THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #313

January 20, 2008


Produced by Jim Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327 USA, (401)351-0287
Accessible through Internet at burgess of world.std.com (all E-Mail addresses are reported in this format, replace the " of " with "@"; if you bounce try sending to me from another account. Some of you have been getting bounced messages from my ISP's spam protection, if that happens to you, USE my backup E-Mail at jfburgess of gmail.com!!! Don't complain that my E-Mail keeps bouncing without forwarding the bounced message to that address. Then I can forward it to the ISP help to get it dealt with.
Web Page Address: http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html


I expect ALL players to be signed up on the E-Mail notification list for the szine, see below. Some of you have been complaining about this, but it is up to you to get on this list, it's easy, come ask me if you have trouble. THIS IS A PROBLEM, sign up now if you're playing!!!
Yes, this is really, really late. Work this year with my job switch has been completely out of control. I am using the szine as a sign of this, that my life will be back into some semblance of balance once I get this szine back on track. I mean that to happen now, but who knows, maybe I am not anticipating well. In any case, enough of that, you want to get this going again. I have limited some of the really, really out of date stuff, but yes, the Red Sox win the World Series again!!! I knew it was done in I think it was Game 6 of the AL Championship Series when J. D. Drew came up with the bases loaded early in the game. He has had a tough time with the Boston fans and his contract this year. But I think it has been a year of adjustment for him and he is going to be a great Boston Red Sox player in the next few years. He is very calm and has taken his troubles this year in stride in ways that the impatient Boston fans just don't seem to appreciate. Anyway, after ALL the difficulties, after all the comments, I turned to Charlotte and said, J. D.  is going to hit a home run right here, and he needs to do it, to turn his season around. On the next pitch, over the fence (and he's had almost no power all season), and the grand slam was there. Right there, I knew the World Series was won and had no serious tension in any game from there on out. The poor Colorado Rockies had a great finishing stretch but they really were just completely outclassed. I always think and say that we are all defined much more by how we deal with adversity than how we deal with success. That's why I like baseball so much, since it's filled with adversity. And J. D. is a good guy and was a good signing for the Red Sox. As I write this back a month or two ago, we were trying to get the other really good guy we need to sign for next year, Mike Lowell, into the fold. If we didn't sign Lowell then SOME people would have wanted to sign A-Rod and A-Rod does NOT handle adversity well and I have zero desire to see him as a Red Sox player. This view is commonly held here in New England..... anyway, updating more recently, of course the junior Steinbrenner stepped in and around Scott Boras to sign A-Rod for the Yankees, which ensures the Yankees won't win another World Series for another decade. And, Lowell is resigned for Boston so that they basically return everyone, with lots of the young players lobbying for more playing time.
Doug Kent is continuing to produce great issues of Diplomacy World on schedule, and the most recent 130 page monster hit the Century Mark. Think about contributing, most of you reading this have something to say. Even if you just want to write a short note, do so, please. You can send things for DW either to me or Doug. The other big news is that the new Diplomacy National World Cup is ongoing, more on that below. And, I've been having fun actually playing Dip again. So I have been busy, just the szine hasn't gotten to the top of the list.


The postal sub price is still $1.50 per issue in the US and Canada, with double that for other foreign subbers(or $3.00 per issue sent airmail). Players in current games and standbys will continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts (except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost $20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance. Anyone may play in subszines for free and just jack up the issue page count. Since I have to get caught up this issue with all sorts of subszines, I'm going to be fairly limited with other items this issue. See the revised game start announcements below!
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at: http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/
I also have taken over the Postal port/DipPouch/Postal
and TAP on the web is there at: http://www.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.
Peter Sullivan's subszine is out of stasis, and all the back issues can be accessed via :
http://www.burdonvale.co.uk/octopus/index.html.
Peter is now back at least sometimes. Rip Gooch is probably permanently missing. Dave Partridge had been picking up the choo-choo game slack. Contact Dave at rebhuhn of rocketmail.com for more info on getting into choo-choo games and other sorts of different games. And Andy York has been my most frequent subszine guest lately!!! He's been in every issue, thanks, Andy!!! And so has Doug Kent, so we have a full stable of subszines. And Michael Lowrey gets his in every few issues too!
The TAP mailing list has moved! It now is even BETTER protected than it was. I even have a bit of trouble posting to it. To post to this list, send your email to: tap of diplom.org. But this is completely moderated, it won't go out to the list unless I approve it. In general, I intend to keep traffic down to just the szine, as we've been doing and I'll put your LOCs in here. I EXPECT all players to be on this list, especially those of you who are from foreign countries!!! You need this to find out when the szine is up on the web to check in on results.
General information about the mailing list is at: http://www.diplom.org/mailman/listinfo/tap
You can sign up from there, or send E-Mails to: Tap-request of diplom.org; with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. You must know your password to change your options (including changing the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. Normally, Mailman will remind you of your diplom.org mailing list passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on your options page that will email your current password to you. A big, big thank you for Millis Miller for setting this all up!!


THE SEARCH FOR JERRY JONES
With the 100th issue of Diplomacy World upcoming, the ONLY former publisher who has not definitively been located is Jerry Jones. Doug Kent and I have some idea where he is, but we've not succeeded in getting him to respond to us. Find him and win a fifty dollar prize.


Feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Margaret, Derek, Sylvain, Steve, Ed, Tom, Gregory, and ESPECIALLY Kevin found too!!! 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 Margaret Gemignani or Steve Heinowski or Ed Henry or Tom Hurst or Gregory Stewart or Derek Nelson or Sylvain LaRose or John Smythe is "found" from now on it is worth $25.


Winners will receive credit for Dip hobby activities that I will pay out as requested by the winner. Subscribe to szines here or abroad, run your own contests, publish a szine, finance a web page, GO TO A DIPLOMACY CONVENTION or whatever. Spend it all right away or use me as a bank to cover hobby activities for years. What must you do to win? Get me a letter to the editor for TAP from the person we're searching for.
This is very important, just finding them doesn't do it. They have to write me a letter. The final judge as to the winner of any contest will be the target himself and I reserve the right to investigate the winning entry. When you find someone I'm looking for, you should ask him to send me a letter for print that includes a verification of who "found" him.




INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION EXCHANGE NEWS
John Harrington and I have agreed to close the ISE. In this age of PayPal, the traffic on the ISE had fallen almost to zero, and what was left almost entirely was me facilitating orders of Breaking Away and John's other Fiendish Games. So, I'm still going to help John out with that, but there will be no ISE. If anyone still needs assistance with this, though, since I'm helping John out, like if you're in a foreign country and need to send dollars for dipping things to someone in the US, I may be able to help you out.


