THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #358

March 28, 2015


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


E-MAIL/WEB ONLY ISSUE! PDF will be available on the website. We also are being reproduced in Eternal Sunshine.


Web Page Address: http://www.diplom.org/Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html


We continue with the NEW Kendo Nagasaki game, join ANY time, just send me a guess!!!
One could say I'm late because I'm sick, but that really would be wrong, I feel incredibly much better than I did last month, so let me say that first. You also may be coming here to read this knowing what I've already announced in Diplomacy World and that is that after a lot of angst on my part not knowing what was wrong with me, I finally was diagnosed with Cancer of the Small Intestine (Just below the stomach) at the end of February. I'm getting chemotherapy treatment every other week, completing the third treatment this week, with three more to go before reassessment. But my oncologist tells me (and my body is telling me) that the chemotherapy is working really well. I was down to barely being able to consume a pure liquid diet. My stomach processing capacity on "real food" is back to about 50% of normal, so that just means eating six meals a day instead of three, but I'm actually hungry again. And after losing 25 pounds originally, I've gained five pounds back. Nothing ever is guaranteed with the course of cancer and treatment, and of course I'm VIVIDLY aware of the journey I just went on with my best friend in the Diplomacy hobby, Don Williams, that ended so poorly last year, he had a much more global type of intestinal cancer. Mine is more localized, though there are some worrisome "spots" elsewhere that we're going to have to watch as we assess how the chemotherapy progresses. As Steve Cooley says, "We Hate Cancer", and we do. But I'm doing pretty darned well and planning to get through this and move on.
My other good friend Mark Fassio (and the three of us, Don, Mark and me last were together at the Baltimore World DipCon a little over a decade ago) also is an abdominal cancer patient, currently in some optimistic but still dangerous level of recovery. He's been through what I'm doing now, plus other things that may be in my future, like surgery. I certainly welcome prayers and good wishes from you all, and I partly delayed telling you all about this (given what happened to Don) so that I can tell you and also be so much more positive about how everything is going than I was a month ago. For those of you who were with me at TempleCon, where I ran a very encouraging (in the sense of GRABBING lots more people into the FTF hobby) Diplomacy tournament (reported on last issue), I felt REALLY horrible there, about five times worse than I feel right now. The tumor has to be smaller, unless it is just hiding and not bothering me very much, either way, that's fine and it is how I feel that matters.
It took a long time for me (plus various physicians) to figure out what was going on, at least partly because a tumor in this place is relatively rare. You hear a lot about colon cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, all FAR more common, and some of you may not have even thought duodenal cancer (the technical name was even possible). Well, of course it is, and bad luck for me that I have it. But I'm feeling really positive, I had only ONE really bad day so far a few weeks ago since the diagnosis, and mostly feel FAR better knowing what I'm battling. That's much better than NOT knowing. If you send me notes about this, let me know if you'd rather they not be published here, otherwise I will likely publish an array of them next issue as a way of stimulating comments from me. My intention, rather than use Facebook or other platforms to update people on this, is to do the "old fashioned" thing of using my Diplomacy szine to convey monthly information. I may respond to notes as desired/needed, but mostly I will give monthly updates here. Someone way older in both age and hobby experience, Larry Peery, was surprised that was what I plan to do... really, Larry? ;-) What is this thing the Internet? Facebook? Szines are THE thing...
Anyway, I plan to keep doing everything I like doing, which includes all of the hobby things I'm doing. But don't hold me to deadlines. I'm in about five Diplomacy games on various platforms (well, I guess I have to stick to deadlines there, but Michael Cuffaro in particular has found I can be challenged with that, so far) and I will keep playing in all of them (not calling attention to this so if you're in games with me, realize you can talk about it, but some fellow players may not read TAP). I plan on being around for a long time.
This issue continues the szine/subszine inversion. As most of you know, this thing began as a "subszine" to Terry Tallman's North Sealth, West George, then became its own szine with a host of subszines. The subszines remaining will appear as sub-subszines to our flipflopped home in Doug Kent's Eternal Sunshine. Doug's incessant nagging is not keeping us on schedule, but will make it so we keep going. I'd like to keep writing and doing some game GMing (note that has been expanding). I'm set on the GMing, and I'm starting to write a bit, hope there might be more. Doug may or may not be winding down, I may have to flip that back around again and be the centerpiece for all the subszines, we'll see. My intent right now is to do that. Feel free to communicate with me about how you want to do that, or if anyone else wants TAP subszine status.
For production, in addition to the HTML's of each separate product on the web page, I will also have a PDF that you can print of the entire subszine (including my famous handdrawn maps!). You can just print the maps if you like, but remember maps are for pikers anyway, you don't need no steenkin' maps, keep them up in your head where they belong.
The Diplom.org site has moved. Chris Babcock and Mario Huys are now in charge. It all went pretty well, all things considered, and most of you probably didn't even notice it was happening. But if you find you cannot access the website with the PDFs and HTMLs of all the past issues... well, please let me know and we'll fix it. If you looked before, I was having some problems with updating, but I've corrected them, so you should be able to see everything there. The address is still: http://diplom.org/.
There are currently 75 members of the official TAP subscriber list, but that's down because in the move, there were some addresses dropped, including my brother and Paul Rauterberg. I'm not sure why. They need to resubscribe. http://lists.asciiking.com/mailman/listinfo/tap is the new list website. YOU need to make sure you're on this list. There you can check your subscribing options and whether you're registered. Register if you want to get TAP.


THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE FEATURES SECTION (CONS/LETTERS/MUSIC)
((For upcoming cons around the world: http://www.diplom.org/Face/cons/index.php, but note that some of the Americans have stopped posting the tournaments there. Shame, shame, shame... with the move of the diplom.org site, I hope this will be reinvigorated. TempleCon was an incredible success, we did get to three boards on Saturday morning, and had scads of new players to tournament Diplomacy. See the full report immediately below. World DipCon in Milan is getting lots of Facebook discussion lately, I can't make it, but I hope some of you can. It will be a GREAT time!!! For more details, contact Davide Cleopadre through the WDC web site: http://www.signoridelgioco.it/index.php?option=com_seminar&Itemid=53. Closer to home, the next up con on the North American circuit is the CodCon that Jim O'Kelley and the Windy City Weasels run: http://windycityweasels.org/codcon9. ))


NEW FEATURE: ROCK AND ROLL BANDS AND MOMENTS THAT MATTER
((If anyone from TAP or ES has ideas for more things to talk about here let me know. I do have five or six ideas lined up here already that I just have to write.
With everything else going on, I don't have any of those organized yet, but I did have one of my colleagues and Facebook friends remind me this week of an evening at a bar in 1981 or 1982 when I was a particular dancing fool... I instantly recalled the evening and the singer and band motivating that was Mark Cutler and the Schemers, one of my favorite local bands of that era that really should have scored nationally, but never quite did. I pulled out their compilation CD, Remember, which I don't believe you can get anywhere now, but you can listen for free from Mark Cutler's site on MySpace. Anyway, had some great car commuting time listening again to brilliant songs like "Red Thunderbird", "High Fashion Girl", and "I Want Some Fun".))




THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE LETTERS SECTION
Help me out by sending something! This issue is likely to generate some comments, which I will print unless noted otherwise, so please note if you don't want me to print something. Otherwise, as I say above, I may use your letter as some fodder for commentary that I want to make on things or other. What we DO have is the annual baseball preview comments, from our intrepid group of baseball commentators... as you will see at the end, a flurry of back and forth comments last night (as I type) closed up the issue with me sending this out Saturday morning rather than Friday night as I had promised some of you...


Doug Kent (Thu, Apr 2, 2015 at 2:11 PM)
my picks:
AL
East: Toronto, Baltimore, Boston, TB, Yankees.
Central: Detroit, Chicago, KC, Minnesota, Cleveland.
West: Seattle, Oakland, Texas, LA, Houston.
NL
East: Miami, Washington, Atlanta, Philly, Mets.
Central: –- best division in MLB - Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cubs, Milwaukee.
West San Diego, LA, SF, Arizona, Colorado.
World Series will be Pittsburgh vs Detroit.
Doug, dougray30 of yahoo.com


Warren Goesle (Thu, Apr 2, 2015 at 7:16 PM)
I actually did some research on MLB this year, and while I can't promise that my picks will be any better than my NCAA picks (2 Final 4, including my overall champ, out in the first weekend), it's at least a sport I know something about...
NL East: What the heck happened in Philadelphia and Atlanta? Nats, Mets (WC), Marlins, Braves, Phillies.
NL Central: Hey! The Cubs are back to the point where they can break my heart in September instead of May!!! Still a year away though. Cards, Cubs (85-77), Pirates, Brewers, Reds.
NL West: Sooner or later I'll get this one right: Dodgers, Giants (WC), Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies.
AL East: What if they gave a division and no one won? I think everyone except the Rays could be a Wild Card, but I don't think any of them are world beaters. Blue Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Rays.
AL Central: Sooner or later my Cleveland friends won't be influencing me. Indians, Tigers (WC), White Sox (also 85-77), Royals, Twinkies.
AL West: One of these years this division will make sense. This won't be it. Mariners, Angels (WC), A's, Rangers, Astros.
Seattle over Washington in the WS.
Take your best shots. Goz, warrengoesle of wowway.com


