlan's story of his reconciliation with his father. I don't really have much more to say about it than that, just that it is one of the most moving things I have ever read. ((That's enough, it's ditto from me.))
I was in your country recently, but probably no nearer to you than I am now, as I was in San Francisco, visiting my friend Ken. We (special friend Irene and I) also visited Vancouver, western seaport of perky Canada. Vancouver was interesting in so far as the weather was very like it is here - permanently pissing rain, basically - but a lot of oddly alien features like gridded street plans and a tendency for people to drive everywhere. ((Yes, but it is a very sprawled out place, like most of North America, so how else would you get anywhere??? If I were czar, I would blow up so many cities and redesign them with very different levels of density, including parkland for greenery. I sort of like Vancouver's mix of US suburbia, gritty inner city, and mountainous backdrops.)) We never fully got to grips with Vancouver because we were staying with an aunt of mine who kept bringing us to things rather than letting us check things out for ourselves. SF was different, we were staying with a friend who pretty much left us to do our own thing.
One thing that was amusing about our visit to San Francisco is how hostile to your incoming President so many people there are. Many of that city's inhabitants seem to see Mr. Bush as some kind of simpleton plaything of Big Business, rather than a noble scion of an illustrious political family. ((Well, they do have a point. California is 1/7 of the US economy and Mr. Bush abandoned it during the 2000 campaign and has continued to abandon it after taking office. His aides are hinting that he might never visit it again and that they already have given up on winning it in 2004, so his efforts are better spent elsewhere. Then there is his whole attitude toward their energy crisis. Being fair, the Californians have dug their own hole here and I'm sure Bush is gaining valuable political points in key swing states Oregon and Washington by his actions, but still he is President of ALL of the United States, not just 40 or so of them that he thinks he might have a chance to win in 2004. Personally, I think the ``simpleton thing" is way overplayed. What he is not, in sharp contrast to Clinton, but similar to Reagan, is a workaholic detail man. He is the 9-5 President with the MBA - follower of management gurus like Goldratt (writer of the Goal) who asserts that if you focus on and embrace the constraints in a system, then managers can have plenty of family time and work much less. I have a certain degree of sympathy for this idea, but not a great deal. The Presidency is not a 9-5 job and thus the President does not have the command of many essential details.)) I wonder, can any of your older readers cast their minds back to when Reagan became President? Was there a similar sense of ``there goes the country!'' among those in the more progressive sectors of society? ((What I recall very distinctly now is the year I spent in Dallas in the early 80's - you all will recall, that is when the ``Jim-Bob'' nickname kicked in - and the feeling was precisely the same. There were lots of Reagan supporters in Texas then, much of the same demographic that supports Bush now, and I felt just about the same way and had the same kinds of arguments/discussions with people. What I think is happening now is that Bush's team and society as a whole is more calculating than it was then. They are ``paying off the campaign contributions'' with a whole set of appointments and policies early, through say 2002, and then they will count on short memories in campaigning for 2004. Dubya saw first hand how his father was unable to stop negative momentum at the end of his first term from getting him voted out of office. At this point, I think even Dubya's dubious (heh, heh) attempt to ``talk'' us into a brief recession at the beginning of his term was HIGHLY calculated not, as I first thought, the ravings of an insane lunatic.))
Did I ever send you a best music of 2000? Err.... I'll have to think about this. ((Do. I loved your reference to the Buggles, ``Video Killed the Radio Star", it is one of the all time great singles. I love listening to it over and over in the car screaming down the highway (well, as much as you can scream in a Subaru....))
Your correspondent Richard Weiss in TAP 242 mentions two interesting things. Firstly, the Ken Burns ``Jazz'' TV series. I loved his one about the Civil War, and was interested to hear he had done a programme about jazz. On our flight back from SF, one of the inflight things being shown was an episode of that documentary, the one dealing with Charlie Parker and bebop and such like in the post second world war period. Fascinating stuff, amazingly well put together, the kind of thing that makes me think getting a television would not be a completely stupid thing to do. I might have to settle for buying the whole thing on DVD so I can watch it on my computer.
Incidentally, am I right in thinking that the ``Fast Show'' was never shown in the US, and thus whenever jazz is mentioned, people do not pavlovianly respond, ``Jazz - nice''? ((What??? You might think that the answer to that is no, but I don't have cable and watch very, very little TV so I might not know if it was.))
Mr. Weiss also mentions some pop-personality stuff abbout some bunch of charlatans boosting about having predicted Bush's victory. It is worth making the point again that more Americans voted for Gore than for Bush, that Bush lost the election. I bet that bunch of institutes didn't figure the electoral college into their predictions, so that's their ``Americans prefer more gregarious Presidents'' clichés down the dumper. ((The prevailing mood as I see it is: don't get mad, get even. You may not have heard that the Florida electoral system is being revised and brought into the 21st century straight from the 19th. They will be using all optical scanner technology by 2002, just like my state, Rhode Island has been doing for ten years. I don't see many people being all that interested in continuing to hash the past, though many are interested in ``next time''. See some thinking by me on that elsewhere.))
I'd agree with Steve Langley that Snatch is a lot of fun, if one that could do with a tenth of the plotlines it had to roll with (or maybe not the incomprehensible story is half the fun). ((I go with the latter - STRONGLY!)) Brad Pitt is hilarious as the pikey prize fighter speaking some strange patois only tangentially related to English.
On the subject of films, I saw State and Main last night, a film written and directed by David Mamet, starring such people as Philip Seymour Hoffman and William H. Macy, as well as Rebecca Pidgeon (Mrs. David Mamet) and Alec Baldwin. This is a rather fluffy comedy about a film crew arriving in some hick New England town to shoot a film. It's all kind of endearing, and while the dialogue is pretty sharp, there is nothing to match Glengarry Glen Ross's ``What's my name? `Fuck You', that's my name.'' surely the greatest line of dialogue ever. It's all very sweet and it reminded me a lot of the Robert Altman film Cookie's Fortune, which no one in the world went to see apart from me. ((I would be surprised if Steve Langley didn't see it, not much gets past him....))
All that stuff about basketball is really weird - are you sure it isn't being printed up by some random text generator? ((Hah, hah, ha, no more so than your average Frank's APA looks to the uninitiated. I found some of your comments to be close to that..... heh, heh, heh...))
I must leave you now. I will send my next Frank's APA zine with my next letter. It tells of my enjoyable trip to ``All Tomorrow's Parties''.
| Very best wishes, Ian Moore, Apt. 22, 1 Jervis Street, Dublin 1, IRELAND |
((Two postal letters in one issue, great! This next one is a bit more filled with grit, but from the long time editor of Mos Eisley Spaceport anything is welcome.... interesting that both letters have the word ``fuck'' in them. Apologies on the Internet for those that might have filters which are bothered by that (but of course, they aren't reading this anyway.... so fuck 'em!). I'll refrain and let him get all the way through before I comment a bit.))
John Michalski (24 April 2001)
People often ridicule that habit of east coast types who constantly dream up new idiotic schemes to spend money curing the world, raising the dead, air condition the Sahara, and bring about universal love. It is an easy target. However, after a while it tends to lose its impact, becoming just another shopworn cliché. Then, along comes something as absurd as the front page editorial on #244 to breathe new life into the issue!
Let's see: India had an earthquake, and nothing has been done about it, so, let's spend American tax dollars to clear their rubble for them! I have to do a double take here, since I really have trouble believing anyone like that could be serious. A normal, thinking person, faced by someone saying, ``Hey, nothing has been done in India to clear up their recent earthquake problems'', might well ask why India hasn't used its massive army to aid in the cleanup? Or what New Delhi has done to help other Indian states after their earthquakes? After all, this isn't the first, or the last, earthquake to hit a land that has the Himalayas as part of its border. Is this particular problem any different from India's other chronic problems? Was this something unforeseen, striking from the blue, vastly outside her ability to deal with on her own? Hell, the Indian government itself, let alone their massive populace, is obviously not any more perturbed over this disaster than any of the assorted other calamities, wars, droughts, floods, revolts, assassinations, starvations, riots, and what-not that they face, day in and day out. If they cared, there is plenty they could do about it. So if they haven't bothered with it, why should I give a shit? Well, guess what? I don't.
If someone wants to worry about uncleared rubble in Gujarat State, or land mines in Cambodia, or the loss of panda environment in central China, they are welcome to do so. I might even be sympathetic, at least for the pandas. But when they turn to the US president and give a positive answer to their own question ``What does all this have to do with Mr. Bush?'', I will speak up with my objection. Anyone stating or implying that the government I'm paying for should lift a finger to do what the Indian government has decided not to bother with itself, is more than entitled to an answer from me. Especially so close to April 15th! The only legitimate objection to George Bush's actions is that he is unwilling to look such whiners square in the face and give them a blunt, honest, ``Fuck off''. I certainly do.
| John Michalski, 10705 Cecilia Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73162 |
((Hi, John, let me surprise you by saying I agree with most of what you said, especially about the government funding part - at least in most cases. Where did I say anything about government funding? ;-) I didn't. What I was looking at was the President's bully pulpit role where by mentioning something, it can generate freely given donations by those so inclined to make them. Just to give you a sense of the difficulty..... knowing this won't thrill you.... Bill Clinton had the same idea I did at the same time, so the week after I wrote that he WENT to India, trying to get the news people who still cover him to pay attention to this story. Instead, all they were interested in doing was getting Bill Clinton to ride an elephant, so that they could take a picture and trumpet: ``See Democrat Bill Clinton riding the elephant". Everyone get the joke? Pretty lame.... but about where the state of the news media is these days, at least the ones following Bill Clinton. All I wanted Dubya to do was to jump start some attention so that private groups could use it as a springboard to raise privately donated money. My rant stands.....))
Kurt Ozog (Wed, 18 Apr 2001 15:00:11 -0700 (PDT))
Hey, can you believe the Mekons have yet another album out?? The Illinois Entertainer gave it a 6 out of 10 rating. Have you heard it yet?
| Best regards, Kurt, heyday6 of yahoo.com |
((Not only haven't I heard it, I can't seem to find it anywhere on the Internet! The references to the latest tours include some ``complaints'' from long time fans on fannish web pages that the set list on the current US tour is the same as the set list on last year's tour. A big shame from a band who arguably is the best live concert on the planet. I saw that I missed their trip to Boston and they didn't come to Providence - darn! So, I'd appreciate more info, if you can find it.))
