Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!adam
From: adam@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David C. Kaplowitz)
Subject: Re: Metaphysics and Angst
In-Reply-To: gtz@mentor.cc.purdue.edu's message of 15 Mar 90 19:10:42 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.052521.2750@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
References: <8505@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 90 05:25:21 GMT
Lines: 22

"Hey Eric," the loud mouthed jolly soul in the center of the room
shouts, "why don't you drag up a rock here?  I'd get up and join you,
but I'm a lazy bum with swivle chair spread and too much age in my
bones.  Sure life is pointless.  No questions asked.  Since it is
pointless, might as well have some fun, right?  Take some chances?
Perhaps talk to people that you haven't (Oh right, you just did that,
didn't you ... )  That's it.  The "Secret of life" might not be that
happiness is related to success after risk, but it is a good working
formula.  Hell, even a rain storm can be averted ..."

"Man is the animal who laughs (rah)  So if you can make them laugh,
you are making people become people."

"Tell to me what it is that you do, and perhaps we can come up with
something ..."

"Hey Mike, if you could toss a couplea over here, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks."

Traveler In Elephants
Dave
-- 
Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpfcso!daq
From: daq@hpfcso.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Apologies
Message-ID: <9060040@hpfcso.HP.COM>
Date: 15 Mar 90 02:08:28 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 126

Doug enters the bar looking extremely subdued.  He finds Taldin and
Jilara and Joelle in the crowd and asks to speak to them.  He beckons
for others to gather around.

He begins to speak very slowly and carefully.

How can I begin to apologise for my words?  I owe a very deep
apology to Jilara, Taldin, Alaric, and Joelle.  And I owe
an apology to the people here as well.

You must all understand that Callahan's no flame environment
means as much to me as to anyone.  I have violated that and
said very hurtful words to people who meant me no harm at
all.  My reaction was totally inappropriate, and it is
impossible to explain how deeply I regret it.

Aside from the apology, I would like to take this chance
to wish an unadulterated congratulations to the new couples.

I can only ask your forgiveness, since I cannot really
defend my actions.  I claimed to be speaking for others
in the posting, when I really was just speaking for 
myself, and I cannot understand at all why I became so
vitriolic.  The anger just felt so right at the time. 

The easy answer would assume that I am jealous or envious,
but that is really not the case.  Have I grown so far 
from innocent happiness that I react to it with anger?
Certainly this is the behavior of a devil.  I feel
very badly about this indeed.

I guess that I am treading the edge of passion far too much
these days.  

I have been posting to Callahan's for several months now,
because I really do like an environment where one can
discuss anything without risking flames.  In flaming I
have violated a very sacred trust.  I deserve your wrath
and ask for your compassion.

I cannot even promise never to do it again.  I am very
passionate and I tend to react to extremes and settle
down in the long run.  Certainly I will try never to
do it again.  I had never flamed before this, so it
is not as if I do it every day.  Certainly I say 
some things that people take exception to, but that
is not the same as flaming.  But my past few posts
have grown increasingly hostile.  I do not know why.

Apologies cannot take back words, so I would ask you 
to reread what I said, and just make an effort to 
understand what I meant.  If you figure it out, 
maybe you can tell me. 

If this apology reaches a machine before the posting that
made it necessary, you will know it when you see it.
Please recognize the continuity involved.  I am through
flaming.

I would like to specifically address a post that Jilara
made about my star trek posting:

>Jilara frowns.  "That granade idea really bombed, Cynic.  Do you have 
>to be such an explosive personality?  That really capped things off."

Yes, I suppose so the idea did bomb.  I am what I am Jilara.  I
am very angry, but not at anything specifically.

I have talked to Chris about my tendency to take offense at things
that do not justify the reaction.

>She gets up and stalks over to his table, arms folded sternly, her 
>mouth compressed into a thin we-are-not-amused line.  "And I am using 
>our pun format to try to get things back on track.  If you're really 
>into blasting caps, go play in alt.flame.  This is Callahans, dammit!  
>I consider myself a cynic.  You, my friend, are a misanthrope.  I've 
>spent a lot of time disarming misanthropes, and I would sincerely like 
>to sit here and talk with my friends without any more incidents.  Do 
>we have a truce?"  She smiles in a way that folks say gives you cold 
>chills, her smile that has scared muggers.  You begin to realize why 
>this woman ran SCA security for several years.  "If you feel so inclined 
>again, you can talk to Auntie Jilara about it, or we can hash it out 
>in the alley.  Remember, Callahans has a reputation to uphold."

