SWILNEWS: THE PEPSI GENERATION (September 6, 1991) For those who are getting this for the first time and wondering just what the heck it is, this is the weekly newsletter of SWIL, which contains all the information about the wonderful things SWIL is up to. And a reminder, our meetings are every Saturday at noon in the largest reserved room off the center area in Sharples. Everyone is welcome. Our first event of the year is already come and gone. Live Chess happened on Parrish Lawn, followed by Live Checkers. Much fun and silliness was perpetrated. Thanks to Josh Smith for organizing. We've got more events coming up. The annual trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair will be Sunday September 29. Josh Smith is organizing transportation details, so talk to him if you're interested in going. The next Friday, October 4, we will hold the annual Pterodactyl Hunt, a night of mayhem as player battle monsters with newspaper swords in an attempt to capture the Pterodactyls and win prizes. We need people to sign up to be monsters. See Stephen Sample to volunteer. If you're interested in going to Philcon this year, the membership fee goes up after September 15th, so send money now. See the flier on the SWIL board (in Parrish opposite the M-Z mailroom, next to the door out) for full information. Transportation to be arranged later. Coming later this semester will be a fall filksing, plus SWIL the 13th, our second alumni reunion. We are finally going to get the science fiction discussion table going. The first actually meeting will be Thursday September 15th at 9pm in the ML Breakfast Room. The topic is: "Is the single novel a thing of the past?" Come share your opinions. Normally this section of the SWILnews will feature a review of a SF book or movie. Now I can write all the reviews again this semester, but my taste in books is only a subset of the field so how about someone else writing a paragraph review or so and sending it to me huh? But I'll do one to start: _The Gold Coast_ and _Pacific Edge_ by Kim Stanley Robinson: Read these books. They form the last 2/3rds of the Orange County Trilogy. However it is an unusual trilogy in the sense that each of the three books takes place in an alternate future. However they all deal with roughly the same place in the same time. The Gold Coast is a view of what would happen if current society continued without much change, while Pacific Edge is a utopian novel which views a society which has made some changes, but is still tantalizingly believable. Read 'em, they're thoughtful, at times angry, at times hopeful, and at all times fascinating. Attendance from the 8/31/91 meeting: [For those confused by this, this is a SWIL tradition that has taken a life of it's own. An attendance list is passed around at each meeting and people sign it in various humorous ways. The list is then published in the SWILnews for the amusement of all.] Josh "I scoff at your Comm Beamer" Smith, Peter "It's too early in the year to think of a quote" Wong, Andrea -? Hall, Dave "I'm just an average joe" Sobel, Charles "Maroon Avenger" Danforth, Deb "old" Holtzman, Melissa "5 doors opening into my room" Shaner, Chris "The left Chris" Hogendorn, David "Bug-Blatter Seminar of Trotter" Randall, Susannah "Eesh, wish it would rain" Hauze, DebSam "I'm back, I'm back" Barolsky, Charles "Satan's evil twin" Deily, Eric John Nute, Peter Peter Wagner Wagner, jere7my "Oh God. I'm directing Off the Cuff" tho?rpe, Nao "officially a student again" Parkhurst, Jason "I'm not sure I am yet" Greenwood, Wendy "Wendy Waesche" Waesche (this is jejune you know), Jennifer McKinnon, Kristin "What is this" Boesch, Andy "To change majors or not to change majors, That is the question" Perry Aaron "I decline*" Brockett (*puella, puellae,...), Sam "I'm not really joining SWIL am I?" Ehrlichman, Robert "I don't know or care who I am" Richardson, Kendra "What the hell?" Eshleman, Stephen "Keep Tryst" Sample, Beth "" Bruch, Topher "I've been to hell, ask me about it. 501 Drew Ave. 544- 0409" LeRoy, Dan Levi, the Secret Master of SWILdom