Paul Rauterberg (Tue, 17 Apr 2001 01:16:58 -0500)
Hi Jim-This is for publication, if you want it.
It is always scarey when someone close to one's own age dies, serving as a rude reminder of that dangling sword labelled ``mortality." Joey Ramone was only two years (plus change) older than I....
He served so well as a cure for Rock's ``Midlife Crisis" that I feel Joey deserves to be considered a genuine cultural hero. Rising out of the drudge of the disco era, he reinfused the spirit of roughness into Rock that so pervaded its earliest days. The Ramones put an attitude back into music.
I look upon their albums Road to Ruin and Rocket to Russia with genuine fondness. ((As do I, and WHAT a concert band..... ears guaranteed to ring for days afterward.)) These were the heirs to the guitar-slamming Who, and to rockin' wise guys like Lou Reed.
This time, the new attitude spread from New York to London spawning the rebelliousness of groups like the Sex Pistols. Punk soon evolved into the more sugary ``New Wave", but still its rough interior rubbed off on the music of the '80's. Rock was fun again, at least for one more shining decade.
Thanks, Joey.
| Paul, trauterberg of wi.rr.com |
Mike Barno (Tue, 17 Apr 2001 20:11:47 -0400)
Right on. I sent my company's president a tongue-in-cheek memo proposing that Ramones music be played in the offices and employees dance a wake for ``Joey" (Jeff). I even cited my Yellowstone (Mammoth Employee Pub) experience of employee catharsis and bonding from dancing to a band of Park employees who played Dead and Jerry Garcia Band tunes the evening after Jerry Garcia died in '95. But I had to admit that the Ramones music and associated dance forms (if performed with appropriate vigor) would make it tough to conduct telephone discussions with clients.
| - Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
((Just send all the phones to voice mail for an afternoon..... I wanna be sedated!!!))
Mike Barno (Tue, 17 Apr 2001 20:28:10 -0400)
Then read DENY EVERYTHING press... oops you WRITE the stuff... ((Not as much of it as you might think, knock on Faz's door.... ``retirement'' is suiting him well for press. Hyork, hyork, hyork....))
| Live well; die Some Other Time - Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
Steve Emmert (Sat, 21 Apr 2001 05:24:08 -0400)
I am attaching a copy of something I ran a while back in an e-mail game I'm GM'ing (``My Melon, Callie Baby," named in honor of my daughter, Callie). It's a discussion of my opinion of the most influential composition of the Twentieth Century. I expected brickbats and lots of disagreement when I published it, but got none. Your readers, of course, are much more discerning when it comes to music (try as I might, I have great difficulty getting these PBEM players interested in anything other than the game reports), so this might start an interesting discussion.
In my recent musings over the now-departed Twentieth Century, I have considered the most influential music of that era. There is no ``greatest tune of the century" to be found in the discussion that follows; that's like arguing over who is the prettiest girl, or which is the best novel. Everything depends on your taste. But in considering which is the most influential, you can be a bit more objective.
If you're into rock 'n' roll, there are several choices. Chuck Berry's ``Johnny B. Goode" is an obvious one; it's one of the defining tunes of early rock, and remains one of the greatest rock tunes ever released. If you want to go back to the real beginning, you'll have to include Bill Haley and the Comets' ``Rock Around the Clock." After that, you have your choice of Beatles recordings; Rolling Stones fans will lobby for Let It Bleed or Sticky Fingers; and it's hard to argue with fans of the short-lived Blind Faith.
More recently, it's easy to point to releases such as Never Mind the Bollocks . . ., London Calling, U2's War, The Police's Regatta de Blanc, and even Nevermind by Nirvana and Pearl Jam's Ten as landmark recordings. Each of these was a defining moment in the genre.
But rock owes its very existence to the Blues, so none of these tunes can truly be said to have launched a movement. There is, however, a single composition that served to legitimize an entire genre within the Twentieth Century, and that gets my vote in this particular poll.
In the 1920's George Gershwin and some of his contemporaries had a goal: They wanted to bring the sound of jazz to a wider audience. Jazz was then regarded as far too lowbrow for any serious composer, and certainly not worthy of being played in a serious concert hall.
Then, in January 1924, Gershwin got a call to compose and perform a new piece at Aeolian Hall in New York, some five weeks later. At first, he began to write a concerto, but found it too constraining for what he wanted to convey; too many rules to follow. He decided to compose instead a rhapsody, which is ``an instrumental composition of free, irregular form, suggesting improvisation." Improvisation is one of the hallmarks of jazz, and an idea began to occur to Gershwin - perhaps this was the opportunity he and his colleagues had been looking for.
Faced with a severe shortage of time, Gershwin hurriedly composed his piece, calling it ``Rhapsody in Blue." The time was so short that when Gershwin took the stage to perform his new composition on February 12, significant parts of the piano solos were not yet on paper; these pages in the musical score were quite literally blank when he sat down to play.
But play he did, and in doing so, irrevocably changed the face of Twentieth Century music. The reaction to Gershwin's intermarriage of the jazz and classical realms was enough to bring jazz into the ears of serious critics, and thence into a wider audience throughout the world.
From the roots planted in this concert, we have been able to enjoy Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Vince Guaraldi, Ella Fitzgerald, and a host of others. I can think of no other single composition that did so much to legitimize an entire musical art form.
| Steve, steve.emmert of home.com |
((I've commented on various aspects of this question before, I would not argue too vehemently about your take.))
Warren Goesle (Sat, 21 Apr 2001 15:55:08)
((I honestly think the Red Sox will win the Eastern division.))
Do you play the lottery and expect to win too?
((Cleveland will win the Central and Seattle will win the West. Any effort to figure out who will win the Wild Card leaves me in a quandary. In the NL, the Giants win easily in the West, Houston in the Central, and Atlanta in the East. Again, I have no clue who will take the Wild Card. I'll be ``weak" and say the NY teams take both wild cards if you make me choose.))
Ok, then I'll make my predictions, which I may never have sent to you:
AL: NY, Cleveland, Texas, Toronto (WC)
NL: NY, St. Louis, Colorado*, Atlanta (WC)
* My least sure pick...could be anyone in that division except San Diego.
ALCS: Yankees beat Indians
NLCS: Mets beat Braves
WS: Yankees over Mets in 6; Jim-Bob becomes a hermit in New Zealand.
| Goz, gozcorp of pop.iquest.net |
Rick Desper (Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:15:29 -0400 (EDT))
NBA: I'm bullish on the Bucks. I think the East is very weak (again!) and the Bucks have enough talent to beat anybody. The Bucks are 8-0 against the top West teams, which compares favorably to Philly's relative inability to beat top teams. The Sixers feasted by completely dominating the weaker teams. I was going to jump on this bandwagon before the playoffs started, but was travelling. I would ordinarily worry about the Knicks and/or Heat, but they both seem to be collapsing. Well, maybe the Knicks not yet, but I think they don't match up well against the Bucks. In the West, look for the Spurs to roll. The Spurs ought to be able to beat anybody if they can continue to get good play from Derek Anderson. Maybe I'll take Spurs over Bucks in the Finals.
MLB: I'm really serious about the Yankees going down this year. The funny thing is how BAD the prognosticators have been thus far. Your typical picks were Yankees/White Sox/Indians/A's as the playoff teams in the AL. Right now we're looking at Red Sox/Blue Jays/Twins/Mariners, and NONE of those teams are flukes. (Well, maybe I should wait a bit before getting too gung ho about the Twins, but they have excellent pitching. If Guzman could come back soon...) The Mariners are clearly demonstrating that the current salary structure in MLB is madness. They have jettisoned Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, JR., and Alex Rodriguez, and they are better than ever. The problem is that ARod's salary really isn't the best way to spend $20 million/year, and certainly not when you spread that over a decade. Who has ever been the dominant player for as long as a decade? Even Griffey is showing the signs of wear and tear, and seems to be prematurely slowing down. Three years ago people laughed when Scott Boras claimed that Bernie Williams was just as valuable as Junior. But given Junior's recent production, this doesn't seem so far off base. ((I think an argument can be made that Manny Ramirez might be the only player of these types worth that much money, and the Red Sox are lucky enough to have him.))
The problem with the Yankees is that their age is starting to catch up with them. For one thing, as Sox fans well know, Clemens has always had problems maintaining his motivation level. Just what happened with him between '93 and '96? He's ripe for an off year. Mussina was always a pitcher who raked in wins in spite of a relatively high ERA, and that's not a great sign. He has some great games, but he's not close to the Pedro/Maddux level. El Duque appears to be falling apart as he nears his 50th birthday and Pettite, though solid, is also not a real ace. People forget in the madness surrounding their World Series victory that
a) they only won 87 games in the regular season last year
and
b) had they not stolen Justice from the Indians (another boneheaded trade by John Hart) they would not even had made the playoffs.
The offensive weapons they have: Williams, Posada, Jeter, Justice, are good, but are not as scary as those in Toronto, Cleveland, or Chicago. Soriano looks to be a great player, but they really are an overrated team in general.
The Sox have been doing well thus far, and the scary thing is to consider just how well they would be doing if they hadn't had a few notable bullpen failures. Maybe after last night Lowe will start turning things around. They need him because they really don't want to go into September with Rod Beck as a closer. This is not a big surprise: Pedro continues to be the best pitcher in the game, Nomo is definitely back in form, and Crawford and Okha both showed a lot of promise last year, as did ``Lieutenant" Frank Castillo. The hitting has been OK, with Manny ripping up the AL just like we want and Everett playing well too. Of course, they need to get Nomar back and healthy to really scare other teams. If they can keep their current level of production from their starting pitching, get Lowe back into his form, and get Nomar back and grooving, then I like the Sox over the Yankees.