Jilara, you really do not need to defend Callahan's from me.
I have already offered to leave.  I do not feel quite so bad
about this post, because it was, believe it or not, meant as a joke.
I actually like Star Trek, but I feel that the original members
have sunk into hopeless self-satire.

It was meant in fun, and it was a bad miscalculation.  I am
sorry for this too.

I hope that, in this case, there is some allowance for differences
in people.

You call me a misanthrope.  You are technically correct.  I do
distrust and detest humanity, but I see a difference 
between the mass and individuals.  I do not hate or detest
individuals as a general rule.  I would, however, request
that you not label me without speaking to me first, although
you certainly owe me one.

>She beckons Nick Chopper out of the fireplace.  "Give this man one of 
>your warm fuzzies.  He needs it."  Nick carefully places the warm fuzzy 
>on Cynic's shoulder.  "Wait a minute, I've still got two!" he exclaims 
>in amazement.  "You didn't tell me these things reproduced!"

Again, I really thank you for the gesture, but if you give me
a warm fuzzy, it will turn into a cold fuzzy, and we don't 
want that.

In conclusion, I offer again to leave Callahan's for good
as punishment if the clientele deems it necessary.

Doug gets up slowly and crosses to Betsy Bo.  He looks at her
and looks as if he wants to thank her for her sole defence
of him, but he cannot say anymore, and he turns and leaves
the bar, posting a note on his way out.

The note:

Goodbye

My heart does not feel what my ears have heard,
these whole and wholesome, healthy words.
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!philbo
From: philbo@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Phil Gross)
Subject: Do not speak his name, lest...
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.074036.8842@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 90 07:40:36 GMT
Lines: 104

The left steam jet on the espresso machine starts up in a puff of
white for no apparent reason.  The bottles rattle rhythmically.
"Funny..." Mike mutters "It couldn't be a..." He turns back to
cleaning a glass "Naw, couldn't be. Pitch is all wrong, Subspace Ether
is too blue..."  

From nowhere comes a slightly female sounding computer synthesized
device..

        Your door is ajar.
        Your door is ajar.
        Your door is ajar.

The traveller in elephants harumphs once or twice, and turns back to
his table.  He notices a tootsie roll pop on the floor, and a small
inhaler made of yellow plastic and a pressurized metal container on
the floor.  He bends to pick them  up, until he remembers that he'd
have to bend down, and worse, he'd have to bend back up.  "OK, Phil,
Where are you hiding?" 

"Imm Mlumble Sumble imba balble"
"What?"
"I'm MLUMBLE SUMBLE IMBA BALBLE"
"Yes, I know that, Philbo, but which one?"


One of the bottles rattles a bit more loudly than the others.

"Mike, could you please open that bottle of Californa wine?  Yes, the
"I want to go to the Bahamas bottle of whine" Carefully, please, you wouln't
want to hurt him...you don't know him yet."

Mike looks in the bottle, and sees a two inch tall hobbit-like
character... He realizes that the person (obviously Philbo) will never
fit out of the neck, so he breaks the bottle's neck on the counter.

The Traveller cringes as the crash echoes around the room.  "Are you
OK, Philbo?

"Yes, Dave, I'm fine.  I'm a hard Hobbit to break.  Thank you for opening my
bottle, Mike."

"Funny, Phil, you normally have a chic bottle.  The very best in
designer djins"

"Yes, Dave.  Thank you for your input.."

It's amazing how the hobbitoid seems to get smaller as he talks...

"You'ld better be careful, or the cat'll get you."

"Thanks, All I have to do is refill.  Ah.  Mike, could you bring me
over to the espresso machine?"

Philbo puts a plastic tube around the (still steaming) jet, and
connects the other end to a hookah like object.  He begins to
fill with hot vapor... Dave makes a round of introductions, explaining
that his curious, now 22" tall friend is not in fact a genie, but a
proto-hobbitoid life form, also known as a pobbit, known for their
philosophizing, their long winded introductions, and their ability to
store and utilize hot air.

