Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1993 18:21:46 -0500
To: _swat.org.swil @ cc.swarthmore.edu
From: jthorpe1 @ cc.swarthmore.edu
Subject: SWILnews #10: Der Mercies

        There be only two Big Exciting News Items this week, and the
first
involves a certain upcoming election.  Yes, that's right, we'll be
choosing
a new SWIL presidential unit on December 11th, and we'll be nominating
them
on December 4th.  (YES, that's this week.)  I believe we have one team
planning to run, but 'twould be nice if we had more, no?  (No offense to
our current proto-nominees.)  This will also be a fine time to choose a
new
Minister of Propaganda (sorry, Lisa).  I will be available for
presidential
consultation all next semester.

        B.E.N.I. #2 involves B.E.M. (aka the Bug Eyed Magazine), which
WILL
be published in the Spring.  Please submit to BEM--poetry, stories,
artwork, research papers, new games--anything speculative and fictional. 
There will be a couple of submissions heading Stephen Sample's way
shortly
(he's organizing this whole thing), and hopefully these will be the
first
of a flood of entries...  Anyone who wants to see an old BEM can ask
nearly
anyone who's been here for a couple of years, or gain access to George.

        Ah, yes, George.  I seem to recall someone saying we have a room
in
Tarble, no?  If this is true, we will commence moving procedures to the
George C. Hurliman Memorial Library Memorial Library before we all go
home
for the winter.  Hopefully we will know for sure (and have a key!) very
soon.

        The reunion has now definitely been scheduled for the weekend
around April 10th.  Make your travel plans with impugnity.  We are
working
towards bringing Mike Jittlov for that time...as the Beatles almost
said,
"All We Need is Funds".

        Come see The Prisoner in ML4201 on Saturday...as usual, I forget
the episode.

REVIEW by jere7my tho?rpe: _The Forge of God_ by Greg Bear
This is a fairly old book (1985), but I've just read it recently and
thus
thought I'd review it.  It's a fairly novel take on the alien invasion
genre, which is interesting in itself, but what makes this novel
worthwhile
is the focus on little human affairs in the face of armageddon.  We get
to
know the U.S. President, two teams of scientists, and a
lower-middle-class
city kid who works to save the world.  There are two passages in the
book
which I thought were some of the most evocative I've recently read; I
can't
tell you what they are, but ask me after you read the book if you'd like
to
know.  It is really a tribute to humanity and the planet we live on, and
after I'd finished I looked at the people around me and the ground under
my
feet (well, bottom, really) and felt something a little bit new for all
of
them.  It is not the most original book of all time, but I was very
taken
by it.  My only advice is: don't read the critics' comments in the
beginning of the book, because they contain many spoilers which leave
parts
of the book flatter than they could have been.  As usual, if you'd like
to
read it, it's in the ML4201 library under "B".  I've just started the
sequel, which is different but good...

And now...
IVRASSIC SWIL: 20 NOV 1993 C.E.
_Dance At Ten_
Robert "List (flying, paralyzed, twiddles bears)" Richardson; David "Not
all here." Auer; Josh "Juggernaut.  Not." burdick; Jeremy "I'm alive,
even
though I'm coffin." Dilatush; Sylvia W. Rider; Justin P. Rider; Cage ();
dave "Velocirapture" Szent-Gyorgyi '83; Justin (not the dinosaur)
Giacoletti; Kristin "Sims" Walker; Anna (Anka) Steingart; Sherry
"Hartenstine" Levi; Geoff "introducing myself" Noer; Elizabeth "Not a
not-Chuck" Christian; Kathy "Must stay awake...eyes open" Davis;
Sophia--back again--Sarafova; Dan "the spouse" Levi; Larry "Kicked
severe
Magic Tuckus" Miller; Jay "Never Forgotten And Occasionally Recognized"
Scott Flatland exile; Colin "No, really! I don't care about the
cappucino
maker" Schatz; Charles "Concrete with cavalry reinforcement" Danforth;
Lesley "____y___" Tsina (and the y is silent); Several Variable
Midge{([whop])}; Jim "the most obscure reference afall" Moskowitz; Rake
No
Parishoners!!; Post no Bills, Halberds or Glaives.; Andrea "Not
dismembered
from Sam" Hall; Sam "Cribbage, not Maxwell" Weiler; Kendra "I know who
you
are" Eshleman; Jim "I wasn't really here so don't worry about me."

Whew.

                                             ----Praefecti Quondam
                                                   Praefectique Futuri