I see in the NL that the Cubs are leading their division. Clearly this is the year for the Cubs/Red Sox World Series rematch of 1918. You may think this is crazy, but I'm seeing the signs. Yesterday I got a letter from the IRS correcting my tax return, and informing me that my refund was to be over $1000 more than I had calculated it to be. This is one of those ``hell freezes over" events which one watches for.
Too bad Sweet Liz finally got voted off last night, but she's not really in bad shape, as her future hubby Tim is working out with the Buffalo Bills and her exposure is likely to give her some ability to push a fashion line if she wants. (Fashion is such a strange industry it's hard to really predict success but the shoes she showed this morning on The Morning Show looked cool to me.)
Being forced off the Filarski bandwagon, I'm finally going to climb onto the Donaldson bandwagon. The meals he's gotten here and there, combined with his natural greater strength, should be enough for Yet Another Immunity in the finals. I'll count on him playing it straight and voting off Keith (based on his comments last night) but it doesn't really matter: if he's in the final two, he'll win the money. Alicia, Nick, Amber, and Jerri would all vote for him over either of the other two. ((See up top.....))
It bugs me that the REA alliance never formed, since it was an alliance which had winning potential. But I can see where it would not have ultimately benefitted Amber, who had no hope of winning under that plan. If she had joined to vote off Keith, say, then Colby and Tina would have voted against her from there on.
Of course, if Colby wins the final immunity, one could argue that all the voting really didn't determine the game. That would be quite interesting. Where Hatch played the game with an eye toward controlling the voting, Colby simply went out and said ``this is my necklace, I'm not giving it up" and then used the reward challenges to maintain a greater level of physical and mental strength. It had never occurred to me that one could win using such a front-runner strategy.
| Rick, desper of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
((But, he didn't, and couldn't. I expected more people to cite this issue positively or negatively in the voting, but they didn't. That shows that they viewed the Challenges as partly being external to the main game. I didn't see the Twins coming, but I foresaw that the White Sox and Rangers would have trouble. I thought before the season and still think now that Seattle and Cleveland are the powers back to be. Also, note the similarities between the Bucks and the Celtics. I am still wanting to punch Pitino in the nose for his approach. He wanted to play a balanced team approach when he had a team of two superstars. Like the Bucks, they still have two years of inconsistency before they will be able to translate their superstar play (needing to find ONE more) into playoff basketball. But nothing Pitino was doing could have speeded that up. In essence, in retrospect THAT game was over before it started with the ``ping pong balls" fell off Duncan. The other thing I am thinking is that it MIGHT be interesting to see how Pitino would have handled next year's rules.))
Steve Langley (Fri, 13 Apr 2001 20:45:28 EDT)
Josie and the Pussycats
The trailer to this one pulled me in. It shows these three girls singing their hearts out to no audience at all. Followed by a bunch of quick cuts leading them to stardom. I'm thinking that it is very cartoon like when they drop the title in, ``Josie and the Pussycats". Right out of Saturday morning cartoons to the big screen.
In the Comic Book Josie and the Pussycats are crime fighters by day and rock stars by night, or sometimes vice versa. They brought it all to the big screen. An insidious plot to brainwash American Youth through subliminal (actually subliminal doesn't quite seem right since there is no visual media involved) messages in pop music.
Josie and Val and Mel singing their hearts out while evading villains and foiling the master plot.
Josie and Alan M. discovering once again that they are meant for each other.
I love a good cartoon.
This would have been my pick of the week if I hadn't seen ``Spy Kids".
Steve Langley (Fri, 13 Apr 2001 20:31:52 EDT)
Spy Kids ... a movie
There is a theory that everything happens for a reason. I don't know if I believe that or not. Sometimes I wonder though. I had no plans to go see Spy Kids. It was on no list at all. What it was was the only movie showing at a time that was convenient to what I was doing, and it has had such phenomenal box office that I figured, `What the heck?'
Turns out some movie god or other was watching out for me. Spy Kids is a wonderful movie. It is a total kid's fantasy. It works on so many levels that I am either a total kid, or it appeals to grumpy old men, too.
I love it.
Steve Langley (Wed, 11 Apr 2001 19:56:21 EDT)
Along Came a Spider ... a movie
James Patterson writes in the Psycho-Thriller genre. I may have coined the term myself, but it perfectly describes what he does. He tells his stories from various points of view. Sometimes from the mind of the psycho-killer, sometimes from the mind of the unwitting victim to be, most often from the mind of Detective and Doctor of Psychology Alex Cross.
Turning a Patterson book into a movie is very difficult in that a movie, by its very media doesn't allow you into the minds of the characters. Given that, Along Came a Spider does a very creditable job of doing that very thing.
Patterson deals with intelligent people. Some of them are insane, but they are still very intelligent. That comes across in the movie.
Michael Wincott plays `Gary Soneji' who kidnaps the daughter of a Senator from a school guarded by the Secret Service as the first step in what he plans to be the `Crime of the Century'. Wincott plays very scary people with just the right touch of humor to make them even scarier. To make sure that his brilliance is understood he invites `Alex Cross' played again by Morgan Freeman to help find `Megan Rose Dunne' played by Mika Boorem. I mentioned that Patterson writes about intelligent people. `Megan Rose' is one of the smartest eight year olds you will ever see in a movie.
Monica Potter plays ``Jezzie Flannigan" the Secret Service agent who was in charge of 'Megan's' security. She places herself with Alex Cross because she thinks he has the best chance of figuring out what `Soneji' is doing. Monica Potter is all cute and fuzzy. Not the perfect choice for a Secret Service agent. She tries tough but she is still all cute and fuzzy.
The story has twists. Not all is as it seems. `Alex Cross' still manages to figure it out. I loved it. But I really think Monica Potter was miscast.
((I agree with you and really liked this one. My wife and I saw it on our 15th Wedding Anniversary night, I think.... shows me where my mind is, I can't recall which movie we saw that night. Monica Potter did some bad acting caused by that miscasting too. What I don't really get is that some critics REALLY hated this movie and said it was totally predictable. I did not find that to be true, it was not predictable to me and didn't get that way by illogical insane writing. The story fit together once it all fell into place. Maybe I'm just stupid and if some critic figured it all out at the beginning, more power to him....))
Steve Langley (Sat, 14 Apr 2001 20:14:03 EDT)
Just Visiting ... a movie
Once again Jean Reno proves that he is the master of any situation from the darkly sinister to the brilliantly comic. Seldom does he get to combine the extremes. He did in The Professional, he comes close in Just Visiting. His character doesn't really have a dark side, but he plays a 12th century French knight in modern day New York. Mostly it is a comic situation with large laughs. But occasionally he draws himself up and you see a 12th century French knight seriously dominating the scene.
Christina Applegate has come a long long way from ``Married with Children". She plays the great great many times removed grand daughter of Reno's character with brains and charm. The story is as much about her discovering her strength as it is about the Reno's discovering the differences between then and now.
Christian Clavier has a double billing, sharing writing credits with the director, and as ``Andre" Reno's faithful servent. Part of the story is about Andre discovering that he is a person in himself.
Good story, lots of laughs, a villain that gets his just desserts (pardon the pun).
((Hey Steve, I've generally been loving your reviews, but I also saw this movie recently (Friday night) and that was Chicago..... all those beautiful bridges and the Lakefront!!! ...... not New York (you'll be lucky if Jim O'Kelley ever forgives you!!! ;-). And I thought Christina Applegate also was fine to very good except in a handful of scenes where she seemed to be watching Reno (who was PERFECT!) instead of playing her role (I get exposed to too many actors in person, watching technique, etc. and I'm probably more sensitive to this than most). But I too enjoyed the movie quite a bit.))
Steve Langley (Sun, 18 Mar 2001 19:22:52 EST)
Enemy at the Gates ... a movie
This is a classic story. On one hand there is the young hero with nothing but natural talent, and on the other the old warrior with experience and trickery.
Jude Law once again creates an interesting character. Young Vassily Zaitsev is fresh in off the farm. He is put into a uniform and handed some bullets. He is told to pick up a rifle from a dead comrade and use the bullets to fight the Germans. That was the extent of his training by the Russian military.
Luckily for all except the Germans, young Vassily was taught to shoot by his grandfather. He finally does get his hands on a rifle, and, under the awed eyes of Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) a young Soviet Political Officer, proceeds to kill several German officers with unerring accuracy and no mercy.
Danilov turns Vassily into a propaganda symbol. He tally's Vassily's kills and publishes them in a daily newspaper. German morale plummets and Russian morale soars.
Major Koenig (Ed Harris) is shipped up to the front from Berlin to deal with this sudden reversal. He is the old warrior. He teaches other German's to be snipers. He wrote the book. He volunteered to kill the young warrior. Vassily doesn't even know he is coming.
Rachel Weisz plays Tania, a young girl who has lost her parents to the Germans. She falls in love with the young hero, and Danilov falls in love with her.
Another classic story element. Envy as a motivational factor towards doing the wrong thing.
The war torn city of Stalingrad deserves a special note. This was a very real setting. The destructiveness of war was made apparent. Bombs and bullets really do tear things apart. The ongoing battle that was the background for the sniper's duel was very realistically done.
One major flaw was the total lack of trying to make the actor's accents part of the movie. These were supposed to be Russians and Germans. They sounded like Brits and Americans, mixed on both sides. It was a little jarring to hear Nikita Krushchev (Bob Hoskins) speaking with a Cockney accent.
Mark Fassio (Sun, 18 Mar 2001 20:53:48 -0500)
The premise of the movie was reported in the 1973 book of the same name, by William Craig. Zaitsev in real life was everything the movie made him to be (and more). Ntw, he was blinded (how ironic) by a mine later in the war, and as for his American-born girlfriend....well, read the book.
Anyway, the historical consensus is that this event never occurred; there was no Maj Koenig. but because of the popularity and ``grittiness" of the book's story, the Euopean consortium that made this movie (at $85M, the most expensive joint venture ever in Europe) decided to give this one a (ahem) shot.
I'm going to see it next weekend, hopefully.
| Mark, fazfam of juno.com |
Steve Langley (Sat, 28 Apr 2001 18:21:39 EDT)
One Night at McCool's ... a movie
Over the top.