WORLDMASTERS04 SECTION
See the Yahoo Group wm04-results for more information and for details on progress on the WORLDMASTERS04, the Finals are now into 1903. You can join the Yahoogroup too!
In the finals are Mike Tombu as Austria, Mike "Smacko" McMillie as England, Jerry "JT" Fest as France, Georg "Shef" Kotschy as Germany, Randolph Ruff as Italy, Michael Weinzimer as Russia, and Tim Sweeney as Turkey. If you had asked me before the game started, I would have been very worried about the central powers and seeing a collapse toward the center of the board. At the end of 1903 Georg made an error in trying to remove a non-existent unit, so his Fleet Sweden was removed by default. This leaves him with only three units left, and Smacko will easily be able to take Sweden in 1904, already having Denmark. Anyway, my advance musings (you'll have to take my word for it that I made them before knowing any results) came to pass in the West, but not really in the East. Smacko and JT are running away with the game so far, with Smacko having six centers and JT seven. Shef has only Kiel and Munich to go with the abandoned Sweden, as JT already has Berlin and Shef is pretty well surrounded. The key question (as Smacko built fleet Edinburgh, but JT built fleet Brest) is whether EF stays together now. Michael only has the four home plus Rumania, Turkey has only Bulgaria, Italy is now up to five having taken Greece and built another fleet Naples. Otherwise, the Eastern powers (especially Mike Tombu in Austria) seem pretty moribund with not much going on. Not a stellar WorldMasters final so far, but we can hope it picks up. The very latest, as I write today, is that Smacko and JT are still sweeping the board with no serious "stop the leaders" coalition forming. Expect Smacko and JT to stick together until near the end and then you will see some top-flight maneuvering to see who might get the solo.
The new Tournament rankings for FTF also are out there that supercede the ones that were on 18centres. Go check out:
http://eurodip.nuxit.net/php/ranking/index.php?lang=Ang
There are all sorts of rankings there. Doug Moore leads the DipPouch rankings as done by Matt Shields, but Cyrille Sevin is still WAY ahead in the C-Diplo based rankings that Edi Birsan has been organizing with the French. And Cyrille also leads in Lei Saarlainen's World Performance Evaluation ratings. You can lose many hours poring through all these records and stats.


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.
Stephen Agar has matched the Hasbro rule lists and more with some of the even older rulebooks. Check these out if you like:
http://www.hasbro.com/default.asp?xcc_gameandtoyinstructions
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy(OlderVers).PDF
Nice of them to make BOTH of these available. And all seven different US rulebooks for Diplomacy can now be found here courtesy of Stephen Agar (relatively new address for this):
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/diplomacy_rules.htm


Bruce Linsey (Nov. 10, 2007 4:37 PM)
Hi Jim,
You're probably tired of this question, but will we be seeing another issue of TAP soon? It's been a few months, I think, since I got one. ((Yes, yes, obviously here we are. I've avoided publishing the other kind notes I received on this. Thanks for everyone's concern.))
Anyhow, here's a brief letter I'd like to ask you to publish, unless you can tell me the best person (people) to ask privately.
"I am looking for a copy of an article I wrote long ago, called The Astonishingly Arrogant Ankaran Assault. It was published, I believe, in Allen Wells' zine DOT HAPPY in the early or mid 1980s. If someone can help me get a copy of this article, please contact me at GonzoHQ of aol.com. Thank you, Bruce Linsey"
Much obliged if you can help me out! Bruce, GonzoHQ of aol.com


Check out current and back issues of Diplomacy World - Yahoogroup diplomacyworld
and at Doug Kent's new Diplomacy World web site at:
http://www.diplomacyworld.net/


Also, I need any Hobby Award Nominations NOW (!!!) for the :
The 2005 and 2006 and 2007 Don Miller Award for Meritorious Service;
The 2005 and 2006 and 2007 Rod Walker Award for Literature;
The 2005 and 2006 and 2007 John Koning Award for Player Performance;
The 2005 and 2006 and 2007 Fred Hyatt Award for GM Performance;
or
A 2005 and 2006 and 2007 Kathy Byrne Caruso Award for Lifetime Achievement (if warranted).
The Hobby Awards Committee is Jim Burgess (Chair and Treasurer), Fred Davis, Jr., Melinda Holley, Gary Behnen, Jamie Dreier, Paul Kenny, Mark Stretch, and Robert Lesco. I was going to publish the award ballot for this year in this issue, but I realized that I really just had to get this out first and then do that.... and then, well, REAL SOON NOW!!! And when I do, I'm going to give out three sets of awards and get caught up for the missed years, that seems to make the most sense. Committee.... you will be hearing from me soon! This also fell apart with my move, but I think I can get it together for next issue when all the games are in Winter.


Diplomacy World Issue Deadline is now:
Deadline Spring 2008, Issue #101: beginning of April
I'm really pleased that former editor Doug Kent has agreed to come back and get this back on track and get us to #100. Thanks, Doug! We're putting things together for the next issue and it looks good too, but if any of you want to write anything there's always more room, contact Doug! Most every old fart getting this szine sent something in for #100, so if you missed out, send something now for #101!!! We're looking for all sorts of kinds of articles, come talk to us if you want some ideas.
See http://www.diplomacyworld.net/ for some exciting back issue material being posted as well as the new Issues, including the monstrous Issue #100. Highlights of #100 include Walt Buchanan's ex-wife Carol showing us who REALLY was in charge of the hobby back in the Hoosier Archives days, Eric Ozog augmenting the oft-heard, but never get enough of, love story between Eric and Cathy, and the start of the new Diplomacy World Demo Game. In addition to the first two issues, we have every issue back to issue number 53 posted. Eventually they all will be up.
Editorial Board for Diplomacy World:
Doug Kent, NEW Lead Executive Editor!, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228, dougray30 of yahoo.com
Tim Haffey, 810 53rd Ave., Oakland, CA 94601 USA; trhaffey of aol.com - Ex-Lead Editor and Archives Editor
Jim Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, USA; burgess of world.std.com - Co-Editor and Publisher
Rick Desper, 5440 Marinelli Road, #204, Rockville, MD 20852, USA; rick_desper of yahoo.com - Demo Games
Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033, USA; rebhuhn of rocketmail.com - US Postal


MUSIC AND MOVIES SECTION (WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTS AND SOCIETY)
We were running a "23 tunes" contest here (stolen blatantly from Mark Wightman and the late lamented The Sprouts of Wrath. If anyone would like to send me a tape or CD of their 23 (which was the original point) that would be great, but I don't intend to require that. I will be playing in the sense that I'll be putting 23 tunes in, and you have to guess me, but I obviously won't score points. Send commentary with your choices, and we'll see if people can guess who you are!!! And already there is a LOT of diversity in defining tunes and styles, so BE CREATIVE!!! This kind of died, mostly because of me. I don't want to take this last issue getting it back together, but might next issue. Feel free to send along general music comments any time. It's always great to talk about the Mekons, as Eric Ozog does below.


23 Tunes Game
Here are the rules for 23 TUNES. You send me three tunes for the first turn, and then two tunes in each of the last ten turns for a total of 23. If you missed the first turn, you can still catch up by sending five tunes next issue, and guess on submitters to this issue. I am also submitting my tunes. After we're done, I'd like to exchange CD's/Tapes for as many of the tunes players as possible, but this is not required. I'll be sending the winner both my LAST 23 tune list and my NEW 23 tune list. The winner is determined by having you guess each issue who submitted what list (I will tell you who the submitters are). For each list you get right, you get a point, you also can win bonus points from me for really cool tune selections.
WHAT I NEED: Quite a number of you SAID you would join but haven't yet, so we'll get started and put the pressure on you. This part is still a MESS and I'm getting this issue out and then will catch up next time. I think I'm going to simplify the rules to get it back on track.