The Traveller cackles slightly as Philbo lets go of the jet, washes it
down, and sterilizes the nebulizer. "Came here by the expresso, I
imagine?"

Philbo groans and shrinks a little. "I think we've milked this subject
enough, don't you?"

"Yes, Phil, The puns are a little thick."

"Hello, people, and others, my name, as you might of noticed, is
Philbo.  I'm a little long winded at times (It depends on how steamed
I am), but I'm a good listener.  I also give good backrubs... Would
any one like a tootsie roll pop?"  At the end of this short speech,
Philbo (not really being very steamed at all) shrinks until he's only
a few inches taller than he was when he entered...

  As the pobbit climbs over the merchant, and sits on the center
table, the traveller chuckles, sending ripples from side to side on
his immense frame...  "You know, if you keep shrinking like that,
people will dress  you in green and call you a leprechaun"

"Actually, since I'm Jewish, don't I have to be a lepreCohen?  After
that last savage of the language (and a stolen pun from Christopher
Stasheff at that) I feel slightly deflated, so If anyone needs me,
I'll be here.  I just need a puff of my inhaler to get me to the
espresso machine...  Before I run out of air, I'd like to thank all of
you for being special people individually and together.  Farewell...."

The pobbit thenshrinks out of sight, or nearly so...

"That was a showy exit" someone from the back exclaims.

The Traveller in Elephants breaks out into peals of laughter. When he
recovers his breath, he exclaims "If you thought that was an exit,
feed him a Brazil Nut!"


-- 
philbo@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu  |Universicon IV-Brandeis U   |     Copyright
M.B. 1241--Brandeis University|Mike Gold,Peter David       |      (C) 1990
P.O. Box 9110                 |Elliot S! Maggin,Ken Penders|  By Philip Gross
Waltham, MA 02254-9110        |and Bill Mumy! Waltham,MA   |All Rights Reserved
Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!spdcc!mirror!necntc!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: A song
Message-ID: <16194@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 16 Mar 90 06:20:08 GMT
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Distribution: alt
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 74

"It's not quite true that nobody ever gets thrown out of my place," says Mike.
"I don't like to catch anybody stealing from the cigar box, for instance."  He
looks over to the heavy oaken door, which still bears the headprint of Big
Beef McCaffrey from 1947.

"An' anyone who insists on pryin' is gonna wake up in th' alley wit' a
blackjack-shaped headache," notes Fast Eddie.  "But we don' hold it against
'em if dey wanna come back anudder time."

"So far, by my count, we've had four incidents that could have degenerated
into flame wars," says Karl.  We've handled them better than most newsgroups,
I think."

One of the newcomers speaks up.  "I only know of two: the Tin Man and the
Cynic.  What happened before I arrived?"

"There were a couple of guys that disappeared through the floor," says Jilara.
"A hole patched by a warm fuzzy, lately marred by an axe..."

"So now there are *three* axe-holes associated with that spot!" pipes up Doc
Webster, and everyone groans.

"And way back when we were getting started, there was a fellow who asked how
we dealt with obnoxious drunks," continues Karl.  "Basically, the answer was
that we try to help them.  That's what Callahan's Place is all about, right?"
A sea of heads nods in agreement.  Karl's endless pacing has taken him to the
musicians' corner, where he starts passing out sheet music.  "I heard the
Butch Thompson Trio play a rather appropriate number on a Prairie Home
Companion rerun last weekend.  I think it originally aired on March 17, 1985.
I thought it was worth sharing with this group."

While the musicians with instruments at hand start rearranging their seats and
warming up, those without have a quick consultation followed by a game of
paper-scissors-rock.  Karl seems to be the loser.  He pulls up the microphone
and self-consciously clears his throat, trying to remember the key.  The other
three are going to be co-conductors, which doesn't really seem right but
nobody speaks up to object.


"When a fellow has the blues, and feels discouraged,
And has nothing else but trouble all his life,
When he's always grumbled at, and never happy,
Living with a scolding, aggravating, wife,
Now if he's sick and tired of life and takes to drinking,
Do not pass him by, don't leave him with a frown;
Do not fail to lend a hand to try to help him,
Always lift him up and never knock him down.

