Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 17:02:58 -0400
To: _swat.org.swil @ cc.swarthmore.edu
From: jthorpe1 @ cc.swarthmore.edu
Subject: SWILnews #2: the Larch

        Once again, thanks to the miracle of modern communications
technology, you are about to be kept up-to-date on SWIL happenings for
this
past week.  Oh, lucky you.  If you'd like to get off this list, just let
me
know (at jthorpe1) and it will be done.  And now, in no particulate
order:

        The George C. Hurliman Memorial Library Memorial Library may or
may
not have found a home.  We have apparently been promised space somewhere
in
Tarble, but, thanks to Heisenberg, we do not know exactly where.
(Consider
yourselves lucky--if we _did_ know exactly where George would be, we
wouldn't know how fast it would be going.  Now _there's_ a problem with
a
library.)  More news will be relayed as it becomes available.

        Andrea Hall is the lucky soul organizing the trip to the
Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on Saturday, September 25th.  If you'd
like
to hop on this bandwagon, let her know (or sign up on the
soon-to-be-posted
sign on the SWIL bulletin board).  I know nil about cost, etc., but
hopefully Andrea does.  We'll question her at gunpoint this coming
SWILmeeting.

        Some of us are visiting PhilCon (a Philadelphia science fiction
convention) in mid-November (12,13, or 14, I think).  The cost will be
$25
until tomorrow, at which time it will magically become $30.  I fear we
won't be able to get the reduced rate, since a) some of us are short on
cash right now and b) I didn't get on the ball fast enough.  Sorry... 
Anyway, there will be a sign-up list again at Saturday's meeting.

        In the Exceedingly Neat news department, SWIL now has a folder
on
the Campus Organizations server (hoorah!).  Within you can find filks,
old
SWILnewsi, Pterodactyl Hunt rules, TV show episode guides, etc., etc.
It's
fun to browse through.  If you have anything you'd like to add, talk to
Charles Danforth about the password (which I don't know...Hmmmm....).
Many
people in Beardsley can help you find the server if you are new to
networked computers.

        Lesley Tsina IS Hunt Organizer FOR The 1993 Annual Pterodactyl
Hunt.  This night of carousing and whapping people with newspaper will
transpire in October sometime (I'd imagine), and will hopefully be
marked
by a Very Firm explanation of the rules to all players involved, plus
stricter rules for misconduct, hopefully involving Security.  It can be
a
very fun night of wackiness for all involved, but many think that this
year
we may have to put more emphasis on disciplined wackiness, so as to
avoid
unpleasantries.

        Definite Plans for the Spring reunion will be forthcoming in the
near future--people can help speed this along by telling me how to get
in
touch with the Forum for Free Speech, so we'll know whether we can
schedule
Mike Jittlov for the same time.  Suggestions for the reunion have
already
started flying in from none other than dinosaur Laura Ann Almasy, so it
may
actually be almost official!  Kendra (organizer) needs help organizing,
however--she will be recruiting little helpers soon.

        The Prisoner episode this week will be "A,B and C", #3 in the
series.  Be at ML4201 at 1:15 on Saturday if you'd like to watch it...

        Of course, it's never to early to start thinking about writing
for
BEM (the Buge Red--oh, sorry, Bug Eyed--Magazine).  Submit to Stephen
Sample.

We have another review (this is so exciting!) by none other than the
Rooftop Cavalier himself, Charles X. Danforth:

SNOW CRASH by Neil Stephenson (sp?):
Really quite a cool book by a more-or-less neophyte to the fiction
arena, Snow Crash is nothing if not full of neat ideas.  OK, so the main
character is named Hiro Protaganist and runs around wearing lots of
black
clothing, computers and a pair of swords, but there are a great many
unique
bits.  The US has been overrun by small, franchised burbclaves each with
its own laws, customs, and police forces.  The Mafia, having been put
out
of the organized crime business by the new meaninglessness "crime" is
now
left to organize a franchize of psuedo old-world Italian neighborhoods
called Nova Sicilia not to mention the Cosa Nostra pizza delivery
(featuring the fastest and best-armed people on the highways:  Your pie
in
30 minutes come hell or high water or minor act of God).  Messenger
service
is provided by kids on teched-up skateboards and magnetic harpoons, and
freon is a controlled substance.  There are lots of cool gadgets for the
techies such as myself, a nice, realistic, and terribly neat sounding
cyberspace world, and a virus running around which affects any system it
gets near, electronic or biological.  The ancient gods make a cameo
appearance as does the USS Kenedy.  Sure there are some kind of fishy
bits,
but they are not altogether unbelievable.  All in all, Stephenson has
managed to create an extremely plausible world of the not too distant
future which makes for quite an exciting read.

        And, hey!  There are those of you out there who stand a very
good
chance of becoming non-members of SWIL right quick if you show up at the
next meeting (being your third consecutive).  The potential dismemberees
are (bump-badada- BUM-bum-bump-BAAAAA!):
        Megan Hallam
        Larry Miller (treasurer and VP in charge of Moist Towelettes)
        Julianna Patrick
  and   Colin Schatz    (as Alice)

        Be prepared to prove your sentience if you have the wherewithal
to
appear.  (Where _is_ my withal, anyway?)

        That sums up all the news that's pit to frint, so I shall bid a
fond adieu to you all.  But let me leave you with something to remember
this SWILnews by...a touching ballad I like to call...The Attendance
List. 
Maestro?

ATTENDANCE for 9:11:93
Josh "Breakfast of boggies" Burdick [I knew I shouldn't have lent you
Bored
of the Rings. --O]; Don "Lunch of loonies" Lehr [Now _that_ I
understand.
--O]; Samuel "Cloaked" Weiler; Colin "Unable to think of a cool name
right
now" Schatz; Cavan; Robert "Opposable thumbs are a clever idea"
Richardson;
Heather "Now experiencing Virtual Reality" Birothers [Boy, can I not
read
what she wrote. Sorry.  --O]; Beth "Rodney Rogers knows my dad" Bruch;
Justin, Kathy, Julianna {all nameless}; C "the lord x or y" D; Megan
"living for Star Trek" Hallam; Lesley "Digital Watches are an even more
clever idea" Tsina [you amazingly primitive ape-descended life form,
you.
--O]; Kendra "Charlie-infused towelette" Eshleman; Andrea "?--default
quote" Hall; Larry "How Did I become Treasurer?" Miller [Heh heh heh.
--ex-treasurer O]; (Geoff("wish(me(well(at 4:30"(Noer))))));Jeff "first
to
defeat Lord Julius' Goat" Hildebrand

                                                 ----Praefecti Quondam
                                                        Praefectique
Futuri