Eric M. Ozog (Dec. 2, 2007 11:57 PM)
A "Quiet" Night with The Mekons - Seattle Town Hall - October 10, 2007
By Eric Ozog
I was thrilled to hear on KEXP (local independent radio) that The Mekons would be in Seattle in October. The last missed opportunity for me to see the band was sometime around 2000, when they played on Labor Day at the Bumbershoot music festival, but I was trapped filling in for a coworker on that day. "I could have been in downtown Seattle seeing The Mekons," I grieved to myself, "Instead I'm raking the compost" (of a public restroom-what's wrong with this picture?). I guess that's the dedication of a Ranger, performing the ultimate in public service. But that was the last time: I am thankfully in a different job-pushing paper instead of pushing the poop around. I've been a fan of the Mekons-this eccentric, irreverent, rock/punk/folk/c&w/reggae band-since 1989, when I bought The Mekons - Rock 'N' Roll. I think what really turned me on the most was Sally Timms' vocals and Susie Honeyman's fiddle.
As the date of the show got closer, I was debating whether to make the 50 mile drive, on a weeknight, with work the next day. Then I came to my senses: "don't be an Old Man, go see the Mekons for Godssake!" So I bought and printed my own ticket from Ticketmaster and raced down the I-5 freeway in my '78 Mercury Cougar. After parking in the Seattle Convention Center garage, I walked around the blocks a couple times in a downtown disorientation haze until coming upon the venue, the Seattle Town Hall, a Greek-Romanesque building that looks like a mini version of Chicago's Union Station. I made it in time. Inside the hall are arches and wooden church pews for the audience, and seven empty chairs on the stage.
I had been thinking about ordering the new Mekons album, Natural, from Amazon.com but decided, "Hey, what am I thinking-I'll buy it straight from the band!" So I walked up to the table and bought Natural from Sally Timms herself. Jon Langford, Lu Headmonds (he just drew a smiley face), and Sally autographed the lyrics liner, writing, "To Eric, Love Sally." Now Amazon doesn't hold a candle to that level of customer service! I said to Sally that I was a long time fan, and she replied that "most of our fans are, and that is part of the problem." I guess there aren't as many younger Mekons converts, but the audience had quite a few 20-somethings in it, as well as middle aged and older baby-boomers. The church pews were about half-occupied by their adoring fans.
I really didn't know what to expect when The Mekons first walked out on stage, as they billed the concert "A Quiet Night with the Mekons." I thought this might be a "Mekons Unplugged" show with only 2-3 of the band members. I looked for the drums with fear-there were none! But I was thrilled and relieved when seven Mekons entered the stage and promptly sat down in chairs, opening with "Give Me Wine or Money," from their new album Natural; a song that sounds like a tin can on the CD but has the Big Sound when played live! Besides Jon (who sang in his usual gruff voice, played the guitar and thumb piano) and Sally (vocals), Rico Bell played the accordian, Sarah Corina on bass, Steve Goulding on a drum kit that he sat on and played (surprisingly it produced a lot of sound), and Lu played some kind of a sitar-looking guitar. Alas, though, Tom Greenhalgh wasn't there (his wife was having their fourth child-he had text-messaged Jon announcing the birth), and Susie Honeyman was absent (no explanation given), with someone named Jessica playing the violin instead. She played well, but the fiddle tended to get drowned out by the rest of the band-Susie would have insisted on cranking it up!
Natural isn't the strongest album by the Mekons, and some of the songs sound rather tinny when compared to Oooh! Out of Our Heads and Journey to the End of the Night's production, but these songs came alive when the Mekons played them in concert: "Dickie Chalkie & Nobby," "Burning in the Desert Burning," and "Zeros and Ones." I particularly liked the moody "Dark Dark Dark," from an English poem "The trees stare back and we burn in smoke, reflecting in the water like ghosts," and they closed with the achingly haunting "Perfect Mirror," "The black mountain, above the lake, the trees are dead, a cold rolls off the water." This is the first time I heard the new album's songs-live-the way they are meant to be. The Mekons also played "Diamonds," the pretty "Hope and the Anchor" (solo by Sally), and "Cockermouth" from Natural, with its reggae twist about the end of the world, as Jon Langford asked the audience to sing along, "You don't have to believe in the end, you have to believe this is the end." The Mekons always had a sense for the sardonic about life, death, and our way of life in their songs: "Take it home right away, you've got three years to pay, but Satan is waiting his turn" (from "Sin City" on Honky Tonkin').
About half of the songs the Mekons played were from Natural, and the other half were songs from other albums: "Tina" (from Journey.... "It looks like an accident, caused by the government"); "Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem" (from Oooh, Out of Our Heads... not a song I particularly like, but it sounded great live, with all the band members singing together); "Wild & Blue" (from Curse of the Mekons); "Millionaire" (from I Love Mekons); the country & western rocker "Hole in the Ground" (from Honky Tonkin', where Jon invited the audience to whistle along at the end (I can imagine Jake and Elwood Blues singing this song at Bob's cowboy bar). The final encore song was "Ghosts of American Astronauts" (from the album So Good It Hurts, which I own on vinyl: "A Flag flying free in a vacuum, Nixon sucks a dry martini, Ghosts of American astronauts, Stay with us in our dreams."). The only thing that would have made the show complete for me is if the Mekons had played my all time favorite song: "Only You and Your Ghost Would Know."
Probably the best part of the show was Sally and Jon's banter between songs, which started by Sally announcing that Jon would turn 50 years old "at midnight tonight" and making wisecracks about his age and not being able to "get it up" anymore. Jon replied that he was going to launch his sputnik, "that will really scare the Americans," a dual meaning to the 50 year anniversary of the Russian spacecraft. Jon also warned the audience to stay away from chicken pot pies, that "they've been broadcasting it on CNN all day." Jon also did a cartwheel on stage, and Sally said with concern, "I think you should do that no more than once." At the close of the show, the Mekons invited everyone over to the Tractor tavern for celebrating Jon's birthday, but being a family man I had to get home (and in one piece). Back the at the merchandise table I thanked the Mekons for coming back to Seattle.
elferic of juno.com
((Thanks much, Eric, it reminds me of all the many Mekons concerts I've been to. They really are more of a "band of the people" than about any other band I know of. My fiftieth birthday, of course, was on Sept. 29th. And I've long known that I'm exactly two weeks older than Jon Langford, his birthday really is October 12th, 1957 (Tom Greenhalgh and Susie Honeyman are a bit older and Sally Timms is a bit younger). He's always been my favorite band member, he really is a painter these days, recall that he and Tom first met when they were in art school together..... like how the Talking Heads met here in Providence at the Rhode Island School of Design.))
((In recent years, they've not been playing the really old songs, like the Fear and Whiskey songs so much, and they love to play "Millionaire" and "Ghosts of American Astronauts" in concert for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why. Thanks for a great review, and made me drag out all my old Mekons songs and listen. I just got a USB Turntable for Christmas from my stepson, so I can put lots of my old vinyl onto music CDs for the highway. The Mekons and Jonathan Richman are my two favorite "traveling artists."))
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.
I am continuing to note cut or failed support orders with a small "s" instead of a capital "S". This will make it easier on the E-Mailed version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. The italics DO show on the web page just fine.
Standby lists:
Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Bob Osuch, Doug Kent, Sean O'Donnell, Vern Parker, Heath Gardner, Paul Kenny, and Jeff O'Donnell stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF. Standbies get the szine for free and receive my personal thanks.