"If he stays out late at night because he's worried,
And because his hope is not what it should be,
Have a smile for him whenever you should meet him;
It would help him just the right way, don't you see?
And if he gambles when he's in the town or the city,
Tell him what he ought to do to gain the crown;
Lend a hand and do not fail to show him pity,
Always lift him up and never knock him down.

"If he cannot pay his debts, and he feels disgusted,
Or if he's blue and doesn't have anywhere to stay,
Let him know you are his friend who can be trusted;
It will cheer this lonely fellow on his way.
If he finds it hard for him to keep his family,
Let a kind word fill his soul when he's around;
Well, don't say anything at all to make against him,
Always lift him up and never knock him down.

"If he has no friends and everyone's against him,
If he's failed at everything that he has tried,
Well, try to lift his load, to help him bear his burden,
Let him know that you are walking by his side.
If he feels that all is lost, that he is falling,
Try to place that poor man's feet on solid ground,
Just remember, he's some mother's precious darling.
Always lift him up and never knock him down."
Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!bridge2!3comvax!tymix!oolong!baba
From: baba@oolong.uucp (Baba Rum Dudu)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: White Cockade dates?
Message-ID: <3354@tymix.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 90 19:07:01 GMT
References: <9003121613.AA19200@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM>
Sender: usenet@tymix.UUCP
Reply-To: baba@oolong.UUCP (Baba Rum Dudu)
Organization: BC Locals
Lines: 22

In article <9003121613.AA19200@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> jane@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM (Jane Beckman x4030) writes:
>Jilara is trying to figure when would be a good time to get folks 
>together at the White Cockade.  Suggested weekend dates: March 24 or 
>25th, or April 7 or 8?  

Of the four dates mentioned I can't make it on the 24th. All other times are
OK by me. And I can wait till April if necessary.

"Mike, a Stoli over, if you please and keep the fruit."

After sipping the vodka and comtemplating the ice a while d'baba approaches
the line. "To GAIA, may she always harbor our spirit." 

Gulp. KE-Raaash. The shards of glass shatter on the back wall of the fireplace
but never make it to the floor and the pile of broken glass. "Nick, this one
is also for you. Remember, even tho they may look similar, penance and 
servitude are totally seperate things."

d'baba Duane Hentrich		...!hplabs!oliveb!tymix!baba
				or      baba@opus.tymnet.com
Claimer: These are only opinions since everything I know is wrong.
Copyright notice: If you're going to copy it, copy it right.
Xref: mit-eddie soc.singles:65668 alt.callahans:1375
Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!usc!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!cps3xx!usenet
From: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner)
Newsgroups: soc.singles,alt.callahans
Subject: Travel plans
Message-ID: <6971@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 90 15:09:38 GMT
Reply-To: frey@cpsin.cps.msu.edu (Zachary Frey)
Organization: Michigan State University, College of Engineering
Lines: 16


Greetings!

   I will be in the Kingston-Poughkeepsie, NY area (say *that* three times
fast!) from Wednesday, March 21 through Monday, March 26.  If there's anyone
in the area who'd like to schedule a get-together, drop me a line before
then and we'll arrange something.


Zach "airfare to Albany is *how* much???" Frey


NOTICE: frith may be down -- try frey@cpsin.cps.msu.edu this week.
Papernet: Zachary Frey         | frey@frith.egr.msu.edu |  Usenet:  the
          514 Virginia St.     | frey@msuegr.BITNET     |    Bellman's
          E. Lansing, MI 48823 | ...uunet!frith!frey    |    Paradise.
Path: mit-eddie!bbn!granite!mandel
From: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Metaphysics and Angst
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.155616.8910@granite.cr.bull.com>
Date: 16 Mar 90 15:56:16 GMT
References: <8505@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
Lines: 131

In article <8505@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> gtz@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
 (Eric C. Garrison) writes:
>"However, I find an old problem in metaphysics bugging me: why are we
>here?  What is the point?  Why do I bother getting up in the morning?

(Silverblack carries his decaf over to Eric's table and invites
himself to sit down.)

Well, for one thing, nobody's going to serve you breakfast in bed.
And unless you've got "plumbing" like the Clinic on Tertius, you've
gotta get up to pee.

>"In High School, I feared going to Purdue because I did not know what I 
>wanted to do with my life.

Not knowing what you want to do with your life is normal for high
school.  Everybody (all the adults, that is:  all the authority
figures) keeps asking you what you're going to do with your life, and
when you're going to make something of yourself -- as if you were
Nothing!! -- when how the hell should you know?  The society we're in
has kept your attention on your studies and kept you in an educational
jail/asylum/sanctuary (remember that "asylum" originally means "place
of sanctuary") for all of your life so far, and you have no way of
KNOWING what you're going to do with your life... as if you had very
much control of it yet, anyway.  

You're still an undergrad, I gather, and people are demanding more
forcefully what you're going to do with your life.  They usually mean
career.  You may have a clear sense of that by now, or you may not;
don't sweat it.  And there's a hell of a lot more to your life than
career, but career counselors (both official and amateur; the latter
usually known as "nags") are narrowly focused.  You don't have to be.

>After a year of Freshman Engineering, I discovered that programming
>was not only my one true love, (well, acedemically speaking), but it
>was just about the only subject in school I was good at.

Which doesn't mean it's the only thing in the world you're good at, or
even that you're not good at any of the subjects they've been trying
to teach you.  Maybe you have to learn in your own way.  Many do.

>"Anyway, fomy Sophomore and Junior years I was pretty darned happy.  I was
>engaged and the point to life was to marry my fiancee and live happily
>ever after, come what may.  How sweet.

First love, or second love, and you were filled with the image of
living happily ever after that Hollywood and all our popcult
encourages.  It makes good stories.  It's lousy as a description of
life and preparation for it.  

>"But at the end of last summer, she left me and pulled the rug out
>from under my feet, and left me with no goals save graduation.

And in my sophomore year, my girlfriend ditched me for another guy,
and I was the last one on campus to find out about it.  Sure, I was
massively depressed, for that and other reasons.  I eventually decided
that my friends at home had been right when they found her cold and
unfeeling.  She wasn't my first girlfriend, or the last girl I dated.
I met other girls in the time after that, and two years later I went
out on a date that's lasted 21 years so far and still counting.

>"Sure, I am dating a great girl now, and who knows what will happen with
>her, but the real problem I face is this:  I don't want to graduate
>because I don't want to face the real world alone.  I don't see the 
>point of going out and making money if I don't know if I will be happy.
>I enjoy computers as an occupation, but I am afraid I'll be alone and
>unhappy at and away from work.

Everybody's alone some of the time.  "Alone" is not the same as
"lonely"; solitude can be enriching.  Everybody is also unhappy some
of the time.  You are afraid that you will be alone, lonely, and
unhappy all of the time.  That isn't very likely.  If you stay in your
shell and shuttle between office and home with blinders on, you will
probably stay isolated.  If you go out and meet people -- hanging
around the coffee shop or cafeteria, LOOKING FOR other activities that
interest you -- you will not remain alone.  Art museum?  old movies?
backgammon?  Star Trek festivals?  pottery?  How the heck should I
know what might appeal to you?  How the heck can YOU tell you won't
enjoy something until you try it?  Don't rule out possibilities.
until you try?

Graduation is a rite of passage; the root of the word means "step".
You will be stepping out into a new stage of your life, and it will be
scary.  Rites of passage are *supposed* to be awe-inspiring.  But
they're not fatal.

>"I wonder if anyone here lies awake in the middle of the night,
>petrified with fear about the future like I do?  Does anyone else
>see the crap behind all this hype to succeed, to compete, to further
>the rat race?  How can anyone be totally wrapped up in getting a
>good job, looking for maximum money without considering the
>happiness factor?

If you've been following things around here, you'll know that I've
been laid off from my job.  This is probably the last day that I will
sit at this desk to come to Callahan's, although my boss is allowing
me two more weeks of access to this system (via modem).  For me, the
lying awake is OVER for now.  Everyone knew the layoffs were coming,
and for the three weeks before March 2, every Thursday night either my
wife or I or both of us woke up in terror and couldn't get back to
sleep, or had a nightmare.  Now we KNOW, and we can deal with it; we
ARE dealing with it.

I mentioned narrow focus a few paras back, and here it is again.
People at college tend to be narrow-focused on career.  Most people in
the real world are not "totally wrapped up in getting a good job,
looking for maximum money without considering the happiness factor."