One Night at McCool's was designed for the actors to go over the top in their roles. They do. Liv Tyler, who is arguable the most beautiful woman on the planet gets to play ``Jewel" who is wet dream material, no matter how chaste or kinky the wet dream may be. She is whatever fantasy the man she is near may desire. This actually takes more acting talent than any of the other actors needed. The most difficult thing any of the men in the movie had to do was walk across a room without tripping over his tongue.
Funny movie actually. It was told from the point of view of ``Randy" (Matt Dillon) who is an out of work barkeep who has a house and so becomes Jewel's boyfriend. Jewel has always wanted a house. Randy is telling his story to Michael Douglas, the hit man he is hiring to remove Jewel from his life. The same story is told by ``Detective Dehling" (John Goodman) who is telling his story to his priest, who keeps interrupting to get more details about the sex parts (more over the top). And finally by ``Carl" (Paul Reiser), Randy's almost cousin who is telling his story to his brand new shrink (Reba McEntire) who has a really difficult time keeping a straight face.
Considering the number of dead bodies Jewel leaves in her wake, the term ``Black Comedy" is apt.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
| LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK |
2000G, Lawyers, I think not, Spring 1904
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com A Vienna - TYROLIA, A BOHEMIA sup A Vienna - Tyrolia, Trieste - VENICE, A SILISIA support Russian A Prussia-Berlin, F Greece - ALBANIA, A Rumania - SERBIA, F Ionian sea - TYRRHENIAN SEA
England Rick Davis redavis914 of aol.com A EDINBURGH Support F Norwegian - Clyde F Norwegian sea - CLYDE
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F Brest-ENGLISH CHANNEL, F WALES support German A Yorkshire - Liverpool, F LONDON support F Brest - Channel, A BURGUNDY support German A Munich A MARSEILLES hold, F Spain sc - MID ATLANTIC
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com A berlin (dislodged, may retreat to Kiel) - sweden, A MUNICH hold, F Denmark supp A Berlin - Sweden, F North sea - NORWAY, F baltic (dislodged may retreat to Kiel, Livonia) convoy A berlin - silisia, A Yorkshire - LIVERPOOL,
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com A Naples - ROME, F Tunis - NORTH AFRICA, A PIEDMONT - marseilles, F Tyrrhenian - GULF OF LYON
Russia Randy Ellis Bukowski64 of yahoo.com F Aegean -IONIAN SEA, F Sweden - BALTIC SEA, A Norway - SWEDEN F BOTHNIA S F Sweden -Baltic sea, A St Petersburg - FINLAND, A Sevastopol - MOSCOW, A Prussia - BERLIN, A Warsaw - PRUSSIA A Smyrna - CONSTANTINOPLE
PRESS:
VIE-ROM: All bets are on.
Mos to Rome: Welcome aboard JimBob. Should be a wild ride...
MIKE to RUSS): Here's a slogan for the libertarian driver category: Ïf God is your Co-Pilot Then You Better Switch Seats."
GERMANY to RUSSIA: There will be no negotiations until the violence ends! (quoting the 2001 Israeli government. You are of course free to reply "The violence will not end until you negotiate.")
RATHER LIBERTARIAN DRIVER to ABSOLUTE LIBERTARIAN DRIVER (that is, GER to GM): Remember, a sudden rise from several hundred feet underwater to the surface is in the US Navy's book. I don't know what procedures YOU follow these days, but have you ever had a fishing trawler suddenly appear in the space your vehicle is moving into?
GM-Mike: And why are you addressing your comments about Libertarians to me?
GERMANY to ANY INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS READING THIS: When faced with a hostile neighbor and a doubtful one both adjacent to your home centers, you probably do NOT want to emulate my apparent pattern of "convoy armies from home centers to edges of the board". F'03 "F Nth C A Hol-Yor" and S'04 "F Bal C A Ber-Swe" show that pattern, but had supply-center-based reasons. Nonetheless I suck and will perhaps lose for such poor decisions.
FINGER LAKES to CHICAGO: At least you're not in Cincinnati.
Moscow to Paris: For a 'neutral' country you certainly seem to have a very well-defined agenda, sir.
A Poem from Moscow My Friend...When you are sad, ...I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad. When you are blue, ...I'll try to dislodge whatever is choking you. When you smile, ...I'll know you finally got laid. When you are scared, ...I will rag you about it every chance I get. When you are worried, ...I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining. When you are confused, ...I will use little words to explain it to your dumb ass. When you are sick, ...stay the hell away from me until you're well again. I don't want whatever you have. When you fall, ...I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass. This is my oath, ...I pledge till the end. Why you may ask? Because you're my friend! Send this poem to ten of your closest friends and get depressed because you realize you only have 2 friends, and one of them is not speaking to you right now anyway.
2000G, Lawyers, I think not, Summer 1904
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com Has A Tyrolia, A Bohemia, A Venice, A Silisia, F Albania, A Serbia, F Tyrrhenian
England Rick Davis redavis914 of aol.com Has A Edinburgh, F Clyde
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Has F Channel, F Wales, F London, A Burgundy, A Marseilles, F Mid Atlantic
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com A Berlin retreats to Kiel F Baltic retreats to Livonia Has A Liverpool, F Norway, A Munich, F Denmark, A Kiel, F Livonia
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com Has A Rome, F North Africa, A Piedmont, F Gulf of Lyon
Russia Randy Ellis Bukowski64 of yahoo.com Has F Ionian, F Baltic, A Sweden, F Bothnia, A Finland, A Moscow, A Berlin, A Prussia, A Constantinople
PRESS:
It seems my printing a supply center chart every season is confusing one of you experienced players. Is this something you can get used to or should I stop doing it? Remember, this is a fall season coming up.
Fall 1904 due Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Winter 1903 Supply Center Chart
Austria Vienna, Trieste, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania 7
England Liverpool, Edinburgh 2
France Brest, Paris, Marseiles, Spain, Portugal, London 6
Germany Kiel, Munich, Berlin, Belgium, Denmark, Holland 6
Italy Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis 4
Russia St. Pete, Moscow, Warsaw, Sevastopol, Sweden, Norway, Constantinople, Ankara, Smyrna 9
Russ Rusnak 1551 High Ridge Parkway Westchester, Il 60154
GM 708 409-0718 RRRRRUSNAK of AOL.com
| 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.
Standby lists:
Bruce Linsey, Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Stan Johnson, Randy Ellis, Bob Acheson, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Phil Reynolds, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Harold Reynolds stands by for Colonia. Help, more are needed for this game, maps are provided for free by me.... or by Harold Reynolds just ask.
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 |
LAWYERS GAME: Steve Koehler, Stephen Agar and Steve Emmert already have signed up. We're searching for lawyers, contact me if you have any leads! We've invited Thomas Libby and Edwin Turnage. Plus I'm still looking for a current address for Mark Franceschini. Official standby for the game is David Hood.
Eric Ozog will be running Air-Sea Diplomacy some time in the future. You can contact Eric at ElfEric of Juno.com if you are interested in the game. I'll publish the rules closer to a time when Eric wants it to start.
The primary Diplomacy oriented opening left that I am GMing in this szine is an opening for a game of Star Trek Diplomacy! See Stephen Agar's rules on his web page at (new location, and including that little typo on ``start trek''):
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/variants/rules/start_trek.htm
I decided how I will treat the Star systems and the ``revolving rings'' rule. I will keep the map as a ``code" and the real locations (which I will provide as names from Star Trek) will rotate through the coded spaces. This WILL make it easy to make up maps. The game start is open now, and since I want to STRONGLY encourage press, you can sign up and ``claim'' a race. Jack McHugh claims the Federation, Chris Trent claims the Ferengi, Stephen Agar claims the Borg, and Jody McCullough claims the Romulans. Buddy Tretick and Roland Sasseville, Jr., also are set to play. The other races in the game are the Klingons, Cardassians, Species 8472, and the Vulcans. We ONLY need two more, let's get this one going.
John Harrington is offering to guest GM a game of Office Politics. Any interest in that?? Let me or John know! Jody McCullough is now interested, anyone else?
Also, I am going to design some postal rules for Devil Take the Hindmost, and Chris Lockheardt is pulling out of that opening too, so I need three players. Eoghan Barry is signed up. Postal rules from me will be forthcoming shortly, on my never ending to-do list. I will get them in SOON!
I also am taking names for the new NYEED and Breaking Away games. I am going BACK to the designer rules for Breaking Away that allow cards of greater than 15 to be replenished. I printed the original postal rules in Issue #239, if you need a copy and don't have that issue, just ask. Breaking Away has Jim Tretick, John Harrington, Rick Desper, David Partridge, and Eric Brosius signed up thus far. We need six players, so just ONE more, get your reservation in FAST. Last second news, Tom Howell claims the last spot, I'll announce a game start next issue, so think about names, riders, and cards.
Stephen Agar runs a British Diplomacy mailing list and has a new broader web postal gaming web site too at: http://www.postalgames.org.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/about_this_site.htm
| SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1901 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1901 IS JUNE 9TH, 2001
Spring 1901
AUSTRIA (Kent): a bud-SER, a vie-GAL, f tri-ALB.
ENGLAND (Sundstrom): a lvp-YOR, f edi-NTH, f lon-ENG.
FRANCE (Tretick): a mar-SPA, f bre-MID, a par-GAS.
GERMANY (Williams): f kie-DEN, a mun-RUH, a ber-KIE.
ITALY (McCullough): a ven-PIE, a rom-VEN, f nap-ION.
RUSSIA (Pollard): f stp(sc)-GOB, a WAR holds and watches (h), a mos-UKR, f sev-RUM.