GAME OPENING INFORMATION
We've got lots of openings in the subszines, check them out!!! Contact Rip Gooch directly at xyropedes of canada.com and try to entice him to return. Rip has been a bit missing in action lately, but I am assured that he SHALL return. Can we get back to these game openings below? We just need a few more people for a couple of these.
I am willing to open another new game of REGULAR Diplomacy if there is enough interest!!! Doug Kent, Fred Wiedemeyer, Brad Wilson, and Shaun Thompson start the list, who would like to join them???
Also, is there any interest in another game of Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire 7x7 Dip? I know it may be getting tired, but I really like it. We have Karl Schmit on the list, let's get seven!! It's FREE!!! I may drop this one shortly if we still have no interest.
I also am starting a game of the variant I designed, Spy Diplomacy. Signups for that are now open. Bruce Edwards and Eric Ozog are signed up. The rules were published recently, ask to see them if you missed them!!!
And since Colonia is over, Harold Reynolds is looking to start something else. Harold has been updating the Diplomacy A to Z, go check it out at: http://www.badpets.net/Diplomacy/AtoZ/index.html
Also, I am going to design some postal rules for Devil Take the Hindmost, and we have an opening here: Bruce Edwards, Mike Barno, and Eoghan Barry are signed up. Postal rules from me will be forthcoming shortly, on my never ending to-do list. I will get them in SOON! I'm more likely to get these things started if I see some interest..... I've GOT to do this now, Eoghan is getting tired of waiting....
Right now, the other thing going is the Modern Diplomacy game with Wings. Sean O'Donnell, Jeff O'Donnell, Steve Koehler, Art Schleinkofer, Bob Holt, Rick Desper, Alexander Woo, and Dave Partridge are signed up for that. I will start it when I get a full complement of players, we only need TWO more! Only two, just TWO more...... come on.


TAKING OVER ISHKIBIBBLE'S REGULAR DIPLOMACY GAMES ((NOT))
Last chance for anyone who was a subber to Ishkibibble to join any new game for free, but this is a ONE TIME only offer, get your request in now. It is going to expire VERY shortly. Marc Ellinger and Fred Wiedemeyer already have taken us up on this request. Come on, let me call by name who qualifies for this deal..... Karl Schmit, John Power, Tim Snyder, Dave Partridge, Graham Wilson, and Kevin Wilson. I especially would like to fill the Modern Diplomacy game that Dave Partridge already is in. As soon as one more game fills (I'm not counting the new Breaking Away game), I'm going to pull this offer.


THE PHIL REYNOLDS MEMORIAL: 2006B, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1902 IS FEBRUARY 16TH, 2008
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1903 IS MARCH 8TH, 2008
Fall 1902
AUSTRIA (Burgess): a TRI h, f alb-GRE, a gre-BUL, a SER S a gre-bul,
f AEG-con, a vie-tri (nsu).
ENGLAND (James): f ENG C a bre-bel, f NAO S f iri-mid, a bre-BEL,
f iri-MID, f NTH S a bre-bel.
FRANCE (Williams): a par-BRE, f mid-eng (d r:spa(nc),spa(sc),por,naf,otb),
a bur-PIC, a GAS S par-bre.
GERMANY (Ellinger): a KIE S a ber-mun, a BER-mun, f HOL S ENGLISH a bre-bel, a DEN-swe.
ITALY (Crow): a TYO S a mun, f tyh-WES, a MUN h, a apu-VEN, f ion-TYH.
RUSSIA (O'Donnell): f sev-BLA, a LVN h, a UKR S a mos-sev, f RUM S f sev-bla,
a mos-SEV, f GOB-swe.
TURKEY (Wiedemeyer): f bul(ec)-con (d ann), a con-ANK, a arm-SMY.


Supply Center Chart
AUSTRIA (Burgess): TRI,VIE,BUD,ser,gre,bul (has 5, bld 1)
ENGLAND (James): EDI,LVP,LON,nwy,bel (has 5, even)
FRANCE (Williams): PAR,MAR,BRE,spa,por (has 3 or 4, bld 2(r:otb) or 1)
GERMANY (Ellinger): KIE,BER,den,hol (has 4, even)
ITALY (Crow): ROM,NAP,VEN,tun,mun (has 5, even)
RUSSIA (O'Donnell): WAR,STP,SEV,MOS,swe,rum (has 6, even)
TURKEY (Wiedemeyer): ANK,SMY,CON (has 2, bld 1)
Neutral: none (Total=34)
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: David Burgess, 101 Laurel Lane, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 761-6687, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org
ENGLAND: Drew James, 3644 Whispering Woods Terrace, Baldwinsville, NY 13027
(315) 652-1956, kjames01 of twcny.rr.com
FRANCE: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947,
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org ($5)
GERMANY: Marc Ellinger, 751 Turnberry Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65109
ellingermc of aol.com
ITALY: John Crow, 824 Kinwest Parkway #101, Irving, TX 75063,
(214) 532-1418, johnny.crow of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: Jeff O'Donnell, 1345 Simpson Drive, Hurst, TX 76053
(440) 322-2920 or (440) 225-9203 (cell, as late as midnight Eastern), unclestaush of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Fred Wiedemeyer, Box 92010-Meadowbrook RPO, Edmonton, ALBERTA
CANADA T6T 1N1, (780) 465-6432, wiedem of planet.eon.net


Game Notes:
1)


