THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY SWILNEWS

     They came, they sucked gravy, they died. The Annual St.
Valentine's Day Massacre went off smoothly with the thugtrons
dispatching the victrons with suddenness, rapidity, and style. All
without disturbing the Security officer who was sitting in the
small room. Thanks to Peter Wagner for organizing and thanks to all
who participated.

     Write for BEM! Submit to Fran! You have until April 1st to
submit to her. If you don't have any stories to submit (or even if
you do) you can submit personally and be an editorial staff slave.
Hopefully BEM will get more submissions than the writing contest
which received only two submissions. It was thus canceled for this
year. It may possibly reappear next fall, this time with better
advertising. So keep copies of anything you submit to Fran and
submit them to the contest next fall.

     Make T-shirt designs! Submit to Nao! [With all these
exclamation points I'm beginning to sound like Piers Anthony.] The
big decision will be made two weeks from this coming Saturday.
Remember, the more designs we have, the more we have to debate.
Then another April 1st deadline, this time for ordering shirts.

     We received diplomatic representatives from Event Horizon, the
UPenn speculative fiction club. They expressed interest in joint
participation in various events. They were also pushing their
shared-world anthology. Be warned, they have no equivalent of SAF
funding and I got the impression that they are looking for any
possible way of raising money.

Review:
Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. If you are a hard-core
FIAWOL (fandom is a way of life) person, this murder mystery may
strike you are rather offensive. On the other hand if you enjoy the
general fandom atmosphere but don't take it too seriously, this is
a hysterical book. McCrumb clearly knows fandom, there are far too
many oblique references slipped in for it to be otherwise. (These
references aren't essential to enjoying the book BTW.) It's not
spectacular as far as murder mysteries go, but the general tone of
this book makes it a lot of fun.

Attendance from the 2/9/91 meeting:
     Susannah Hauze attended her third consecutive meeting and
proved sentience and so became the first new non-member of the
semester. Wendy Waesche can become the second if she shows up for
the next two meetings. And any member can obtain this exalted
status by showing up for three consecutive meetings.
Those at the meeting were: Luke "Die Scum!" Hankins, Joel "Cherry
Soup?", Joshua "Cherry Scum? Die Soup!" Mackay-Smith [But it was
yogurt, honestly. -SMOS], Melissa "that skin that forms on oatmeal"
Shaner, Fran "You and what army?" Altvater, Deb "SMOG" Holtzman
[Another title Deb? -S], Jim "You'll have to wait" Moskowitz [Wait
for what?], Stephen "Petronella in Highland Schottische!" Sample,
Jed ("That's 'gravy-sucking pigs!', Luke.") Hartman, Wendy "Wendy
Waesche" Waesche, jere7my "Sorry, I have a flamingo sticking in my
ear." tho?rpe [so what's it saying?], Helene "I have better things
to do on Valentine's Day, sorry" Muller-Landau, Aaron "I don't
though" Brockett, Greg "Augra, Master of the Known Universe"
Fishbone [yes, but does the known universe know that?], Geoff "I
have another announcement" Hammell, I refuse to be here, Andy
"What's the differ()nce between differance and difference?" (verry
derry-dah) [Hmm, looks like about one letter to me.], Susannah
"I've just been dismembered and I can't believe the waves of
ecstasy rushing over my body" Hauze [Gold star!], Josh "Hannibal?!?
Aahhh!" Smith, Marguerite "the shuggoth killed me" Eisenstein [Well
maybe you can take the place of the person who refuses to be
here.], Silly Master of SWILdom
                                             SMOS