TURKEY (Goesle): a smy-CON, f ank-BLA, a con-BUL.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Doug Kent, PO Box 783, Palmer, TX 75152
dipworld of ix.netcom.com
ENGLAND: Matt Sundstrom, 1948 West Byron, Chicago, IL 60613 ($5)
Matt.Sundstrom of chicago.bbdo.com
FRANCE: James Alan (Jim) Tretick, 12925 Circle Drive, Rockville, MD 20850 ($5)
JTretickGames of aol.com
GERMANY: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
ITALY: Jody McCullough, 1071 Brown Avenue, Lafayette, CA 94549-3153
jodymc of telocity.com
RUSSIA: Kent Pollard, PO Box 5726, Fresno, CA 93755-5726
awargamer7 of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
gozcorp of iquest.net
Game Notes:
1) Check your addresses, phone numbers, and E-Mail addresses. If there is something missing or wrong, please let me know ASAP.
Press:
(TURKEY to GERMANY): Your non-participation was noted by all.
(BOOB to TURKEY): Including the GM, who duly chastised the recalcitrant Duck.
(EDINBURGH CALLING BERLIN? LEIPZIG?): Or some other Burg I haven't heard of?
(BOOB to THE BRITISH SAXONS): I'm sorry, I know Leipzig and Saxony are your ancestral hunting grounds, but you'll just have to do your own duck hunting. Open season starts now!!!
(JODY to BOOB): Italy, eh? I know you said you picked the empires at random but I still have the suspicion this is your idea of humor. Ah well. ((Perhaps, as you know, I really enjoy playing Italy, so does Don. Have you been one of the people dissing me over my pro-Italian leanings??? Everything is SOOOOO fuzzy.))
(VICHY): Thousands of peasants line the streets as the drums boomed and the tri-color fluttered. France's finest are moving south to enjoy the springtime along the Spanish coast. (We sure hope nobody comes visiting in the north while the back door is open and no one is home)
(BOOB to VICHY): And what of the South and the Riviera???
(ITALY to FRANCE): I had several reasons for moving as I did. I hope I am mistaken regarding your intentions. If we bounced in Pie, then en guarde! If we didn't, then I'll be contacting you shortly.
(TURKEY to AUSTRIA): After the initial flurry, I'd kind of hoped for more from you.
(AMBASSADOR KENT SANDWICHOVICH POLLARD to THE WORLD): Greetings to all and to all a good day. I hope that all the diplomats that have received my letters will open up communications to my nation. I would like to give thanks to all of you that have already responded and I hope that good tidings will roll your way...
(GOZ to BOOB): The calendar still says, ``April". ((Yes....)) The Red Sox won't drop to 3rd until the 4th of July. ((No.....)) Then they fight Toronto for the wild-card. ((You mean the Devil Rays are going to make a miracle comeback??? I don't get it.....)) I think the Yankees are really the ones that are, ``Something to be Scared of". ((Yes, George's fury will truly be something to behold!!!)) BTW, the Braves may just have something for the Mets. I may have to retract the pre-season prognostication for the NL. ((Too late, I'm sticking with my wimp picks of the NY teams for the Wild Cards, but I don't think it'll happen for either of them.))
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1905 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1906 IS JUNE 9TH, 2001
Fall 1905
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a GAL S a sil-war, a TYO-pie, a bud-VIE, a VEN S a tyo-pie,
f ROM h, a SIL-war, a NAP S f rom.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f WES S f tyh, f NAF S ITALIAN a tus-tun, f TYH C ITALIAN a tus-tun,
a RUH S GERMAN a mun.
FRANCE (Davis): a MAR-pie, f GOL S a mar-pie, a gas-mar (d ann).
GERMANY (Shreve): a kie-BER, a MUN S a kie-ber, a par-GAS, a PRU S RUSSIAN a war,
f mid-SPA(SC), a BRE S a par-gas, a BUR-mar.
ITALY (Tallman): a tus-TUN.
RUSSIA (Tretick): a STP S a mos, a LVN S a war, a MOS S a war, f nat-MID, a WAR S a mos.
TURKEY (Ellis): f AEG S f ion, a gre-APU, f ION C a gre-apu, a SEV-mos,
a RUM S a ukr, f bla-CON, a UKR S AUSTRIAN a sil-war.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): | BUD,TRI,VIE,ser,ven, | (has 7, even) |
| nap,rom |
| ENGLAND (Biehl): | LON,LVP,EDI,bel | (has 4, even) |
| FRANCE (Davis): | MAR,por | (has 2, even) |
| GERMANY (Shreve): | BER,KIE,MUN,den,hol,par, | (has 7, bld 1) |
| bre,spa |
| ITALY (Tallman): | tun | (has 1, even) |
| RUSSIA (Tretick): | MOS,STP,WAR,nwy,swe | (has 5, even) |
| TURKEY (Ellis): | ANK,SMY,CON,bul,rum,sev, | (has 7, even) |
| gre |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
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 ($10); jeen of telus.net
FRANCE: Rick Davis, 1130 Hevrin Cr., Soledad, CA 93960.
(831) 678-4470
redavis914 of aol.com
GERMANY: Dwayne Shreve, 739 Union Church Road, Elkton, MD 21921 ($5)
dwayneshreve of yahoo.com
ITALY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($2)
terryt of sinclair.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
bernietretick of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406 ($10)
bukowski1964 of yahoo.com
Game Notes:
1) Possibly slogging toward a stalemate line battle....
Press:
(LONDON SEPT 15, 1905): Prime Minister John Beale spoke in Parliament, ``England calls for a co-aliotion of the united nations to confront the aggression of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire which threatens the stability of Europe. I call on France and Italy to join with Germany, Russia and England in this glorious endeavour." The leader of his majesty's opposition responded to this, ``Does the Prime Minister not notice the aggression of Germany which also threatens the stability of Europe which the Prime Minister is `supposedly' so concerned about?" Prime Minister Beale replied, ``When the government speaks of stability we mean the stability of those christian nations not aligned with a heathen state."
(MAR (provisional Capitol)-LONDON, BERLIN, ST PET): I'm keeping the faith how about you?
(PARIS OCT 1, 1905) The Catholic League has appealed to Pope Terence I to excommunicate the Emperor Paul I of Austria-Hungary for his unholy alliance with the Ottoman Empire.
(In the Tyrrhenian Sea Oct 30, 1905): King Edward VII was haranguing (now) Admiral Hood on the bridge of HMS Indutable(ly), ``Admiral Hood, as your sovereign, I order you to transport the Italian army to Tunis!" ``But, your majesty, Sir Samuel Owen Barfer (SOB), my commander, has ordered me to the Gulf of Lyons." ``Nonsense! I am your King. I countermand that order. I demand we rescue the Italian royal family and the Pope from the vile Austrians! Admiral, this is a matter of international importance and I take full responsibility."
(ABOARD HMS INDUTABLE OCT 31, 1905): King Victor Emmanuel was assuring his fellow monarch, ``Yes, Eddy, my army can easily conquer Tunisia with your English assistance." This made Edward VII swell with pride and he responded, ``A `King' must act according to his conscience, even if this opposes Parliament and the bureaucrats. It is a matter of honour. A King's word, once given, must be acted upon (thus spoke the loose cannon)." ``I quite agree, Edward" replied Victor Emmanuel (as he had nothing to lose and everything to gain). Letting the power of command go to his head Edward said, ``Nicky's (Nicholas II) not going to like this but who is he to command me, anyway. I've done plenty for him, already. Does Nick, that prick, think I'm gonna kiss Mother Russia's big butt? No way. I, Edward, King of England and Emperor of India, desire to rescue my fellow monarch, something that `Willy-nilly (Wilhelm II) marching to Marseilles' should have done himself." Picking up his glass, to propose a toast to their endeavour, Edward said, ``Let us pray, Victor, that this works."
(A BEACH IN TUSCANY): The pope steps gingerly onto the water, ``I DO believe, I DO believe, I do....."
(LONDON NOV 30, 1905): Prime Minister John Beale was incredulous, ``He did what?!" First Sea Lord Sir Samuel Owen Barfer (SOB) replied, ``The King countermanded our orders to Admiral Hood. Apparently, his majesty is attempting to transport an Italian army to Tunis." The Prime minister sat, in thought, for some time, before responding, ``Well, for your sake, Barfer, you had better hope this rescue attempt is successful or it's your head - you recommended Hood for command."
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1757 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
Autumn and Winter 1756
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): bld a budapest; has a BUDAPEST, f SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN, f ADRIATIC SEA,
a BAVARIA, a BOSNIA, a MATTO GROSSO, a JERUSALEM, f CORAL SEA, f RICEFE,
f IONIAN SEA, a BOLIVIA, a TOULON, a BULGARIA, f SAMOA, a RHINE,
f EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, a AMAZON, f MELBOURNE, a PAPAL STATES, a PARIS,
a VENEZUELA, f LIGURIAN SEA, f GULF OF PANAMA.
CHINA (Acheson): bld a xian; has a XIAN, f AMOY, f EAST CHINA SEA, f SOUTH CHINA SEA,
a MAHRATTA, a BHUTAN, f SEA OF JAPAN, a LAOS, f JAPAN, a SZECHUAN, a SIAM, a NEPAL,
a MONGOLIA, f SEA OF OKHOTSK.
ENGLAND (Power): R f bengal otb; bld a surinam, a malaya, f nigeria, a london;
has a SURINAM, a MALAYA, f NIGERIA, a LONDON, a ASHANTI, f GRAND BANKS,
f ANDAMAN SEA, f MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN, a BURMA, f WEST ATLANTIC OCEAN,
f HUDSON BAY, f MALAY SEA, a VOLTA, a ANTWERP, a FEZAN, a BAHIA, f QUEBEC,
f CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN, f EAST ATLANTIC OCEAN, f SW ATLANTIC OCEAN, a CONGO,
a BRAZIL, a DAKAR, f BAY OF BENGAL, f ENGLISH CHANNEL, f BELEM.
FRANCE (Alme): R a paris otb; rem f brittany; has a ONTARIO, a SAHARA, a MANITOBA.
OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): R f arabian sea-PERSIAN GULF; rem f gulf of aden; has a IZMIR, a EGYPT,
f PERSIAN GULF, f BLACK SEA, a PUNJAB, f RED SEA, f ISTANBUL, a KAZAKSTAN, a OMSK.