Press:
(BERLINER ZEITUNG): Kaiser Marc announced the newest social rehabilitation plan for the errant Bavarians. "We're going to send some good Prussians south to sober you up and get rid of the Italian wino's," stated the Kaiser. "If we can't beat the olive eating, chianti swilling Italians, with some stout Prussians, the world is indeed a sad place."
(GERMANY to ENGLAND): Schedules shift, schedules change, but orders live on forever.
(GERMANY to FRANCE): Rumor has it that a certain Italian is casting dispersions upon Bordeaux, saying that French wine is swill and that only Italians can make a decent red. Surely you can't stand for that!!!
(GERMANY to RUSSIA): Good pickens down south...nice weather too. It's cold and stormy up north, you don't want to visit...do you???
(JEFF to JIM): I want Manny and Coco back...
(GERMANY to AUSTRIA): The mother tongue makes for good neighbors.
(GERMANY to TURKEY): Keep in touch!
(GERMANY to ITALY): In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"? In the words of the LA Cops, "I guess not....THWACK!!!"
(BOOB to GERMANY): Thwack, indeed! And that brings us back to....
(RED KINGS 3 �- THE DIRT, THE SKIRT AND THE BEER): So much for McGillicutty's. I had to hit the streets, dig up the dirt. I needed mullah, mad skrilla, money to pay for the broads and the beers and the cigars...oh yeah, and the rent. The Hobby's a dirty place, always someone doing someone in. A very dirty place, and I just needed a little dirt. Just a little, and I knew exactly where I could get it. I headed downstairs and out the front door of The Abyssinian Prince; cool air drafted out of McGillicutty's bringing with it the tones of Bruno's humming to himself and the odor of stale cigarettes and warm beer...or was that warm cigarettes and stale beer? Either way, it was tempting, but I was on a mission, it would have to wait. I hung a left past Houdini Blues and headed downtown, past the boarded up Sprouts of Wrath, past Cheesecake, The Boob Report, Magus, Coat of Arms, Perelandra. I hung a right at Fiat Bellum, passed Graustark, Flick of the Wrist and Europa Express. I could no longer tell if I was in the good part of town, or the bad. Not that you could tell, the Hobby is painted in a Technicolor of sepia and grayscale, the sorta place you could have a Harlem sunset anywhere you were. It wasn't long before I heard the music. I heard the music before I saw the lights, and I saw the lights from three szines away. Club Copasetic, the hottest club in the Hobby, and it showed, the place was buzzing. There were broads and dames galore, attracted to the glitz by the money. And there was the money: high rollers and hardspenders, top-hats and pennypackers, attracted to the glitz by the broads. God, what a racket, it just had to make you smile. It was one of those John Wayne moments when you wanted to thank God for pussy and capitalism and the Great American Way.
The place was so busy that the bouncer, well here it's a doorman... hoity toity, like I said, didn't have time to do a good job frisking me. Like a blind man on a first date he didn't know where to put his hands and I got in with my rod...both of 'em. "Move along. Don' be lettin' out the bought air," he muttered. Yeah, this place was class. I walked in and had to pause, let my eyes adjust to the lighting. Apparently I had gotten there just as the headliner started to sing... timing, it's all about the timing...and it didn't hurt that I was writing this bit either.
Barry had just taken the stage and lit into his trademark song:
His name was WeedFred, he thought he was dead
With orders flying through the air, and fleets afloatin' here to there
He would meringue and do the cha-cha
Sidestep a frontal attack and support his own assault
And while he tried to save his life, the Russian sharpened up a knife.
Across a crowded board, they worked toward Fall oh-four
They had hate and they had each other
Who could ask for more?
At the Copa, Copasetic
The calmest spot in the North Atlantic
At the Copa, Copasetic
Worries and problems were never the fashion
Stabs in the back were always the passion,
Where everything�s okay...at the Copa
His name was David, he was a diamond
Began with Austria as his lair, moving southward down from there
And when he finished - when it was over -
He would have Turkey to himself like a trophy on a shelf.
But David went too far, he provoked the Czar
Then the punches flew and armies were split in two
There was blood and a sudden move
But just who stabbed who?
At the Copa, Copasetic
Always calm, never frenetic...
At the Copa, Copasetic
Worries and problems were never the fashion
Where everything's okay...at the Copa
His name was WeedFred and now he is dead
But that was thirty moves ago, when they used...
The rest blended into the background noise as I headed past the orchestra for the back of the room. I passed by the cigarette girl walking the aisles, smacking her gum and sashaying her pins like she had the only one.
"Cigars, cigarettes...say, honey, ya wanna try some Red Kings? They's on special."
I picked up a pack from the box she had hiked on her hip, "They any good?"
Her hand paused on mine for those seconds needed for our eyes to lock, you could almost hear the click, "If they's were good, they wouldn't be on special."
I gave her the half smile with just the end of one lip curling up and looked back deep into her ice blue peepers. "What makes 'em so special?"
Her other hand came up to her neck, the glossy red nails just barely tracing the smooth alabaster skin, and she leaned forward to huskily whisper, "I hear they've got their own Turkish tobacco to make 'em with. They gets it so cheap cause they don�t have to pay for it."
"Do the Turks know about this?"
She gave me a 150 watt smile, you know like the one you get when the bulb is new. I almost needed to pull down my fedora. "If they don't know already, they will when they read this."
I scratched the scruff on my chin, "Cheap, huh?"
"Yeah," she breathed and I smelled honeysuckle, "and I know cheap."
"A woman after my own heart..."
"Oh, it wasn't your heart I was after." Yeah, it didn't hurt that I was writing this bit either.
I looked over at the next page and saw the guy I needed to talk to, I had to cut this short.
"Look babe, I gotta blow. Meet me at my place in an hour," I slipped her a fin and took a pack of Red Kings, "it's in The Abyssinian Prince, the walkup above Macgillicutty's...not the third floor, that's the games section."
"I like games," she said, pouting her red glossy lips. They reflected the house lights like the brake lights of a delivery truck on rain slicked streets at night. Like a Tuesday night, when it wasn't really heavy traffic, just the light sort of traffic that made you feel alone in a large Hobby. The soft patter of the rain, the dampness of the air itself muffling the noise and the light... the long off sound of a horn blowing in off the harbor, or maybe the crackling snap of a radio, heard through an open window above your head, being tuned past stations that could only be heard at night...
"Errr, errr, er," she cleared her throat, "I said, I like games..."
"Oh, yeah," I was back, "not these sorts of games you wouldn't."
She smiled, "see you in an hour."
"Great, hey, pick up a bottle of Cheater's on the way, wouldja doll?"
"Sure," she grinned, "a lot can happen with a full bottle of whiskey."
I was liking this kitten more and more. I invested a couple of seconds on her gams as she walked away, I could practically feel myself falling for her. Back to business. The fall was over.
There was the guy I needed to see, someone who kept his thumb on the pulse of the Hobby, especially when that pulse was in your neck. I needed dirt, and this was the guy who had it, or knew where to get it... or knew who was napping under it. He sat in his regular booth; the light bulb had been unscrewed so that he was in deep shadow. As I walked toward him a big palooka on a stool stood up in front of me, but a wave of a hand from the booth sat him back down.
"Nice, ya got him housebroken too?"
There was a lessening of the darkness that I took for a smile, "I thought you might show up."
"Flat, we gotta talk..."
