THE FIRST FRIDAY THE 13TH OF THE YEAR!
HERE'S A SWILNEWS TO CELEBRATE THE OCCASION. (9/13/91)

      For those who haven't checked their calendars, there will be not one,
not two, but three Friday the 13ths during the year.  (Oooh, aaaah) On one
of these, probably the next one (in December) we will hold a Friday the 13th
story reading. Stay tuned.

      Back to more immediate matters. There is a sign-up sheet on the SWIL
board in Parrish for all those interested in going to the Pennsylvania
Renaissance Fair on Sunday September 29th. If you have questions or want
more information talk to Josh Smith.

      The Pterodactyl Hunt wants you to be a monster! Our annual night of
silliness and mayhem is coming up on October 4th (that's a Friday). Although
we have some people to be orcs and hobgoblins and other nasties, we still
need two people willing to become Pterodactyls for an evening. Talk to
Stephen Sample for details. If you have ideas for new and nifty things we can
include in the Hunt, come to the meeting this Saturday and suggest them.

      There may or may not be a filksing this fall. There is some talk of
holding it on October 12th, for those of us who will be braindead after
GREs. (Gratuitous Ruthless Experiments?) 'Tis something else that needs to
be decided at a meeting.

      Philcon is coming up! If you know you want to go, send in your
membership fee now! After September 15th it goes up from $17 to $22. (And
it's $30 at the door, so you save a lot.)  Transportation will be arranged
once we have some idea of how many people are going and how many of those
people have cars.

      We have the potential for lots of mayhem this Saturday as we could
have our first dismemberments of the year. If they show up and prove
sentience the following people will become voting non-members: Beth Bruch,
Charles Danforth, Kendra Eshleman, Andrea Hall, and Robert Richardson. And
if he shows up and proves sentience, Charles Deily will become a Lang
visiting non- member. (Which includes full voting rights.)

	Review: (Review by Jeff Hildebrand, again (this is a hint)) _The
Difference Engine_ by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. For 300 pages this
is a wonderful book. It is an alternate history set in an Victorian England
where mechanical computers have taken hold. (Babbage did design such a
machine in reality, it wasn't built until 6 months ago though.) This has
created a madcap hodge-podge of modern day and Victorian culture which is
very well thought out and executed. However the ending is disappointing. The
plot revolves around a box of mysterious punch cards (which store
information) and while things are explained by the end, the overall feeling
is a lack of fulfillment, a sense of "that's it?" Still, all in all, it's
well worth reading.

	Attendance: Andrea "An Early Bird" Hall, Charles Danforth - no
psuedonym required, Mike en passant (as in not really here but I stuck my
head in) Rothbart, Peter "Pirogie ice cream" Wong, Deb "t-word" Holtzman,
Sean "the boy of summer" Reynolds, David "I'm not fighting, I'm just getting
hit" R, Gloria "Wo serenely wontkers" Wong [it was hard to read sorry], Joel
"Rocket Scientist" Offenberg, Melissa "I suppose smoke detectors have some
real purpose" Shaner, Sylvia Chong, God presents _Peter_ (not Wong), Kendra
"I can't think of a quote" Eshleman, Leif "This bunch of people still
exist?"  Kirschenbaum, Beth "Where are my gloves Maryanne?"  Bruch, Josh
"collecting Conservatives" Smith, Brad "M.C. Escher and the fresh pencil"
Gabe, Dan "employed" Levi, Melissa "'s' is an important letter" Running,
Chris "my watch is beeping" Cobb, Susan Ruff, Sherry Levi, Nao "Little red
wagon", Stephen "blah" Sample, Aaron "I conjugate too!"  Brockett, Annie
Fox, jere7my "_What_ with a videotape?"  tho?rpe, Deb "ye hypocrites (not
you)" Barolsky, Charles "haircut" Deily, Andy "Oh what a rogue and peasant
English major am I!" Perry, Robert Richardson "No comment", Luke "Us?
Civilized? Ha!"  Hankins, Al Hankins as "pops", Morgan Hankins "Pexx",
Linsey Hankins