PORTUGAL (Stimmel): rem a vancouver, a oregon; has f CANARIES, f KHANDESH,
f SE ATLANTIC OCEAN, f AZORES, a BENGAL, f IFNI.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): bld f hawaii, f goa, a crimea; has f HAWAII, f GOA, a CRIMEA, a MOSCOW,
f SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN, f CAPE COLONY, f NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, a LITHUANIA,
a ROMANIA, a HANOVER, f WEST INDIAN OCEAN, f GULF OF ALASKA, f NIZAM,
f ST.PETERSBURG(NC), a KIEV, a CAUCASUS, a GALICIA, a HAGUE, a KALAHARI, f URAL.
SPAIN (Partridge): bld f mexico(wc), f florida, f valencia f manila, a madrid;
has f MEXICO(WC), f FLORIDA, f VALENCIA, f MANILA, a MADRID, a TEXAS, a VIRGINIA,
f GIBRALTAR, a NAPLES, f SUBIC BAY, f CUBA, f TAIWAN, f ARABIAN SEA, a LEON,
a BORDEAUX, f SOMALIA, f SOLOMON SEA, a TAUREG, f CALIFORNIA, a SUDAN,
f CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN, f WAKE, a LAGOS, f MOROCCO, f NEW GUINEA, a ETHIOPIA,
a OHIO, a TIMBUKTU, a TUNIS, a MASSACHUSETTS, a LIBYA,
f WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN, f TARAWA.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,TRI,TAH,ven,bav, | (has 23) |
| vza,col,nwz,pps,fij,sav,ecu,peru,gre,sam, |
| bol,tou,bul,jer,ric,par,MEL |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,NAN, | (has 14) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,kor,nep,mah,sia |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,MLA,EDI,LON,kam,ire, | (has 26) |
| jav,gab,sum,con,fez,ant,uga,arg,bur,cey,togo, |
| SUR,QUE,gha,ANG,bel,vol,bah,BRA,DAK |
| FRANCE (Alme): | ont,ALA,manit | (has 3) |
| OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): | IZM,BAG,IST,persia,egy, | (has 9) |
| afg,yem,oms,vla |
| PORTUGAL (Stimmel): | azo,kha,ore,ifn,van,ben | (has 6) |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 20) |
| swe,mal,zam,den,rom,han,die,nwy,HAW,GOA,nat,niz,hag |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MAN,cal, | (has 33, PLAYS TWO SHORT) |
| tun,rab,bor,eth,hon,tex,nwg,cam,ken,lis,lag,FLO, |
| lou,iwo,num,mor,tau,ohi,vir,gua,tar,tim,NAP,cub, |
| tai,bdx,sud,wak,mas |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=136) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Gene Prosnitz, 2600 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1116, Riverdale, NY 10463, (718) 601-8131 ($5)
ProsnitzE of aol.com
CHINA: Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA ($5)
racheson of magma.ca
ENGLAND: John Power, 18 Tilton Court, Baltimore, MD 21236, (410) 933-8827 ($4)
natjohn2 of home.com or jrpower of bechtel.com
FRANCE: Hank Alme, 506 Paige Loop, Los Alamos, NM 87544
almehj of swcp.com
OTTOMAN: Art Schleinkofer, 3120 Holly Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154-1708
Krolart of aol.com
PORTUGAL: Robert Stimmel, Apt. #57, Casa de Sherry Apts., 2462 North Sycamore Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 85712-2541, (520) 326-8369 ($5)
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
SPAIN: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Thank you to Art Schleinkofer for stepping in so seamlessly!
2) I think I fixed the supply center chart. Gene actually had one build for picking up Melbourne from Sean and taking Sean out of the game, I forgot to pass the center along. I notified Gene and he submitted a build. Also, I tried to fix the build centers. I do have the rules on this, I just needed to go through them. I hope that is right now, again, the centers in all CAPS are the places you can build. Please let me know if I am missing any.
2) Interesting, Robert abandoned North America, leaving Hank to try to come back there, while Hank abandoned Europe. On the surface, looks better for Hank, but we'll have to see.
Press:
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1907 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1907 IS JUNE 9TH, 2001
Spring 1907
ENGLAND (Sayers): f EDI S f nth, a lon-HOL, f BEL S a lon-hol, f NTH C a lon-hol,
f HEL S a lon-hol, f BRE h.
FRANCE (Sasseville): f spa(sc)-GOL, a par-BUR, a MAR S a par-bur.
GERMANY (Barno): a ber-PRU, a MUN-sil, f KIE S ENGLISH f hel-den (nso),
a bur-mun (d r:ruh,pic,gas,otb).
ITALY (Schultz): f ROM-tyh, a PIE S a tyo-ven, a TYO-ven.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a stp-MOS, f NWY h, a pru-WAR, a SIL-gal, f ska-DEN,
a swe-FIN, a mos-SEV.
TURKEY (Linsey): f smy-AEG, f con-BLA, a ank-ARM, a RUM-gal, f APU-nap,
f ADR S a tri-ven, f NAP-tyh, a ALB-apu, f ION C a alb-apu, a VIE-tyo, a TRI-ven.
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 ($2)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
GERMANY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883
mpbarno of lightlink.com
ITALY: John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 614-1406
probo of sprintpcs.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) Quieter this time on the announcements.... thanks to the replacements!!!
Press:
(RUSSIA to ENGLAND AND GERMANY): I have no quarrels with you. I hope we can put aside any differences among us and get straight on to the job at hand - keeping Turkey from winning.
(GERMANY to RUSSIA): Sorry Phil, but I had to liven this dead game up.
(RUSSIA to TURKEY): Gotta defend myself before you accept my predecessor's invitation to stab - if you haven't already!
(FORMERLY OCCUPIED EAST-GERMAN DUCHIES): Germans of all occupations and social ranks responded enthusiastically to published reports of a Russian offer of withdrawal. Plans are being drawn up for unprecedented numbers of Marine brass bands to be sent to the newly demilitarized provinces to lead parades celebrating the newfound peace.
(NEW KAISER to DEAD OR DORMANT ORIGINAL PLAYERS): You have enough confidence in your alliances and Germany's fate that you don't want to discuss anything with me?
(RUSSIA-TURKEY): Here's the correspondence you've been inquiring about. Funny how you only correspond through the public press section. I do want to continue working with you, of course, you are big and growing. If I don't toady now, I will be out. Let's go get Italy.
(RUSSIA to ITALY): Hang on! Hopefully, the English cavalry - via convoy - will come to your aid.
(ITALY-TURKEY): The winds are shifting mein Kaptain and your fleets should be blowing Northward towards the bear fat remnants. A much easier path to 18 that way.
(RUSSIA to FRANCE): You could help, too. Then again, you likely have more pressing concerns at the moment!
(JIM-BRUCE): My envoys are bringing some fine Black Sea crude to your palaces and some Norwegian wood to build you the finest of Ottomans.
(BOOB to ALL): Wow, now I'm confused..... well, let's hope this game is revived now!
| EDWARD TELLER: 2001?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
LOOKING FOR PLAYERS!!!
Game Notes:
1) I am taking reservations for the Edward Teller game, which will be the next NYEED 7x7 game in this series. Since it was asked, I'll remind everyone that we will again be playing the Black Hole Variant. Join THE most fun game in all Dipdom. Karl Muller, Harry Andruschak, and Sandy Kenny are on board. We need four more players? Let me know if you want to see the rules again, but I just printed them a few issues ago. This game is FREE!!!!
| COME AND HAVE A GO (If You Think You're Hard Enough): 1998V, Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1908 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1909 IS JUNE 9TH, 2001
Fall 1908
AUSTRIA (Pollard): a GAL-bud, a MOS S a war, a BUL-ser, a SEV S TURKISH a rum,
a WAR S a mos.
ENGLAND (Tallman): f GOB S RUSSIAN a stp (otm), f NWY S RUSSIAN a stp (otm).
FRANCE (Morris): f MID h, a bur-MUN, a mar-GAS, f nth-EDI, a BOH-vie, f den-SWE,
a KIE S a bur-mun, f HOL S a kie, a RUH S a bur-mun, a LVP S f nth-edi.
GERMANY (Sayers): a mun h (d r:tyo,sil,otb), a BER S a mun.
ITALY (Emmert): a TRI-bud, a apu-GRE, f ION C a apu-gre, f AEG S a apu-gre,
a SER S a bud-rum, a ven-TUS, f ANK S f con-bla, f con-BLA, f edi h (d r:cly,yor,nwg,otb),
f WES h, a VIE S a tri-bud, a BUD-rum.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a STP-mos.
TURKEY (Barno): f bla-sev (d r:arm,otb), a RUM S f bla-sev.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Pollard): | war,mos,sev,bul | (has 5, rem 1) |
| ENGLAND (Tallman): | nwy | (has 2, rem 1) |
| FRANCE (Morris): | bre,par,mar,spa,por,bel,lon, | (has 10, bld 3(PLAYS ONE SHORT)) |
| hol,den,kie,swe,lvp,edi,mun |
| GERMANY (Sayers): | ber | (has 1 or 2, even(r:otb) or rem 1) |
| ITALY (Emmert): | rom,ven,nap,tun,smy,con, | (has 11 or 12, bld 1(r:otb) or even) |
| vie,bud,tri,ser,gre,ank |
| RUSSIA (Reynolds): | stp | (has 1, even) |
| TURKEY (Barno): | rum | (has 1 or 2, even(r:otb) or rem 1) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kent Pollard, PO Box 5726, Fresno, CA 93755-5726 ($4)
awargamer7 of hotmail.com
ENGLAND: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($3)
terryt of sinclair.net
FRANCE: Scott Morris, 12110 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243, (502) 893-8260 ($5)
Scottm221 of aol.com
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
jimp of magna.com.au
ITALY: Steve Emmert, 1752 Grey Friars Chase, Virginia Beach, VA 23456-5436,
(757) 471-1842; steve.emmert of home.com
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883 ($5)
mpbarno of lightlink.com
Game Notes:
1) I don't think I've seen so many bounces and cut supports in all my life. It's every man for himself..... It's also weird that NO one has been eliminated yet, though FOUR of you are down to one center.
