RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN SWIL
OCTOBER 4, 1991

      The Pterodactyl Hunt is this Friday. (For those getting this via paper
mail, that's tonight!) We have a good compliment of monsters ready to infest
the campus. If you signed up to be a monster, be in Parrish Parlors around 7
o'clock to be armed and armored. If you aren't a monster, show up and play
at any point after 8. There are copies of the rules posted in Parlors and on
the SWIL board in Parrish.

      A mailing list reminder. Any freshlings who haven't shown up to a
meeting or otherwise expressed an interest in SWIL since the activities fair
will be dropped from the mailing list next week unless they are heard from.
And, as always, anyone wanting to switch to e-mail is encouraged to do so,
just tell me.

      The order for the reunion t-shirts is going in real soon (or may
already have gone). Check the SWIL board in Parrish to see if the sign-up
sheet is still there. If it's gone, don't panic, extras are being made.
Things which will be happening at the reunion include filksinging, video
watching, gaming, a SWAPA collation, and more. Details about these things
and plans for more events to be worked out at the meeting this week.

      The Ren Faire trip this past weekend happened. People went, people
returned, beyond that I know little since I wasn't there.  Our next big
off-campus excursion is in November for PhilCon.

      Review: _Desolation Road_ by Ian McDonald (Review by Jeff Hildebrand)
This book is hardly a standard science fiction book.  It's far from the
normal space opera cast of heros and adventurers, instead it details the
history of a small town in a colony on Mars, a town made up of misfits,
down-and-outers and other assorted people. The books succeeds to an extent
in that it makes the characters and their interactions interesting, but it
fails in creating a believable world. For example I have a hard time
believing that the main form of transportation in a thousand years will be
trains, even if they are powered by fusion engines. The book is a worthwhile
effort to be innovative and is probably worth reading for the parts where it
does work, but overall can not be called a success.

      Eric Nute can be dismembered if he shows up to the meeting this
Saturday, and 8 more only have to show up for two more meetings. The
attendance from the meeting on 9/28/91: Dem "Oops I spelled my name wrong
(really truly) - at least it gave me a quote" Holtzman, Josh "Scurry funger"
Smith, Deb "too many Kings!"  Barolsky, Charles "Done!... Or is it?" Deily,
Peter "Take a short 11-hour nap" Wong, Topher "having trouble conforming"
LeRoy [written in arcs and swoops which cannot be replicated], David "Nice
effects, eh?" Randall, Cherry "Life... don't talk to me about life"
Anderson, Josh "Another spoon out of its place" Burdick, Neil "Death is but
a door" Banas, Stephen "Never hit someone with glasses" and Roo "Of course
not: you can't get a decent swing with a pair of glasses" Sample, Nao
"Ba-dum-dum-_shing_" Parkhurst, Kendra "yet another bad breakfast choice"
Eshleman, Eric "J" Nute, Andrea "Look, posters" Hall, David "Where?" Auer,
Jim "Definitely inaccurate" Moskowitz, Melissa "Corroborated by Fran: heh
heh heh" Shaner, jere7my "curses... foiled again" tho?rpe, 48 "The first
calculator non-member?"  SX [Well it'll have to show up for two more
meetings first.], Maeghan "Finally signing but not quite here" Maloney,
Gloria "regressing quite nicely - Hi Nao!" Wong, Don "Still a member" Wells,
Robert "1-1-1-38.4" Richardson, Jason "I can't believe I came to Sharples
again! Ohh my meal is alive" Greenwood, Ayana "only half here" Smith, Andy
"Better Nate than lever" Perry, Jacob "I'll have a beer and a banjo player
for my alligator" Mattison, Mike "Go away, I'm reading SWAPA" Rothbart, Luke
"Cosmic Zap" Hankins, Scandal Master of SWILdom