(MALICE IN CENTERLAND - PART FOUR: FALLING DOWN): Straight down the hole Malice fell in the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, however, he realized he could see the sides of the hole as well as the pulsing red lights of the Mutant Butler's eyes below him. They were falling through space. The concepts of `sides' and `below' soon lost meaning though as Malice and the Mutant Butler continued to fall and fall and fall. And fall. (Keep falling. Really.) Either the hole was very deep or he fell very slowly, but he fell for some great time and eventually lost sense of how far he'd dropped and who he might be. After a time, he noted various maps stuck to the sides of the hole and, some time later still, he saw shelves with stacks of piled papers covered with strange names like Cheesecake, The Boob Report, Magus, Coat of Arms, Hare of the Dog, Kathy's Korner, Fiat Bellum, Whitestonia, NorthSealthWestGeorge, Off-the-Shelf, Ter-Ran, Graustark, Flick of the Wrist, Bersaglieri, Perelandra, Mos Eisley Spacesport, Whiteflame, Ishkibibble, Europa Express and many, many more besides. Eventually, Malice's simple-yet-mediocre mind began to wander and he found himself tunelessly mumbling a timeworn ditty of unknown origin:
"Just sit right there and you'll hear a tale
A tale of an endless drop
That started when I jumped into
The North Atlantic Dot.'
`This Butler is a curious guide
His coat and eyes quite red
I sure hope that he knows this hole
Or when he hit we're dead!
(Unless we hit a bed...)"
Abruptly, Malice stopped mumbling as new words flowed into his thoughts from a source within him that he neither recognized nor understood. Moments later, though, he found himself mumbling again another odd verse as tunelessly as before:
"This quest for the Diplonomicon
Is not for me alone
Six other souls will quest with me
To join the board and stones -
Join the board and stones!'
`Sure, Centerland will get quite rough -
Through chaos we'll be tossed
If not for the courage of the Hero-Fool
The Dipcon will be lost
And ancient myth exhaust!'
`The tale's about to start with this
Unartful story line -
With Hero-Fool, The Red King, too
Kings Yellow, Green, and White,
A King Dark Blue
The Black King and all Centerland -
Here's to ma-li-cious guile!"
Malice finished the tune and, pleased with himself, was about to launch into a second little number, this one from the Nickelodeon cartoon hit Spongebob Squarepants, when his fall was abruptly terminated by the sudden arrival of an unyielding floor-like substance. KERSHPLAT!!! went the unyielding floor-like substance as Malice landed on it. "OOOOF!!!" went Malice as he slammed heavily into the huge stack of musty old szines at the bottom of the hole. The fall was over.
(RED KINGS 4 - A SHOT IN THE DARK): "Flat, we gotta talk..."
So there I was, in the Copasetic, sitting across from Flat Evil, the button on the belly of the dark underside of the Hobby. What little light was left in the already darkened booth seemed to suck into his persona. Sinking into the deep upholstery of the booth quelled the surrounding noise; the orchestra springing into a Henry Mancini number just became so much background music...muzak for mobsters. A big palooka, Flat's erstwhile bodyguard, sat vigilantly on his barstool across the aisle, sipping vigilantly at his beer, and keeping one vigilant eye on me. The guy oozed vigilance...I assume that ranks high on attributes for a button man.
The fingers that had killed a thousand people, or at least pointed out to underlings which ones to kill, pushed an empty shot glass toward me. In the middle of the table was a bottle of the high dollar stuff, Hardsloggin, aged 20 years. Real years, not game years, I told you...the good stuff.
"Stoke up," said Flat in that dead voice. A voice where echoes went to die. I picked up the bottle, popped the cork. Instant aroma; it played well against the backdrop of smoke, good food, and the palooka's bad aftershave. I poured a generous dose into the shot glass, hell, it'd been hours since my last drink... at least one, and Hardsloggin was the good stuff. I settled in to take my shot in the dark.
I drank it down, and poured another.
"Didn't know you could do single malt in a bath-tub," I said to Flat.
"Youse were always the cute one," he muttered back.
"Yeah, but mom always liked you best." I'm known for my razor like repartee. Had to keep up appearances.
"I was born an orphan," replied Flat and puffed on his cigar. Yeah, he was born an orphan the way the guy was that killed both his parents and threw himself on the mercy of the court because he was all alone in the world.
"Youse gonna keep crackin' wise, or we gonna talk?"
"Jim Bob doesn't charge for dialog."
"Even at dat rate, youse cheatin' him."
"Good one," I smiled.
"I keeps my hand in."
I decided to play him, which is probably as dangerous as it sounds, but I'm not known for the blinding wattage of my intellect. I'm kinda of a gut instinct, fly by the seat of my pants, get my favorite face beat in kind of guy. A Chertoff meets Rockford kinda guy. Besides, I could tell he already knew something.
"You said you were expecting me."
"Someone takes a shit," says Flat, "you expect the smell to show up."
"How eloquent. So who took the shit?"
Wrong answer. One of Flat's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward in the booth to better fillet me with the squint.
"Youse here about the missing Hierophant...right?"
"I didn't even know the Hobby had a zoo. If an elephant's missing, you'd think he�d be pretty easy to find�being big and all. I'd look for a lot of grey, should stand out in a black and white world. Since when do I take a lost dog case?"
Flat chuckled and eased back in the booth. The palooka, who had half gotten up, settled back on his stool. Like I said, vigilant.
"Youse kill me. Always crackin' wise."
I gave a mental sigh of relief. I'd gotten away with it. I had no idea what he was talking about, "I'm known for my razor like repartee."
"Yeah, I read that somewheres a few lines back."
"So let's say that I was looking for the Hero-phant."
Flat nodded, "youse and a buncha udders."
"Otters?"
"Don' push it."
"Who else is looking?"
"Let's say...interested parties."
"Why is everyone so...interested?"
"It ain't so much the Hierophant, he could be a yutz for all I care... it's what he's after. Real Lost Ark stuff."
"So he's like the Clockmaker in the Matrix?"
Flat grimaced, and pointed the blazing end of his cigar at me. "Dat is so cross genre! Youse sposed to be a flat foot, not a nerd. Ya keep breakin' character and we'll get the Continuity Fuzz raiding dis place." The palooka looked nervously around at that remark, nervous about the cops. But still vigilant. "I don need to buy more grief than I got already."
"So you're one of the interested parties."
Flat shrugged, "I got some stacks o' pennies that could be upset by a, howdayasay...unfavorable outcome. But, who don't? Dis is a big deal, big as da Hobby."
"So, if the elephant's not the big deal. What is?"
"Dat Diplonomicon thingy."
I was leaving the Copasetic more confused than when I got there. Apparently there was a missing elephant, being chased by otters, because what he was after was very important. Important enough that the kingpin of the Hobby underworld was interested, if not a little worried. It almost sounded like an elephant joke, except for the Flat Evil part... and I didn't know the punchline.
I hate it when I don't know the punchline.
I had faked my way through the meeting with Flat, he thought I was on to something. He thought I had a lead, and if I found out something, or someone, for him, he would be very grateful. Grateful in a couple of bucks sort of way and a Get Out of Scrape Without Broken Ribs card the next time we crossed paths in a less genial circumstance. It wouldn't hurt to have Flat owe me a favor. I stood there at the front door of the Copasetic on my way out. Let my eyes adjust to the outside light as I shook a Red King out of the pack, and watched the doorman continue with his frisking of the ingoing patrons. I may not be the smartest flatfoot in the Hobby, but...nope, that was all I had. I wasn't the smartest flatfoot in the Hobby. Elephants, otters...I turned to the doorman.
"Hey, does the Hobby have a zoo?"
He stopped frisking, apparently multi-tasking wasn't a required skill. I could see the squint, almost hear the cogs rotate in his huge noggin. Seconds ticked by. "Nah, no zoo."
"Of course not, couldn't be that easy." So much for a shot in the dark.
(BOOB to THE BRILLIANT PRESS WRITERS): I tried to perform what I thought was the intent of each writer. Many may recall (go back in the archives if you like) that both the Red Kings and Malice in Centerland have previous incarnations in the press. I didn't print any press in the last two issues, so I just want to remind people of this. The current printing exhausts the list of "Malice in Centerland''s that I have in hand; while I do have more "Red Kings''s to print. I was following what I understood to be the intent of the writers. If I failed, well, why do you think they call me "Boob"? If I succeeded, well, write more!!! You can't cheat me!!!