Press:
(ROME to PARIS): Looking oh-so-forward to seeing A Lpl-Yor. If by some neglect you have not so ordered, then we can have some nice four-letter Anglo-Saxon words together.
(BOOB to ROME): I think he found a better way to take BOTH of your centers up there....
(AMBASSADOR POLLARD to THE NATION OF ITALY): Austrian troops shall continue to spill zheir blood if only to keep your treacherous brood out of Russia...
(RUSSIA to AUSTRIA): Surprise!
(AMBASSADOR POLLARD to ZA WORLD): Vee must stand together against Italy! Vee must come together...
(BOOB to AMBASSADOR POLLARD): Others are worried about France..... and other than you there is not much there there.
(POPE to SULTAN): Trust me; you will not be eliminated this year. Guaran-damn-teed.
(BOOB to POPE): And in fact, NO ONE was eliminated this year. Surprised the heck out of me.....
(DEAR POPE): Apologies (as if that will help) but if I don't attack now you are likely to win the game. Plus I can't understand Kent's letters but after much research I do believe that he is actually asking me to take part in military action against you. So as to not incur his wrath I am agreeing to this action. I still send you much love though. I hope I guess right in MAO. Peace out.
(EMMERT to BURGESS): NHL playoffs start shortly; here are some predictions. In the west, St. Louis; in the east, a tentative nod to Ottawa. Blues win the Cup for the first time. ((HAH, hah, ha, ah, ha, ah, ha, hah, ha..... I'd bet on my guess that Colorado wins the Cup over both of those.... New Jersey or Pittsburgh look like the best shots to come out of the East at the moment, but both would be buried by the Avalanche.))
(EMMERT to TALLMAN): Speaking of Anglo-Saxons, what the hell are you doing way over THERE? Was my predecessor - (gasp!) - MEAN to you?
(BOOB to EMMERT): That is an understatement. Note that you had TWO of his home centers, until now that is.
(MIKE to KENT): You declared a jihad against Turkey so that you could take Bulgaria. Now for the time between summer retreats and fall moves, you occupy Bulgaria! None of your home centers, and no Turkish home centers, but Bulgaria, your declared priority! Congratulations, sir, on your success.
| SO GOOD IT HURTS: 1998 P, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1909 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
Winter 1908
AUSTRIA (K. Ozog): bld f tri; has f TRI, a VIE, f NAP, a VEN, a BOH, f TYH, a ROM, a TYO.
ENGLAND (James): R f mid-POR; has f POR, f TUN, a SPA.
FRANCE (Kinney): has a BRE.
GERMANY (Goesle): R a gal-UKR; bld a mun; has a MUN, a BER, f BAL, a PRU, f MID,
f NWY, a UKR, a GAS, a MAR, f ENG, f NAO, a BUR, a LVP.
RUSSIA (Rusnak): bld f sev; has f SEV, a WAR, f CON, a GAL, a STP,
a BUL, a MOS, f ION, a RUM.
TURKEY (Emmert): R f tyh-WES; rem f wes; out.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Drew James, 3644 Whispering Woods Terr., Baldwinsville, NY 13027, (315) 652-1956 ($5)
kjames01 of twcny.rr.com
FRANCE: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079
alberich of iglou.com
GERMANY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235 ($5)
gozcorp of iquest.net
ITALY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 ($5)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
RUSSIA: Russ Rusnak, 1551 Highridge Avenue, Westchester, IL 60154-3428 ($5)
RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com
TURKEY: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452, (757) new? ($4)
steve.emmert of home.com
Game Notes:
1) The RAG draw is defeated again.
Press:
(GOZ to BOOB): Just a ding-dong minute here. YOU'RE a lifelong Red Sox fan and I'M the sports masochist? I would point out that there are teams that I support that have a pretty decent record of late. I'd have to explain football and auto racing to you first though. ((Actually, I'm NOT a lifelong Red Sox fan. I didn't really like the Red Sox teams of the 1970's and never had any attachment to Yaz. During that period, I was mostly a San Francisco Giants fan. I've ALWAYS been a San Francisco Giants fan. In the AL East, I liked the Orioles and I also liked the Royals (from before they got good!) and the Chisox in the AL. My first ``favorite player'' on the Red Sox was Dave Stapleton, he who is most famous for being the First Baseman that SHOULD have replaced Billy Buckner in that sixth game of the 1986 World Series. I was screaming at the TV set that my guy wasn't going to be on the field for the World Series win and then Buckner ruined the whole thing. Most people know about Buckner, but many forget about Stapleton. All year long he had been a ninth inning defensive replacement in those kinds of situations. But McNamara wanted Buckner to be on the field for that celebration that never happened.))
(AUSTRIA - GERMANY): You tread ever closer to the magic number, so I've no choice but to trust the Czar. If I turn to the east, you'll take advantage of the situation and win this thing. We can't have that now can we?
(GOZ to RUSS): Yes, the ``fan", whoever he is, is still willing to pay out. Usually anyway. When he doesn't, and when that ``corporate big-wig in the rich people's seats" (which you seem to mind) doesn't pay out, then the team bolts and/or holds the city hostage by threatening to bolt for greener pastures. That's part of what I mind. The other part that I mind is that the revenue from team to team is so inequitable that it skews the standings every year. Haven't you been paying attention? I'm trying to educate you here.
| RACE FOR MILLENNIAL APOCALYPSE: Breaking Away, V2.3 |
| TOM HOWELL'S ALICE TEAM WON!!! |
Addresses of the Participants
TEAM 1 (The Wrecking Crew): Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202
(1 point) sarareichert of aol.com
TEAM 2 (The Evangelists): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(32 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
TEAM 3 (Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(29 points) johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk, fiendish of operamail.com
TEAM 4 (Amateur League Inciting Cycle Exchange): Tom Howell, 365 Storm King Road,
(70 points) Port Angeles, WA 98363; off-the-shelf of olympus.net
TEAM 5 (The Mainiacs): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(17 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
TEAM 6 (The Flat Wheel Society): John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 462-0474
(5 points)
Game Notes:
1) Last chance for any more End Game Statements. Note that we need TWO more players for the new game!!! Please sign up to the list above.
End Game Statements:
| The Evangelists |
I would welcome some comments from Tom Howell on how he won this game. Was it just superior tactics, or did he use strategy? For my part, I have no idea at all how one would use strategy, so I'm looking for enlightenment. I tried to predict how the other players would move and take advantage of anything I could deduce. I also made agreements from time to time that I thought would help both me and the person I was agreeing with (maybe Tom found better ways to do this.)
At one point I made an agreement with John Schultz. He thought I did not keep my end of the bargain, but I think the problem was that my letter was delayed in the mail enough that we were off by one round in our coordination. I tried to keep every bargain I made during this game.
| Thanks, Eric |
| Race for M.A. EOG - The Mainiacs |
Well, same old story as the first game. Too fast off the mark, good score at the first sprint line, but couldn't keep it going. At least there was someone behind me to make me feel better, but how much consolation is it to beat teams called The Wrecking Crew and The Flat Wheel Society? Maybe if Burht had actually had a bike to ride instead of that keg he was pulling along in his little red wagon....
Hey, maybe experience will count for something, sign me up for the next one if it isn't full yet and i'll try again.
| Regards, Dave |
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2005 IS MAY 19TH, 2001
Summer 2005
BRITAIN (Schultz): R f eng-IRI; has f LON, a YOR, f SKA, f NOR, a DEN,
f EDI, f SWE, f IRI, f NTH.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): has f LBS, f ION, a SYR, a LIB, a SAU, f EME.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): R a war-SIL; has f BAL, a KRA, f HAM, f GOB, f ENG, a SLO, a BOR, f BEL,
a GDA, a CZE, a SIL, a AUS, f HOL, a LYO.
ITALY (Ozog): has f NAP, f MAL, a SER, a CRO, f LIG, a VEN, a MAR, a APU, f IZM.
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): has f POR, f GOL, f TUN, a ALG, f WME, a NAV, a AUV.
UKRAINE (Partridge): R a ser-MAC; has f WBS, f RUM, a ODE, a KIE, a POD,
a BIE, f IST, a ALB, a ANK, a IRN, a WAR, a HUN, a LAT, f BUL, a STP, a LIT,
f GRE, a ADA, a MAC.
Supply Center Chart
| BRITAIN (Schultz): | EDI,LIV,LON,ire,nor,mur,stp, | (has 9) |
| swe,den |
| EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): | ALE,ASW,CAI,isr,sau,tun | (has 6) |
| GERMANY (Rauterberg): | BER,FRA,HAM,MUN,hol,cze | (has 14) |
| swi,par,lyo,gda,war,bel,bor,aus |
| ITALY (Ozog): | NAP,ROM,VEN,cro,mon,mil, | (has 9) |
| ist,mar,hun |
| SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): | SVE,MAD,BAR,gib,por,mor,lib | (has 7) |
| UKRAINE (Partridge): | KHA,KIE,ODE,SEV,ros,rum,bul, | (has 19) |
| geo,ank,mos,bie,gre,gor,ada,irn,izm,lit,kra,ser |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=64) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 614-1406
probo of sprintpcs.com
EGYPT: Jeff O'Donnell, 402 Middle Ave., Elyria, OH 44035-5728, (440) 322-2920 ($4)
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 ($4)
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, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406
surfeit of swbell.net
SPAIN: Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044 ($5)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, sfo25 of netscape.net
TURKEY: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711, (209) 225-0957 ($10)
UKRAINE: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033 ($8)
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Check out the Modern Dip web page at: http://www.modernhof.webprovider.com/
2) I'm going to start a quiet interest list down here in the next Modern game. I don't want to start it until this game is done or nearly done, but with ten players it may take awhile, so I'll start now. Rick Desper is in to be one of the players.
3) Note the new postal address for Sean.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Give me dark and give me greed; Give me power that I can hold; Buzzin' wires it's icy cold; You taught us well, now feel the dread; In your nerves and in your beds; Coming down all round your heads." That's from ``The Curse" off the album of the same name. I think I might have used that one before, since I really like it.
