INVASION OF THE SWILNEWS SNATCHERS (November 15, 1991) PhilCon is this weekend. If by any chance you want to go but haven't gotten in touch with me so far, let me know and we'll try and squeeze you in a car. Since I'm going to be at PhilCon, this means that the Official Understudy will be running the meeting on Saturday. We may wind up with two speakers this year. We have a chance to get Bruce Sterling here to speak, so if things look reasonable in terms of speakers fees and scheduling, we'll have to go to BC and ask for more money and go co-sponsor hunting. More details as they become available. Judy Moffett will be speaking in the spring regardless of what happens with Sterling. A reminder that the discussion table is happening every Saturday morning right before the meeting. And talk is continuing about trying the student-run science fiction class again. For more details ask around or show up to the meeting. Review: Good News From Outer Space by John Kessel (Reviewed by Jeff Hildebrand) The Millennium is coming and the world is going to end! That's the basic premise of this very weird novel. A reporter for a National Enquirer type news service investigates a fundamentalist preacher who claims that on December 31st, 1999, Jesus will return. The twist is that somehow there are aliens involved in all this. Thus most of the book seems to be a physical and spiritual chase for answers as the date draws near. The road there is at times hysterically funny and at times baffling. I'm not sure that the books succeeds in being satisfying in the end, but it is certainly entertaining. Recommended with reservations. Geoff Noer became the 13th member of the class of '95 to be dismembered last Saturday. Who will be next? Attendance from the 11/9/91 meeting: Nao Parkhurst + Stephen Sample: official Campaign to Welcome New Young Trees to Campus by Hugging Them, Geoff "Membered or dismembered" Noer, David "Schrodinger's Noer?" Randall, Peter "Squishy lemons under the banyan tree" Wong, Deb "opportunity costs??" Holtzman, Dan "buried under english papers" Wells, Melissa "calves will learn to moo" Shaner, Joshua "An Cat Dubh" Mackay-Smith, Susannah "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" Hauze, Chris "no, Deb, accounting costs!" Hogendorn, Kendra "I know hats" Eshleman, jere7my "and four corpulent porpoises" tho?rpe, Maeghan "on time! or under it?" Maloney, Hats: I hate Kendra. So there!, Topher "busy working on obsequies" LeRoy, Josh "Josh" Burdick, Neil "Table tectonics" Banas, Thomas Hart "back again" Benton, the famous American Regionalist painter, Andrea "What's wrong with cute and furry" Hall, Robert "God is a chipmunk" Richardson, Charles "Guilty, guilty, guilty!" Deily, Deb "No sleep again!" Sam, Melissa "'Dentity Crisis' - I remembered!" Running, David "Don't even try" Auer, Jen "fire alarms are the antichrist" Setlow, Luke "fire? Where?? *bounce* *bounce*" Hankins, Cherry "I'm quoteless" Anderson, Josh "Wrack/Subversive/Assassin/Clone" Smith, Aaron "This is only the 2nd meeting I've been to this year!" Brockett, Eric "Oh my God, it's over already" Nute, Andy "Just a minute too soon!" Perry, Synthetic Master of SWILdom