>He looks exhausted as he goes back to his table.  He looks as though
>he'd like someone to come over and join him, but is too shy to
>just sit with anyone he'd like t get to know.  Maybe you know
>the feeling.  Alone in a crowd, that's Eric, sometimes.

We're all of us alone in a crowd, sometimes; see above. --  It's
exhausting to say all that, to admit to it even privately; to go
through those memories and feelings and put words to them.  This is
one Place where you can do that without fear, and where you can
without fear ask someone if you may join them.  In fact, asking to sit
with someone is possible even in the physical world outside.  Expect
that there will be many turndowns, but that you will survive them!
(How did our shoeless ancestors toughen the soles of their feet for
walking?  By walking: carefully, sometimes with help, and watching
their step, but walking on tender feet till the exposure toughened
their soles.  But they didn't lose their sensitivity, either.

Hang in there, guy.
-- 

	-- Mark Mandel  (InterNet for a while: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com)

 /* Bull disclaims all responsibility for me, and I for them. */
Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!think!bbn!granite!mandel
From: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: My Apology
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.160338.10323@granite.cr.bull.com>
Date: 16 Mar 90 16:03:38 GMT
References: <9062@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Reply-To: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
Lines: 10

In article <9062@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> daq@hpesdaq.hp.com (Doug Quarnstrom) writes:
>In conclusion, I offer again to leave Callahan's for good
>as punishment if the clientele deems it necessary.

HELL NO!  Stick around, guy.  You are NOT expelled, not from where I sit!
-- 

	-- Mark Mandel  (InterNet for a while: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com)

 /* Bull disclaims all responsibility for me, and I for them. */
Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!think!bbn!granite!mandel
From: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Cynic; languages; and T-shirts?
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.161046.11619@granite.cr.bull.com>
Date: 16 Mar 90 16:10:46 GMT
References: <90074.121240JLS139@psuvm.psu.edu>
Reply-To: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
Lines: 15

In article <90074.121240JLS139@psuvm.psu.edu> JLS139@psuvm.psu.edu
 (Abaddon) writes:
>   "Pochyemu zdyec nyekatori iz nix govorit po yaziki?" :-)

(Silverblack checks a reference, then replies:)  Ya izuchal russkomu
yazyku na sr'ednii shkole... but I don't remember that much of it.

>...jeff stine...<jls139@psuvm.psu.edu>...Abaddon...
                                          ^^^^^^^ 
The angel of the abyss??  Or do you just consider yourself a son of abyss?
-- 

	-- Mark Mandel  (InterNet for a while: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com)

 /* Bull disclaims all responsibility for me, and I for them. */
Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!bbn!granite!mandel
From: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Schtuff in general...
Message-ID: <1990Mar16.164449.17763@granite.cr.bull.com>
Date: 16 Mar 90 16:44:49 GMT
References: <06AGL3D@xavier.swarthmore.edu>
Reply-To: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel)
Organization: Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
Lines: 27

In article <06AGL3D@xavier.swarthmore.edu> nap92@campus.swarthmore.edu writes:

>Just wanted to say that Ursula K. LeGuin's new Earthsea book is out.
>Saw it in Waldenbooks; it's called _Tehanu_. I haven't read it yet,
>so I don't know what it's about. The first book was about growing up,
>and so was the second, and the third was about death.......Gotta go!"

(Silverblack considers the black-and-silver covers of the paperback
edition of the Earthsea trilogy; at least, his old copies.)

I figured it as generations and family relations -- not exclusively,
of course. The first book deals with Ged's relationship to his
father-figure (gods, I hate this psychobabble, but that's the right
word): Ogion the Silent, his teacher.  In the second he connects with
a young woman, Tenar, a wife- or lover-figure if you will, though
(because?)  mages are apparently supposed to be celibate.  And in the
third he "raises", or brings to manhood, a quasi-son, Arren (I forget
his true name), the prince.  What, then, will the fourth be about?  I
will read it and see.

If anyone feels this discussion is inappropriate here, I guess they'll
say so.
-- 

	-- Mark Mandel  (InterNet for a while: mandel@granite.cr.bull.com)

 /* Bull disclaims all responsibility for me, and I for them. */