SPIRALS OF PARANOIA: 2005A, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1906 IS FEBRUARY 16, 2008
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1907 IS MARCH 8, 2008
Fall 1906
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a rum-bud (d ann), a SER s a rum-bud,
a NAP h, a ALB-tri, f tyh-GOL.
ENGLAND (Wiedemeyer): f POR-spa(sc).
FRANCE (Tretick): f BRE S GERMAN f eng-mid, a GAS-spa, f spa(sc)-MAR,
f lon-ENG, a mar-BUR, f IRI S GERMAN f eng-mid.
GERMANY (Ozog for Tallman): a mun-BOH, a GAL S ITALIAN a ven-bud, a boh-VIE,
a RUH h, a TYO S ITALIAN a ven-tri, f SKA h, a pie-TUS, a bur-PIC, f eng-MID.
ITALY (O'Donnell): a vie-BUD, a ven-TRI.
RUSSIA (Sundstrom): a UKR S a sev-rum, a sev-RUM, a ARM-smy,
a tri-ser (d ann), a MOS h.
TURKEY (Biehl): a ANK-arm, f SMY h, f bul(ec)-BLA, f TUN-wes,
f ion-TYH, f WES s ENGLISH f por-mid (nso).


Supply Center Chart
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): ser,nap,rom (has 4, rem 1)
ENGLAND (Wiedemeyer): por (has 1, even)
FRANCE (Tretick): PAR,BRE,MAR,spa,lvp,edi,lon (has 6, bld 1)
GERMANY (Ozog/Tallman): KIE,BER,MUN,hol,den,bel,swe, (has 9, even)
nwy,vie
ITALY (O'Donnell): VEN,tri,bud (has 2, bld 1)
RUSSIA (Sundstrom): WAR,STP,SEV,MOS,bud,rum (has 4, bld 2)
TURKEY (Biehl): ANK,SMY,CON,gre,tun,bul (has 6, even)
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: Fred Wiedemeyer, Box 92010-Meadowbrook RPO, Edmonton, ALBERTA CANADA T6T 1N1,
(780) 465-6432, wiedem of planet.eon.net
FRANCE: Buddy Tretick, 5023 Sewell's Pointe Way, Fredericksburg, VA 22407, (540) 898-3386
cell (540) 226-5571 (E-Mail) berniebuddy32 of aol.com
GERMANY: Terry Tallman, PO Box 782, Clinton, WA 98236, (360) 331-5698 ($2)
terryt of whidbey.net
GERMANY: Temporary Standby is Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138,
(360) 691-4264, ElfEric of Juno.com
ITALY: Jeff O'Donnell, 1345 Simpson Drive, Hurst, TX 76053
(440) 322-2920 or (440) 225-9203 (cell, as late as midnight Eastern), unclestaush of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882,
Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net
TURKEY: John Biehl, #8 - 11530 84th Avenue, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 2M1 CANADA,
(604) 816-0460 (cell) ($7); jrb of dccnet.com


Game Notes:
1) Terry is still having some medical problems, Eric Ozog is continuing to negotiate and submit orders for Terry. Eric originally brought Terry into the Diplomacy hobby all those many years ago, and so I'm glad he's agreed to do this.
2) The GIRF draw proposal is rejected and reproposed. Please vote with your Winter orders, if you fail to vote, it cannot pass. We also have a number of other proposals to vote on with your Winter orders. As with all proposals, failure to vote vetoes the proposal and they must be unanimous. So, we have I) GIRF draw, II) GT draw, III) FAIRT draw, IV) Recalling Terry Tallman to play Germany. On the last one, I don't have a note from Terry volunteering to return, but since any one vote, or failure to vote, will veto the proposal, I will presume that at least one person will check with Terry before voting yes for this. If everyone (including Eric, obviously) votes to have Eric leave and Terry doesn't want to take back over, I will find another standby. I don't see how that will happen, but thought I should be explicit and complete. Again, votes are due with the Winter orders.


Press:
(STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION PRESS - ABOARD THE SCOUTSHIP `ODYSSEUS' - SHIP'S LOG ENTRY): Current Situation Report - a Borg Entity has been detected with flank Ferengi and Klingon forces. Sensors indicate a vestigal Breen presence (likely being assimilated). Our extreme range sensors report a (vile) Klingon war bird attack on a Romulan trader. Cardassian spaceship wreakage is also being encountered over a large area of this quadrant. Furthermore, communications emanating from the Vulcan home worlds sector report a (slimy) Ferengi sneak attack on Vulcan, itself. Our only recourse is to power up the experimental Vulcan designed deep space sensors. We might be able to analyze and break the Borg signal codes thereby freeing the (misguided) Ferengi and Klingons from further enslavement. Standby for emergency transmissions. Out.


FLIP FLOP: 2003G, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1909 IS FEBRUARY 16, 2008
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1910 IS MARCH 8, 2008
Fall 1909
AUSTRIA (Wiedemeyer): a BUD s a vie, a GAL S a bud, a ukr-WAR,
a MOS-sev, a VIE S a bud.
ENGLAND (Schmit): NMR, DOUG KENT CALLED AS STANDBY; a DEN h, a hol h (d ann),
a RUH h, f NTH h, f NWG h, f HEL h.
FRANCE (Jeff O'Donnell): a bel-HOL, a pic-BEL, f mid-ENG, a SPA h.
GERMANY (Sundstrom): f BER S a kie, a KIE S FRENCH a bel-hol, f SWE-den,
a stp-NWY, a MUN-ruh, f SKA S a stp-nwy.
TURKEY (Levinson): f smy-AEG, a SEV s a rum, f tun-WES, a BUL S a rum,
f VEN S a tri, f tyh-GOL, a TRI S a ser-bud, f adr-ION, f BLA S a sev,
a RUM S a ser-bud, a SER-bud.


Supply Center Chart
AUSTRIA (Wiedemeyer): VIE,BUD,mos,war (has 5, rem 1)
ENGLAND (Schmit): EDI,LVP,LON,por,den (has 5, even)
FRANCE (Jeff O'Donnell): PAR,MAR,BRE,spa,bel,hol (has 4, bld 2)
GERMANY (Sundstrom): KIE,BER,MUN,swe,stp,nwy (has 6, even)
TURKEY (Levinson): ANK,SMY,CON,bul,sev,ser,gre, (has 11, bld 2)
tun,rom,rum,nap,ven,tri
Neutral: none (Total=34)


Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Fred Wiedemeyer, Box 92010-Meadowbrook RPO, Edmonton, ALBERTA CANADA T6T 1N1,
(780) 465-6432, wiedem of planet.eon.net
ENGLAND: Karl Schmit, 1509 O'Keefe Road, DePere, WI 54115, (920) 338-8402,
diplomacy of new.rr.com ($2)
ENGLAND: Standby is Doug Kent, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228
dougray30 of yahoo.com
FRANCE: Jeff O'Donnell, 1345 Simpson Drive, Hurst, TX 76053
(440) 322-2920 or (440) 225-9203 (cell, as late as midnight Eastern), unclestaush of yahoo.com
GERMANY: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882,
Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net
ITALY: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947,
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org
RUSSIA: Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044, (440) 926-0230,
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Alexandre Levinson, Beeklaan 504, 2562BP Den Haag THE NETHERLANDS, don't need phone,
levinson7 of hotmail.com ($5)


Game Notes:
1) I have been trying to get Karl to submit orders for a while now. So, I can't hold up this issue any more, so we go with the NMR. I'm calling Doug Kent as a standby, but hope Karl returns. Karl needs to get me draft Spring orders by the Winter deadline to keep the position. Other players may make their Winter adjustments conditional on who gets the position, which will be announced with Winter.


Press:
(JEFF O'DONNELL, THE REF SPEAKS): I have an idea on how to solve the N.B.A's problem with gambling and referees.
1. Do not give the ref's a long term schedule so the gamblers can't know where the ref's are going to be in advance. All the ref's need to know is that they will be somewhere.
2. Hire six ref's for each game and have each one prepare to work with pay.
3. Do not let ANYONE know which three of the six will be officiating the game until tip off.
4. Have the selection of which three ref's will work the game done by the same lottery machine that the N.B.A. uses to determine the draft.
5.Do not let the refs use the phone, any phone at halftime. They basically need to be sequestered. With this system there would be no way the gamblers would know which ref to approach. It would also ensure that the officials are rested and will create a competitive spirit among the ref's as they sit on the bench and watch there counter parts work.
p.s. I used to be a high school j.v. basketball ref before I started having physical problems. it was always funny to me to watch how SOME of my fellow refs at the varsity,college and pro level can be so arrogant and often made the same type of mistakes that myself and my fellow j.v. refs would occasionaly make. like federal judges elected for life the apsolute authority that a ref gets even though it's only for a couple of hours causes some of them to cop an attitude. I think that was the mentality of the guy who threw out Tim Duncan. I don't see any real difference between the quality of refs from the college to the pro level. Adding another 76 refs would not lower the quality of the refs and I think it would improve with the competition.


I CAN'T FIND MY MONEY!: 2001F, Regular Diplomacy
TWO WAY DRAW BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY WAS DECLARED!
This one is done now, except I need to do the endgame chart for Tom Howell, as he knows, I'm usually really slow with these, but I'll try to do it next issue.


SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1923 IS FEBRUARY 16, 2008
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1924 IS MARCH 8, 2008
Fall 1923
ENGLAND (Kent): f ENG-lon, a GAS S FRENCH f mar, a PIC-eng (imp),
f MID S FRENCH f spa(sc), f POR S FRENCH f spa(sc).
FRANCE (Sasseville): f MAR S f spa(sc), f SPA(SC) S f mar, a BUR s f mar.
GERMANY (Barno): a ser-BUL.
RUSSIA (Parker): f nwy-NWG, a stp-NWY, f nwg-EDI, f cly-LVP, a WAR h,
a DEN-lon, a KIE S a pru-ber, f NTH C a den-lon, a HOL S TURKISH a bel h, a pru-BER.
TURKEY (Linsey): a arm-SEV, a bul-RUM, f TYH S f wes-gol, a rum-SER, a MUN-bur,
a SIL S a boh-mun, f WES-gol, a BOH-mun, f GOL-mar, a BEL S a ruh, a tri-TYO,
f NAF s FRENCH f spa(sc)-wes (nso), a VEN h, f PIE S f gol-mar, a RUH S a bel.


Supply Center Chart
ENGLAND (Kent): LON,bre,por (has 5, rem 2)
FRANCE (Sasseville): PAR,MAR,spa (has 3, even)
GERMANY (Barno): bul (has 1, even)
RUSSIA (Parker): MOS,STP,nwy,swe,den,ber,WAR, (has 10, bld 1)
kie,edi,hol,lvp
TURKEY (Linsey): CON,ANK,SMY,rum,gre,ser,bud, (has 15, bld 1)
nap,ven,tun,sev,rom,tri,vie,mun,bel
Neutral: none (Total=34)


Addresses of the Participants
ENGLAND: Doug Kent, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228
dougray30 of yahoo.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($0)
roland6 of cox.net
GERMANY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883, (607) 589-4906
mpbarno of lightlink.com
RUSSIA: Vern Parker, 337 Winter Hill Place, Powell, OH 43065, (614) 402-5139
VernDip of aol.com is preferred
TURKEY: Bruce Linsey, PO Box 234, Kinderhook, NY 12106
GonzoHQ of aol.com


Game Notes:
1) The RT Juggernaut draw and the concession to Turkey are rejected.


Press:


CAST NO SHADOWS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules
Rules are at:
http://diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP/Tinamou/rules/BreakingAway.htm
Note the special rules for replenishments on the first turn, and I'm glad the math was double checked, we did have a card error, which is now corrected and we have the first turn below.
DUE DATE FOR TURN 4 IS FEBRUARY 16, 2008
Turn 3
19 (replenish with a 3) Sanctus
18 (no replenishment) Empty
17 (no replenishment) Empty
16 (replenish with a 3) Bonham, Granny
15 (replenish with a 5) Water
14 (no replenishment) Empty
13 (replenish with a 3) Bowie, Travis, Crockett
12 (replenish with a 6) Mideast
11 (replenish with a 7) Kyrie, Xavier, Yorick, Gavrancic, Dragutinovic, Wally
10 (replenish with a 13) Vidic, Krstajic, Kyoto, Drugs
9 (no replenishment) Empty
8 (replenish with a 3) Zorro, Carrot
7 (replenish with a 5) Gloria, Rincewind
6 (replenish with a 7) Agnus, Death


Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (Rick Desper): rick_desper of yahoo.com (0 points)
Team Name: The Turtle Moves; Captained by Cut-My-Own-Throat Dibbler
A: Rincewind the Wizzard 14 12 16 5 (3)
B: Granny Weatherwax 12 11 3 (11)
C: Captain Carrot 15 11 3 (3)
D: Death 13 20 7 (3)
(note, Rincewind is accompanied by the Luggage, Granny is on Her Broom, Carrot is of the City Watch, and Death is just DEATH!)
Total Replenishments: 12+58+18 = 88
TEAM 2 (Tom Howell): off-the-shelf of olympus.net (0 points)
Team Name: Never Ending Worry Source; Manager: Rumour; Team Captain: Ye Olde Manager
A: Water 15 3 16 5 (11)
B: Kyoto 14 7 13 (3)
C: Mideast 11 5 6 (6)
D: Drugs 9 11 13 (5)
Total Replenishments: 12+35+37 = 84
TEAM 3 ((David Partridge): rebhuhn of rocketmail.com (0 points)
Team Name: Famous Four
A: Krstajic 8 15 16 13 (6)
B: Vidic 8 13 13 (3)
C: Gavrancic 8 9 7 (5)
D: Dragutinovic 8 11 7 (6)
Total Replenishments: 12+35+40 = 87
TEAM 4 (Brendan Whyte): obiwonfive of hotmail.com (0 points)
Team Name: The Reverse Alphabeticists
A: Zorro 10 15 11 3 (3)
B: Yorick 10 12 7 (5)
C: Xavier 7 10 7 (5)
D: Wally 10 3 7 (5)
Total Replenishments: 12+26+24 = 62
TEAM 5 (Alexander Woo): aswoo of yahoo.com (0 points)
Team Name: Just Ordinary; Manager: Credo
A: Agnus 15 12 20 7 (3)
B: Sanctus 8 4 3 (3)
C: Kyrie 10 7 7 (5)
D: Gloria 12 16 5 (3)
Total Replenishments: 12+44+22 = 88
TEAM 6 (Andy York): wandrew of compuserve.com (0 points)
Team Name: Alamo
A: Crockett 15 5 3 3 (3)
B: Travis 15 3 3 (3)
C: Bowie 10 3 3 (3)
D: Bonham 3 3 3 (3)
Total Replenishments: 12+12+12 = 36


Game Notes:
1) The rules are on the TAP website in the Tinamou section. Ask if you have any questions. Up above in parentheses is the card you played to get to where you are in the field. The replenishment card is the last card in your list. Be careful to note that the card you played (the one in parentheses) is not available for you, for next turn. Just for fun, I'm going to keep track of total replenishment, by turn, which is a rough measure of how the teams are doing. Of course, it is lining up to get across the sprint and final lines in the right places that really counts. We can calculate an "efficiency score" later, which will be the ratio of scoring points per replenishment. If I'm predicting how the future of this will come out, a 10% score will be really tremendous for this measure.
2) I didn't have orders from many of you, and didn't want to hold up this already egregiously late issue for this game, so for those of you I didn't have orders from, everyone played lowest card. In the end, of course, ALMOST everyone played lowest card, just almost enough to break up the middle of the pack - note the slick move by Wally...


Press:


Personal Note to You:


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.35.
On 05 Feb 2008, 20:05.