(UKRAINE - G/I): If I understand the offer right, I'm to give up any claim on War/Kra, exchange Hun for Ser and give up Gre for Izm. In exchange for this bounty from you (I think I could probably do better this turn just moving my pieces randomly, don't you?), I get a share of the Egyptian centers with the help of the Italian navy, you know, that navy that was down here helping me before when its compasses got screwed up and it suddenly thought Cairo was on the Black Sea. And all I have to do is renege on my agreements with SEB and give up on the grand squeeze on the IG. Hmmmmm, let me think about that and I'll get back to you. Or not.
(SPANISH MADRID TRIBUNE): Earlier this morning at 5:00 am in Madrid's national park of Cita Quinta a massive explosion detonated, destroying much of the park's wilderness, as well as a abandoned mansion owned by International Pharmaceutical company Umbrella Inc. Where a team of U.S. special force teams was sent after being asked to send in a team with the World War on all current Spanish forces is on the front. The U.S sent in S.T.A.R.S Strategic Tactics and Rescue Squad to Madrid. Out of a team of eleven only 4 STARS members survived. Their names at the current time are being held by the local police. Though one of the surviving STARS members has been confirmed as saying that in the mansion was Zombies and other kinds of creatures. The STARS member also reports that these creatures were built by Umbrella Inc. for bioweapons and for research. There is however no evidence released at this current time that the explosion and the earthquakes that shook Madrid are in correspondence.
(SPANISH SVE TRIBUNE): Spanish President Sean O'Donnell and his advisors sent in the national Militia into Madrid the night before the explosion and they reported that there is some fact of the STARS member has said, but how far the commanding officer told us didn't give us much.
(KENT POLLARD-BOARD): It has come to my attention that people has been blacklisting me in this game of fear and whiskey Modern Diplomacy. Whoever is black pressing press and useing my name please do try to act like me instead of acting like yourselves at least. Jeff, since you mentioned metaphors, how do you think you sound to me in the press with all that Star Trek press. Also I can write in understandable English when I want to be able to. Though I must admit I made a mistake of suggesting the attack on Alb in the fall. We should have been looking for other options like trying to get Germany to aid us against Italy/Ukraine. Wait and see the next game we play together I'll beat Dave, Eric, and you. No matter how long it takes.
(SPAIN-HARRY): Why haven't you wrote any press lately. Just have had nothing else to say??
(SPANISH NATIONAL TRIBUNE): Spanish forces have indeed broke into the French peninsula and by now they may still be there. Word is around Spain that the Spanish army is about to grow in strength, but when? Though the Spanish president did try building another fleet, but the entire fleet was destroyed in a massive hurricane in the south atlantic ocean. This would make twice that a Spanish fleet was totally destroyed. In essence however the cloaking device that was being tested was a success.
(SPAIN-GERMANY AND ITALY): Well, fellows, if you must know why we aren't allied with you is well I honestly can't tell you. I felt that this alliance is better and besides Jeff and I agreed long ago that we were in fact taking Italy down if we ever had the chance and, well, here's our chance.
(ITALY-BRITAIN, GERMANY): Let the three of us align and little old Sean won't have a chance.
(SEAN-BOARD AND SZINE MEMBERS): If anyone is interested in e-mail Diplomacy, Ed Prem the Judge of the Statesmen http://dog.tcr.com/~ prem/dipgames.htm You can get on the waiting list to get into Diplomacy games and variants. I have been in several games there and variants such as Aberration, Modern Diplomacy, and standard and colonial. If you wish to get into the waiting list either go to the website or write Ed at prem of dog.tcr.com and get onto standby. You do need internet access of some kind to play however. It is all done by e-mail.
(SEAN-JIM): I would like to play you one day since I hear that you're one of the top players in the field of Diplomacy and I would love to test my tactical skills with or against yours. I hear you are a master in defense and that your name is well known and, well, if you come into it then I'll finally get to test my skills in a game. ((I know you're being sincere, Sean.... but I must respond.... sure, you just see me getting crunched all over the place so I HAVE to play defense.....))
(CAPTAIN'S LOG - ``MIXED RESULTS''): I have once again received interference from ``Q''. He cut one of my transmissions in half, distorting its logic. ((What, who would do that??? Surely not I!!!)) And added his own dialog to a transmission that I sent using a very old Starfleet code. Q's addition was to simply restate part of the message using time distortions to make it look like the message was actually from Q. ((You know, you're working up lots of credit that you COULD be using to abuse other players....)) As usual, I have no idea what Q is up to and I have no idea what his own transmissions mean. ((And we MEAN to keep it that way.)) The betrayal of the Ferengi looks complete. The Romulans have agreed to help me take an old Ferengi starbase on the Kragon home world if I could lure the Ferengi out of Romulan space to trap the defenseless lone starship. The lure worked. The Romulans have moved out of the Federation neutral zone and I have every reason to believe they will keep their word at Kragon and return Spock and Mr. Chekov to the Federation. There are rumors that Mr. Chekov doesn't really want to leave. We shall see... On the Klingon front, the Bajorans suffered a major tactical defeat as the Cardassians got a front line battle cruiser partially behind the Bajoran line. THe Klingons, using a starship built at a Federation starbase that I gave them, will go to rescue the Bajoran back door. On a personal note, I hope the Ferengi understand the conquest of Ferengi was tactical, not personal like the ``Sultan of Kragon" thinks. On a second personal note, I loaned an old Starfleet shuttlecraft to the Klingon ambassador on the condition that he take care of it like it was his own. He returned the shuttle to me, but the front shields were shattered, the warp drive fried, and the hull had massive impact damage. He claims he ran into an asteroid field, but I'm not buying it. I think he took it on one too many unauthorized missions and simply wore it out. I won't loan the Klingons another one.
(SPAIN-GERMANY AND ITALY): Don't worry about Jeff and I, we are actually nice when we aren't playing Diplomacy and look on the bright side. My other uncle Chip isn't in this game, but he doesn't like postal or e-mail only face to face. Jeff, Chip and I all play for blood so I wouldn't worry.
(SPAIN-EGYPT): Stop with the Star Trek already if you're going to do Star Trek then I'll start writing short stories of some sort as a rip-off of your press. ((Isn't this close enough.....))
(CAPTAIN'S LOG SUPPLE``MENTAL''): I had Commander Data run a long range tactical analysis of our new alliance. He says the Cardassians and Ferengi have massive planetary defensive resources but that they are suffering from a severe shortage of functional starships. Long range projections present mathematical evidence that if our alliance holds, we should kick their combined Ferengi/Cardassian asses!
(SPAIN-BRITAIN): Nothing lost is nothing gained.
(SPAIN-GERMANY/ITALY OVER JEFF AND I): Yeah, but tell us how you really feel.
(BOOB to SEAN): Good shot!
(SEAN-GM): You are aware that with family members playing that it's only a matter of time when one of them attacks the other, especially in the mid or end game. Besides it's your fault for putting us so close together. ((Spain and Egypt really aren't that close together and yes, I know what you mean.)) You did say abuse you. I'm used to ragging not abuse.. ((Please continue ;-) heh, heh, heh....))
(SEAN-JEFF): According to what I heard, you should have helped Britain and Germany wipe me out. Oh wait a minute you were in the middle of helping Turkey at the time my bad. Sorry Jeff I know you had your hands full.
(JEFF to ERIC): If this was Survivor, I'd say you just got voted off the island. I can't laugh too hard, because I may be next. Like you said, ``It's a pirate's life!''.
(SEAN-PAUL AND ERIC): No hard feelings fellows, but I wanted to test my blade on someone's throat, I just couldn't decide who to do it on first.
(SEAN-GM): Jim you were my first choice, but I can't slit GODs throat of TAP, or to Jeff, Q.
(BOOB to SEAN): Indeed, I should say not, but feel free to try!!!
(SPAIN-BRITAIN): Fire at Paul.
(GERMANY-SPAIN): Don't make me kill you.
(BOOB): And that will be that for this issue.....
| SHOW ME THE MONEY: 1997Mea04, Colonial Diplomacy |
SHUT IT DOWN, A HOLLAND/JAPAN/RUSSIA DRAW IS DECLARED
BUT CAN JIM-BOB FIND TIME TO SUMMARIZE THE CHART???
Final Supply Center Chart - From Last Season
| BRITAIN (York): | DEL,HK,SIN,mal,cey,aden,ban,mad | (has 8) |
| FRANCE (Sasseville): | TON,may,u.bur,ass,bom, | (has 7, PLAYED ONE SHORT) |
| ben,can,ran |
| HOLLAND (Desper): | BOR,SUM,JAVA,SAR,new,dav, | (has 11) |
| mna,cebu,for,ann,coc |
| JAPAN (K. Ozog): | TOK,KYU,OTA,KYO,vla,fus,sak, | (has 12) |
| p.art,seo,sha,mac,pek |
| RUSSIA (Williams): | MOS,OMSK,ODE,rum,mon,ang,tab, | (has 17) |
| con,chu,shi,egy,per,tas,kag,sik,kar,kam |
| TURKEY (Tallman): | sud,bag | (has 2) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=58) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: Andy York, PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720-1117
wandrew of compuserve.com
CHINA: Rich Goranson, 4351 Chestnut Ridge Road, #7 Amherst, NY, 14228-3227 ($5)
ForlornH of aol.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
HOLLAND: Rick Desper, 703 Monroe Street, Apt #302, Rockville, MD 20850, (301) 545-0143 (E-Mail)
rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
JAPAN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, 630-837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($0)
terryt of sinclair.net
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, (401) 351-0287
Game Notes:
1) Hey, we're already late.... SC chart forthcoming sometime. I'm waiting for Don Williams.... ;-)
Press and End Game Comments:
No more here yet..... they're probably waiting for that spellbinding SC chart.
Pete Gaughan / technical editor & publisher / gaughan of ix.netcom.com
/ (925) 687-7987 / fax (509) 472-4209 / 1522 Rishell Drive #1, Concord CA 94521
| 1998A ``ARSENIC AND OLD FARTS" |
I need to find my End Game statement..... I looked and apparently I sent it to Pete last June but I don't think I saved a copy.....
Personal Note to You: