I WAS A TEENAGE SWILNEWS!
(November 22, 1991)

     Nominations for the next victim, er, president of SWIL will be held
this Saturday at the meeting. Come one, come all. We could also use a
volunteer to take over as treasurer I believe.
     The absolute final deadline for t-shirts is this Saturday at noon or
so. If you want a reunion shirt or a reprint, you should call Bhadrika at
328-3582. And then next spring we do it again with the regular shirt. Start
thinking of possible slogans/designs now.
     Events coming up early next semester are the inaugural filksing (the
weekend after we get back) and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Melissa
Shaner is running the Massacre this year, so she'll be harrassing people
about that at some point. Also, submit to Melissa! She's main editor for BEM
this year so any stories you have should be given to her.
     PhilCon has come and gone. If you're interested in what happened you
can ask any of the 8 students who went. (Gee, given the pattern we've had we
can expect 16 to go next year.) I've got a whole bunch of fliers for future
cons (including next year's PhilCon) if people are interested.
     Review: _Second Contact_ by Mike Resnick (Reviewed by Jeff Hildebrand).
The historic first meeting of men and aliens has been a much used topic in
science fiction, but this book puts a mild twist on it. The meeting went
horribly wrong and though there was no great galactic war or such, humanity
has developed a bit of xenophobia. Thus what would be a fairly standard spy
story develops new twists when the spies are supposedly aliens. The twist is
enough to keep the plot from being totally routine and the book is written
in a lively style which keeps it going. It's a quick, light read which is
perfectly enjoyable, but there is little substance to it.
     Recent meetings have been visited by the spirit of Thomas Hart Benton,
the famous American Regionalist painter, (or at least so the attendance list
says) so we have a decision to make. At this point we may go ahead and
dismember it, or we may try and exorcise it instead. Anyone who brings holy
water on Saturday can help in the latter if we do it. Attendance from the
meeting 11/16/91: Josh "Understudy/Terrorist/Magnet" Smith, Andrea "Yeah for
furry animals" Hall, Charles "Not related or in any way affiliated with the
NRA" Danforth, Peter "Furry Animals eat hot death with grenades especially
cute ones..." Wagner, Topher "furry Peters should watch out for near-sighted
proclaimed non-NRA members toting his grenades", Deb "Can I do my primal
scream _now_" Holtzman, Josh "Waffle structure" Burdick, Thomas Hart
"Jackson Pollack studied under me" Benton, the famous American Regionalist
painter, Neil "bending spoons with my mind" Banas, Eric "Help, we're being
invaded. Man the strange behavior, we'll scare them away yet."  Nute, Peter
"Looking for a witty quote to read? Ha! I scoff in your face!!" Wong, David
"Zen is like Kansas" Randalloy, Geoff "Insect Void" Noer, Deb "Here in
spirit" Barolsky, Charles "Reports of my attendance are greatly exaggerated"
Deily, Helene "I'm no longer a physics major but I still have a physics exam
to do this weekend!  AAAHHH!" Muller-Landau, Susanusaphus, Marcus Lucius
Publicus, Kendra "thoaring it over the baboon" Eshleman, jere7my "Get that
ice cube out of my ear" tho?rpe, David Auer