Rick Desper (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 10:35 AM)
For some reason the Red Sox purged their locker room of all their best starters last summer. I didn't understand why they did that. They could use Jon Lester right about now. Or John Lackey or even Felix Doubront. (I won't go as far as to say Jake Peavy.) But hey, they've got a lot of hitting now! Every week they seem to find a new Cuban to join the team. But apparently Rusney Castillo isn't going to start because Farrell is old school and going to keep starting Victorino, who's had a dreadful spring. Well, he'll be injured soon enough.
I have no idea what's happening in baseball these days - apparently the Nats added Bond villain Max Scherzer to their already-great rotation. (You can tell he's a Bond villain because his eyes are different colors.) If the Sox had the Nats' pitching or the Nats had the Sox' hitters, that would be an awesome team. Also, if I had wings and webbed feet, I would be a duck. ((Quack, quack, always makes me think of Don....))
I predict large market teams will dominate, small market teams will be plucky, and 10,000 trolls will continue to insist that David Ortiz must have done PEDs in 2003 because some anonymous phone caller told them so.
Rick, [email protected]


David Partridge (Thu, Apr 2, 2015 at 8:52 PM)
Just to make it official, *I* am picking the Boston Red Sox, . . . to fail miserably.
Dave, [email protected]
((OK, well, THAT'S encouraging. I am quite torn about the Red Sox, but I'm NOT going to take Dave's position. With my other favorite team, the SF Giants, it's an odd year for them, which always means THEY fail miserably. So, I'm going to go with the model that pushes the Red Sox forward and restrains myself on the Giants. We'll see how that works out for me. Now to MY useless predictions.
AL East: Red Sox (yeah, really! I honestly don't understand why anyone's that worried about the rotation, the Red Sox WILL make a deadline trade, and everyone thinks [with lots of reason] that this will be a really active midseason deadline trade market, plus they have this secret weapon knuckleballer that we've been watching in Pawtucket for some time [Steven Wright] who could turn out as good or better than Tim Wakefield and Matt Barnes also has looked great. And the hitting is going to be incredible, it will be fun to watch), Orioles (WC, the Orioles showed the way to how to win without an "Ace" which seems to be the biggest knock on the Red Sox this spring, they will be real good this year too, but not as good as the Sox. Matt Wieters has to come back and show Christian Vasquez how catcher Tommy John surgery can work, and same with Machado and Davis.), Blue Jays (Great young new pitchers on the Blue Jays, they could upset the apple cart ahead of them, if they can support the strong hitting.), Rays (Unfortunately, a shadow of the Rays teams of the past, the loss of one of the top 5 managers in baseball most definitely doesn't help), Yankees (Can we all root against Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira? Won't have to, they'll break down on their own, ditto with Tanaka and Sabathia.).
AL Central: Indians (I'm going with Goz's friends on this one! Plus, I still love Terry Francona. Watch Corey Kluber and the rest of that rotation, especially Trevor Bauer and TJ House - like the Red Sox, there are questions, but I think they will be resolved.), Tigers (Aging, yes, but I think they squeak into second, but not enough for a WC. We had to trade them Yoenis Cespedes, and he will be pretty good, but NOT as good as "our" Cubans...), Royals (Too many losses, small market teams make their run and then come back to earth), White Sox (I'm probably underrating them, they added a lot of people.), Twins (Watch their young hitters, but still last, Ervin Santana's penalty won't help.).
AL West: Mariners (Taijuan Walker got a huge amount of buzz out there in the Cactus League this spring, we haven't really seen him in action, but if he is the real deal to add to a much better lineup and King Felix plus Hisashi Iwakuma this could be a World Series team, I'm not quite picking them to go there, but they're on the edge), A's (WC, I always like the A's to find a way, and I think they will again given all the other weakness and uncertainty around the AL. The whole team seems different again, and some young guys like Mark Canha and Billy Burns had great springs, Coco Crisp's injury should only keep him out the first month or so.), Angels (expect MORE upheaval like they've had this week with Hamilton, this will be the soap opera team of the West), Astros (yes, Houston is finally accumulating enough young talent to make some noise - could be a surprise challenger for a while and beat out a wiped out Angels team), Rangers (sorry, Doug, but this team is a mess, not sure what they're doing or why).
NL East: Nationals (Gotta be the WS odds on favorite... best rotation in baseball, really good lineup, nuff said), Mets (Matt Harvey looks good and a great mix of experience and some great young players, could be a WC), Marlins (drifiting down, not exciting, classic team of thinking they're better than they are, though Giancarlo Stanton should have another great year), Braves (WOW, in rebuild mode for the first time in 25 years! Not much here, but anything will beat the Phillies... they need to keep Craig Kimbrel until they get good again and have great young pitchers - keep the eye on Alex Wood! They are all young, then they just need to find a lineup, but not this year), Phillies (when or when and who or who will get Cole Hamels, the smart money always is on the Yankees, unfortunately, which could upset the applecart where I hae them finishing last in the other East. But the Yankees will get off to a poor enough start to dampen their interest in Hamels, and the Red Sox still might get him - or the Phillies may blow it and not ever get the deal they want, in other interest, who will they trade Papelbon to? The Red Sox apparently have a small amount of interest in getting him back too. What actually happens on the field, who cares?).
NL Central: Cardinals (the best team in Baseball's best division, they will beat each other up, and a Wild Card will go to the West, but the three of the NL's five best teams clearly come from here. The Cardinals still look like the clear favorite though. Adam Wainwright needs to stay healthy though.), Pirates (WC, this team has a lot of good feelings about itself, and they could make another leap this year; A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano are the keys to anchoring the rotation, but I think they again to WC and the one game risk), Cubs (as Goz says, the Cubbies will battle for a WC this year, perhaps, but fall short. The tough teams in this division will beat each other up a bit. The big news at the end of training camp was a bit of roster manipulation, just what Theo likes to do to Scott Boras, but that won't matter much. The real issues are that they still have some rotation and lineup holes and not enough experience, but they'll get it this year), Brewers (solid fourth place team, if Ryan Braun stays on the field, he'll have another monster year, possibly MVP level, and I like Wily Peralta's chances at a great year in the rotation. But they won't challenge enough to move up, I don't think.), Reds (This is NOT a last place team, but is by default in Baseball's best division. They didn't make a lot of changes, but already had a good team that had 2014 injury problems, if they don't trade away Cueto and have some good injury luck, they can finish second easily, so watch out!!!).
NL West: Dodgers (let's get it straight, I hate everything about the Dodgers, but there they are), Padres (WC, Along with some others around here, we are the charter members of the Will Middlebrooks fan cl Of course Will won the starting third base job, relegating Yangervis Solarte to the super-sub role he is best suited to, other things are coming together for the Padres, and as long as their three injury prone pitchers: Andrew Cashner, Brandon Morrow, and Josh Johnson mostly stay on the field, they will be a WC shoo-in and beat the bad luck Pirates in the WC game.), Giants (my real favorite team for forever and forever, I'll be rooting, but let's be honest, this is an ODD year and the Giants don't succeed in ODD years. Beyond that, there is some rebuilding to be done and I think they really will end up in third, even as I root all season for the Padres and Giants to bounce the Dodgers out of the playoffs on their butts. Is Casey McGehee a surprise solution? Probably not.), Diamondbacks (Wow, look at all the Tommy John comebacks!!! Nuff said.), Rockies (Some really big offense out of Coors Field, Corey Dickerson in particular!!! Can Carlos Gonzalez make a full comeback? Still, the obvious last place team here.).
WC: Padres beat Pirates; A's beat Orioles
ALCS: Boston Red Sox come out on top, not guessing how, but Mariners likely ALCS opponent if they don't have to beat them in the first round.
NLCS: This is the Nationals year, although I have the Dodgers on top they aren't going anywhere and I don't think the Cardinals have enough. Padres could make it to NLCS to face the Nationals.
World Series: I think the Nationals win, probably NOT against the Red Sox though that's my pick to get there, more likely against the Mariners.... see how I cheated there? Tough, them's my predictions. We now have some more back and forth from our commentators to finish us out.))


Warren Goesle (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 10:48 AM)
I, for one, do not believe that Ortiz started PEDs in 2003. I do believe he stopped using them in 2007.
Goz, warrengoesle of wowway.com


Rick Desper (Friday, April 3, 2015 2:55:59 PM)
Baseball started testing for PEDs in 2004 and Ortiz has passed countless tests, including from the years 2004-2007.
The only reason to think that Ortiz used PEDs is if you look at variation in his stats and think that PEDs are the only possible explanation. But there were injuries along the way, esp. a serious wrist injury that held him back for over a year.
Rick, [email protected]
((I'm more with Rick and in any case VERY circumspect in knowing what other people think we know so certainly. But I'm still a fan of Barry Bonds so feel free to dismiss me out of hand. I'm also an Ortiz fan, unfazed.))


Warren Goesle (Friday, April 3, 2015 5:15 PM)
I would point out that Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte did not fail drug tests. So it seems more than likely that masking agents are 10 years ahead of drug tests. Heck, the masking agents could probably keep MLB from detecting Red Kool-Aid in Jim-Bob's system.
Goz, warrengoesle of wowway.com
((I've got lots of other cool things in my system, check out today's DW and TAP tonight.))


Rick Desper (Friday, April 3, 2015 5:19:29 PM)
"So it seems more than likely that masking agents are 10 years ahead of drug tests." Well, there weren't any drug tests before 2004. 2004 was also Bonds's last MVP season. In 2005 his OPS plummeted to 1.071, which is admittedly great but is also .350 below his previous season's number.
2004 was also Clemens's last Cy Young season. He managed to also pitch at a high level in 2005 before essentially becoming a part-time pitcher. Were they still on the juice? They didn't have to be. Steroids are for building muscle mass. It's not clear to me how much they are needed to preserve muscle mass, esp. if a person keeps a serious workout regiment.
That brings us to Manny Ramirez, who had his first positive drug test in 2009, for a masking agent. He also had two positive tests in 2011, at which point he retired. My theory about Manny is that he started using when his skills started to decline. After all, he tested negative for five years or more. And as we saw later, he wasn't the most skilled at using masking agents to avoid positive results.
((Best example ever of "Manny being Manny".))
My basic gripe about the 2003 list is that it was based on league-wide testing using a test with an unknown false positive rate. The false positive rate could have been as low as 1% and there still would have been players listed as "positive" simply because of statistical noise. That's what happens when you test over 500 people at once! And that's why that round of testing wasn't supposed to be used to isolate individuals. At one point I did a bit of research on steroid tests, and I think that a 1% false positive rate is likely a low estimate, certainly for what was being used in 2003.
The thing about the false positive rate is that, as long as you don't care about which individuals are testing positive, you can still use such a test to measure the league-wide proportion of players using PEDs. If your false positive rate is 1%, and you test 500 people, and you get, say, 100 positives, that's going to indicate widespread usage. As long as the observed positive rate is much higher than the (known) false positive rate, that's strong evidence.
Rick, [email protected]
((Of course, most people don't understand statistics and what you can conclude from them, which is why people trying to "misuse" them unfortunately are so successful.))


Rick Desper (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 6:05 PM)
For Bonds, Clemens, and Pettite, there is testimony linking them to steroid usage. For Clemens and Pettite, that testimony comes from Pettite himself.
Barry Bonds' trainer at BALCO was a guy named Greg Andersen, who supplied him with "the cream" and "the clear". Bonds claims that Andersen lied to him about what was in these substances. I think it's reasonable to be suspicious about that. Bonds was indicted for perjury for claiming that he hadn't used PEDs.
Brian McNamee was the personal trainer of Clemens and Pettite on the Yankees and has claimed that he provided both of them with steroids. Pettite even admitted this was true, and said that Clemens had also used them. Curiously, when called upon to testify under oath about Clemens, who was facing Contempt of Congress charges, Pettite's memory became faulty.
Sammy Sosa was apparently on the same list as Ortiz, and there is no other evidence against him. However, he is known to have used a corked bat, and has not protested his innocence as vehemently as Ortiz.
I would say that the evidence against Clemens is pretty strong. Pettite has admitted to steroid use. As for Bonds, it really requires a good deal of credulousness to think that he had a trainer who was giving other people steroids, but Bonds didn't know about the steroids in what he was himself getting. Also, the Bonds power surge at the age of 36 in 2001 is nothing like we've seen from any other player, ever. From 2001 to 2004, Bonds was the best hitter in the history of baseball. Over the prior 9 years, he had been an elite slugger, with OPS above 1.00 and above 1.1 a couple times. His OPS starting in 2001: 1.379, 1.381, 1.278, 1.422. What baseball player peaks in his late 30s?
In contrast, the statistical changes with Ortiz have non-suspicious explanations. His numbers for the Twins were lower because it was known he couldn't hit an inside curveball. When he got to Boston, he did the work to fix that weakness, and became a much better hitter. He had a dip later in 2008 and 2009 relating to a serious wrist injury. As the wrist healed, he got his power and bat speed back.
If anybody wants to take the same attitude with Sosa that I take with Ortiz, that's fine with me. There's not a lot of evidence there. But there's plenty of evidence against Bonds and Clemens.
Rick, [email protected]
((Yeah, my feelings about Bonds are complex, and go way back to my history as a Giants fan and a Bobby Bonds fan in the 1970's. I think in the end my feelings are best placed in what I always thought was Goz's feelings as well, that the big cohoonie of the Steroids Era was Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig. I am strongly in favor of the idea that "reality is never known, all we have are the rules and the enforcement of the rules" and that's what we should rely on, bastardized and incomplete as they are. Records set under the rules are the records that were set and should be relied on. You can't reinvent history, people made decisions based on the incentives present at the time, one should not reinvent that past based on present incentives. All is different only by degree today.))


Warren Goesle (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 6:57 PM)
Rick, you can pull out any studies or reports that you want, but the basic issue is that MLB has really not had any incentive to have any drug testing that does anything beyond catch an occasional superstar and the more occasional utility infielder. Has that cleaned things up? Yeah, some. Did it catch 100% of the cheaters since 2004? No one believes that. What percentage *does* it catch? No one knows, and MLB isn't interested in knowing. They want drugs to go away, but they still know that if too many superstars get A-Rod'ed the profit goes down. To this point you cannot convince me that the game is clean, only "cleaner". Are Ortiz' numbers from 10 years ago tainted? Can't prove one way or the other, and never will unless he writes a "tell-all".
Goz, warrengoesle of wowway.com


Rick Desper (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 9:28 PM)
Well, there is this old-fashioned thing known as "presumed innocent until proven guilty".
Rick, [email protected]


Warren Goesle (Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 9:57 PM)
Yes, that works well in a court of law. Not so much in the court of public opinion.
And even if it did, what fun would that be?
Goz, warrengoesle of wowway.com


THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE GAMES SECTION
I am continuing to note cut or failed support orders with a small "s" instead of a capital "S". This will make it easier on the E-Mailed version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. The italics DO show on the web page just fine. Since I'm not postal mailing the szine any more, I've dropped back to just reporting the disguised E-Mail addresses. As someone notes, if you need some more contact information, go back to past issues or ask me.
Standby lists:
Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Steve Emmert, Vince Lutterbie, Paul Rauterberg, Doug Kent, Heath Gardner, Paul Kenny, and Hugh Polley stand by for regular Diplomacy. I've pared down the standby list according to who I'm actually in touch with. If I removed you and you want to be added back, just say so. Otherwise, just let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF given the new policies.


GAME OPENING INFORMATION
I'm going to start the game opening list over. Under the new regime, who wants to play what?
SPY DIPLOMACY: Heath Gardner (not sure if that is still active), need at least six more.
REGULAR DIPLOMACY: need seven for another game start.


THE DON WILLIAMS 57 MEMORIAL: 2014A, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1902 IS APRIL 18TH, 2015
Summer 1902
AUSTRIA (Ozog): R f gre-ALB; has a VIE, a TRI, a SER, a BUD, f ALB.
ENGLAND (Wiedemeyer): R f mid-IRI; has f ENG, f IRI, f NTH, a YOR.
FRANCE (Ellinger): has f BRE, a PIC, f MID, a SPA, a BEL.
GERMANY (Abbott): has f DEN, f KIE, f SKA, a HOL, a RUH.
ITALY (Holley): has f NAP, f ION, a TYO, a VEN.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): has f NWY, f SWE, f CON, a GAL, a RUM.
TURKEY (Burgess): has f EAS, f GRE, a UKR, a BUL.


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Eric Ozog, elferic of juno.com
ENGLAND: Fred Wiedemeyer, wiedem of telus.net
FRANCE: Marc Ellinger, mellinger of blitzbardgett.com
GERMANY: Will Abbott, wjja9 of yahoo.com>
ITALY: Melinda Holley, genea5613 of aol.com
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, paul.rauterberg of att.net
TURKEY: David Burgess, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org


Game Notes:
1) Keep on top of this, let me know if I can do anything to make you guys talk more.... write some press!!!


Press:
(BOOB MUSES): Methinks this issue will generate more responses, but really, I'm doing MUCH better than I was doing working on the last few issues. I was late this time mostly just for general insanity of busyness...
(BOOB ALSO SAYS): Yes, this game is a memorial to my dear, dear friend Don Williams, but I'm not planning to go anywhere, you're going to have me for a long time, though none of us knows what the Fickle Finger of Fate has in mind for any of us.


THE PHIL REYNOLDS MEMORIAL: 2006B, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1912 IS APRIL 18TH, 2015
Summer 1912
AUSTRIA (Burgess): has a VIE, a TRI, a RUM, f ANK, a GAL, a TYO, a SER.
ENGLAND (James): has f ENG, f IRI, a LVP, f BEL, a LVN, f MID, a BER,
a WAR, a STP, f BRE, f AEG, f GOB, a KIE, f BAL.
FRANCE (Holley): has f ION, f TYH, a SPA, a GAS, f ADR, f WES, a VEN.
ITALY (Crow): has a ALB.
RUSSIA (Kent): has a SEV, a MUN, a UKR, a BOH.


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: David Burgess, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org
ENGLAND: Drew James, kjames01 of twcny.rr.com or karelanddrew of gmail.com
FRANCE: Melinda Holley, genea5613 of aol.com
GERMANY: Marc Ellinger, mellinger of blitzbardgett.com
ITALY: John Crow, johnny.crow of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: Doug Kent, dougray30 of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Fred Wiedemeyer, wiedem of telus.net


Game Notes:
1) The concession to England fails, we play on. It was a little unclear if the Concession to England was reproposed or not. Feel free to vote for concession and if I get that from everyone, I'll take it.
2) Some Fall orders came in, but nowhere near enough to run the season. Let's see, what happens THIS season?


Press:
(BOOB OPINES SOME MORE): It would be nice if there was press, but I don't want to nag the way Doug Kent does... See what I said above in the Don Williams game too.


FOR THE MEKONS ET AL.: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 16 IS APRIL 18TH, 2015!!
Turn 15: Andy and Hank finish first and second and FINALLY get some points!!!
124 (finished) Sam Vimes (16)
123 (finished) None
122 (finished) None
121 (finished) Jean Van de Velde (20)
-F-I-N-A-L- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
120 (no replenishment) None
119 (no replenishment) None
118 (replenish with a 3) Roberto Rojas, Floyd Little
117 (no replenishment) None
116 (replenish with a 3) Jim Brown, Sylvester Carmouche
115 (replenish with a 5) Ryan Leaf,
114 (no replenishment) None
113 (replenish with a 3) Arciszewski
112 (replenish with a 4) Larry Csonka, Ernie Davis
111 (replenish with a 6) Bowie
110 (replenish with a 7) Houston
109 (replenish with a 8) Haymitch Abernathy, Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen, Travis
108 (replenish with a 12) Effie Trinket
107 (no replenishment) None
106 (no replenishment) None
105 (no replenishment) None
104 (no replenishment) None
103 (no replenishment) None
102 (no replenishment) None
101 (no replenishment) None
100 (no replenishment) None
99 (replenish with a 3) Mustrum Ridcully
98 (no replenishment) None
97 (no replenishment) None
96 (replenish with a 3) Dziewulski
95 (no replenishment) None
94 (no replenishment) None
93 (replenish with a 3) Moist von Lipwig, CMOT Dibbler
92 (no replenishment) None
91 (no replenishment) None
90 (no replenishment) None
89 (no replenishment) None
88 (no replenishment) None
87 (no replenishment) None
86 (no replenishment) None
85 (no replenishment) None
84 (no replenishment) None
83 (no replenishment) None
82 (no replenishment) None
81 (no replenishment) None
-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
80 (replenish with a 3) Cwierczakiewiczowa
79 (no replenishment) None
78 (no replenishment) None
77 (no replenishment) None
76 (no replenishment) None
75 (no replenishment) None
74 (no replenishment) None
73 (no replenishment) None
72 (no replenishment) None
71 (replenish with a 3) Crockett
70 (no replenishment) None
69 (no replenishment) None
68 (no replenishment) None
67 (no replenishment) None
66 (replenish with a 3) Barszczewski




Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (Hank Alme): cobblers of gmail.com (16 points)
Team Name: Vetinari's Terriers; TEAM CAPTAIN: Sam Vimes
A: Moist von Lipwig (3) 3, 3, 3
B: Mustrum Ridcully (4) 3, 3, 3
C: Sam Vimes (14) FINISHED SECOND
D: CMOT Dibbler (3) 3, 3, 3
Total Replenishments: 47 + 32 + 30 + 42 + 16 + 19 + 12 + 17 + 28 + 16 + 23 + 24 + 27 + 13 + 9 = 355
TEAM 2 (Andy Bate): andydbate of gmail.com (20 points)
Team Name: Racing Froggy; TEAM CAPTAIN: Jean Van de Velde
A: Jean Van de Velde (10) FINISHED FIRST
B: Roberto Rojas (14) 7, 4, 3
C: Sylvester Carmouche (13) 5, 5, 3
D: Ryan Leaf (12) 10, 5, 5
Total Replenishments: 18 + 29 + 42 + 52 + 21 + 29 + 17 + 27 + 46 + 26 + 23 + 34 + 30 + 17 + 11 = 432
TEAM 3 (David Burgess): burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org (25 points)
Team Name: Syracuse Orangemen
A: Ernie Davis (15) 3, 3, 4, 4
B: Jim Brown (15) 9, 12, 3
C: Floyd Little (17) 6, 12, 3
D: Larry Csonka (14) 3, 3, 4
Total Replenishments: 79 + 55 + 19 + 29 + 17 + 14 + 12 + 29 + 22 + 20 + 13 + 21 + 61 + 31 + 14 = 436
TEAM 4 (Rick Desper): rick_desper of yahoo.com (48 points)
Team Name: District 12
A: Katniss Everdeen (7) 7, 4, 4, 8
B: Haymitch Abernathy (7) 5, 6, 8
C: Peeta Mellark (7) 3, 4, 8
D: Effie Trinket (6) 7, 7, 12
Total Replenishments: 92 + 90 + 16 + 12 + 16 + 28 + 15 + 15 + 17 + 13 + 15 + 18 + 16 + 28 + 36 = 427
TEAM 5 (Brendan Whyte): BWHYTE of nla.gov.au (1 point)
Team Name: The Reverse Polish Notationists (a.k.a. The Unpronounceables)
A: Arciszewski (19) 3, 11, 4, 3
B: Barszczewski (3) 3, 3, 3
C: Cwierczakiewiczowa (3) 3, 3, 3
D: Dziewulski (9) 3, 3, 3
Total Replenishments: 50 + 46 + 14 + 14 + 15 + 17 + 17 + 21 + 14 + 12 + 19 + 20 + 28 + 13 + 12 = 312
TEAM 6 (Andy York): (4 points)
Team Name: Team Alamo
A: Travis (7) 3, 3, 3, 8
B: Crockett (3) 3, 3, 3
C: Bowie (6) 4, 3, 6
D: Houston (3) 3, 3, 7
Total Replenishments: 44 + 65 + 20 + 31 + 15 + 19 + 13 + 13 + 21 + 17 + 21 + 20 + 23 + 16 + 24 = 362


Game Notes:
1) The rules are on the TAP website in the Tinamou section. Ask if you have any questions. Rules at:
http://www.diplom.org/Postal/Zines/TAP/Tinamou/rules/BreakingAway.htm
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 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 (40/80) and final (120) 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 based on doing this before, about half the players will get scores below 5% and getting better than a 10% score will be really tremendous for this measure.


Press:
(DISTRICT 12): Looks like Team Froggy should be dominating the final sprint.
(BICYCLING MASTER): We have six more point scoring slots to go, and that should happen next turn. Remember that you DO NOT want the lowest card default, so send me orders!!!
(BICYCLING MASTER LOOKING BACKWARD): We now have SEVEN riders dropped from the pack, that might be near a record! No one else will be dropped before we're done, maybe even just one more turn, if six more riders get across.
(BICYCLING MASTER LOOKING FORWARD): Yes, well assuming we finish next time (and we should unless you guys screw up royally), this will be the last calculation of total replenishments and then I'll calculate the efficiency score next time. In terms of total replenishments, we rank like this. Rick, David, and Andy Bate are the top three, but I don't think the final order will be David, Andy Bate, then Rick in third as you rank in total replenishments, but we will see. Andy York and then Hank Alme come next in that order in total replenishments, but look like they'll flip in points. Brendan looks like he trails the field in both. Again, final orders matter though, clearly. Good luck, riders!!!




WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KENDO NAGASAKI
DEADLINE FOR TURN 4 IS APRIL 18, 2015, JOIN UP!!!
Kendo Nagasaki for me comes from the series in Eternal Sunshine... The full rules for Where in the World is Kendo Nagasaki are in: http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/es58.pdf. Send a guess!!!


TURN 1
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
No Guess This Time Julius Gaius Caesar in Lugdunum, Gallia (Lyon, France)

Hank Alme: Marc Ellinger:
Ho Chi Minh in Dallas, TX Benjamin Franklin in Istanbul, Turkey

Conrad von Metzke:
Sultan Sir Muda Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, in the Castro district of San Francisco

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: You died about two centuries before I did.




TURN 2
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
No Guess This Time Ray Atkeson in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Hank Alme: Marc Ellinger:
Pearl Bailey in Sofia, Bulgaria Suetonius in Trieste, Italy

Conrad von Metzke:
Richard Nixon in Jerusalem

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: I was born less than a decade after you.


TURN 3
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Trayvon Martin in Tyrone, Missouri Janet Hill Gordon in Canton, China

Hank Alme: Marc Ellinger:
Bob Ross in London, England Henry Mancini in Nicosia, Cyprus

Conrad von Metzke: Rick Desper:
No Guess This Time Gronk in Foxboro, Massachusetts

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: Sorry, wrong gender, and no transgenders here...


LAST WORD:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion-albany/obituary.aspx?n=james-francis-burgess&pid=174494215
So, another thing going on in my life lately has been the passing away of my father. I've heard some of the rest of you describing what that has meant to you, and for me of course that is still evolving. I've accepted this was where we were going quickly with him for at least six months. He had his own (as they all are) type of Lewy Body Dementia that took one of the most social and communicatively engaged people I've ever known (though he was old school, never got into this cell phone internet age much) and put him in a silent world where he understood fully who everyone was and what was going on, but couldn't really speak or communicate much. He fought hard and tried to stay positive (again, something I am experiencing and understanding really well right now), but through December of 2014 realized he wasn't going to get better and then slowly came to accept what was happening. Since among the many things I study as a Health Economist is palliative care, and I've gone through these issues a number of times in my wife's family, I then knew what the process was going to be.
I think it worked as well as such things can for my brothers (I have three, you mostly all just know David), my mother and the rest of the family, but so many of us do not understand how "passing away" in our society works these days. He ended up having only one real hospital stay in his life (at the early part of the very end over his fractured elbow from a fall) and passed away quietly in the middle of the night with my mother at his side. If you look at my Dad's obituary and of course that only partly describes his life, you will note how I (as best I could) tried to sum up his life in my remarks at his funeral. Buried in the long obituary is one of his achievements he was most proud of, getting the Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow as an adult leader in the Boy Scouts of America. As a scout, though I am an Eagle Scout, I only got to the Brotherhood Honor in the Order of the Arrow (OA), but OA was very important to me as well. In thinking about this in his life and my own, I realized how much the "Leadership in Service" challenge of the Vigil Honor defines our approach to such a large amount of what he did and what I continue to do. I'll miss my Dad incredibly and I thank so many of you who already have passed along condolences.


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On 04 Apr 2015, 13:09.