Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM!jane From: jane@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM (Jane Beckman x2637) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Friends/Women Message-ID: <9001191518.AA22473@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> Date: 19 Jan 90 23:18:32 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 41 Jilara waves an arm above her head. "Awwright, guys, listen up! I'm going to tell you an amusing-but-true story from Auntie Jilara's archives of experience. And it will also show some odd attitudes regarding what I've been talking about." She chuckles wickedly. "I have this friend, Mike. Now, Mike and I have been friends and drinking buddies for something like ten years, and have Been Through the Wars together. We swap stories, blow off steam, all that. A lot of folks assume, erroneously, at first glance, we must be lovers, because we are very at home touching and hugging. No way would I be Mike's lover, because even he acknowledges he gets weird about his women. So, we are over at my version of the local Callahans, Dragon Run House in Palo Alto, one Tuesday meeting night. (If anyone wants to come, it's 8 - 10 pm (more or less) every Tuesday, at 44 Roosevelt Circle---off Alma and Meadow.) There is this very attractive blond girl who has shown up, and Mike is currently without a girlfriend. He immediately gets all moon-eyed, and becomes VERY solicious of her for the course of the evening, walks her out to her car, all that. Well, as he and I are heading out to our respective vehicles, chatting, he suddenly says "Gee, I hope you didn't mind the way I was hanging on that girl, tonight?" "Mike," I say, "What possible interest could I have in who you're trying to pick up on?" He ignores this comment and kicks at the curb. "Yeah, it probably will never work out, anyway. I'm always trying to pick up on tall blond women, and none of them ever put out." Now I, dear friends, am tall and blond. And I start to laugh. "Okay Mike, excavate yourself in a little deeper. I'm waiting to hear more about this one..." He suddenly realizes what he's just said. "Uh, gee, oh dear, uh---gee, I didn't mean that like it sounded! I mean, uh, well, like I never get any----I wasn't talking about FRIENDS; I was talking about WOMEN!" By then, he was chewing on his hip. And I just about fell over laughing." Poor Mike, he never learns!" She grins again. "I put that right in there with the guy who said he admired me because I "don't think like a woman, you think like a female guy!" ---Jilara the Exile (I hope.) "If I'm not home accepting what I cannot change, I'm out changing what I can't accept." ---Ashleigh Brilliant (alternate identity may be jane@fsdcupt.csd.mot.com---don't you love computers with identity crises?) Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!yale!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: A prayer Message-ID: <416@sixhub.UUCP> Date: 19 Jan 90 22:52:37 GMT References: <20940028@hplred.HP.COM> Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY Lines: 20 In article <20940028@hplred.HP.COM> egly@hplred.HP.COM (Diana Egly) writes: | And so I pray for the engineer. | I pray for any other witnesses that there may be. | I pray for the family and loved ones of the victim. | And particularly for the one who makes the trip to the coroner's office. | | Perhaps some of the rest of you will be moved to pray with me. | Or whatever ritual brings you close to your diety. The Tall Man With The Beard bows his head and softly says "May the prime mover, by whatever name, grant us the strength and wisdom to avoid feeling guilt for things we can not control." From the myriad corners come whispers of "Amen." -- bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX davidsen@sixhub.uucp ...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM!jane From: jane@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM (Jane Beckman x2637) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Quests Message-ID: <9001191543.AA22758@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> Date: 19 Jan 90 23:43:30 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 84 Sir Bruce Sterling approaches Jilara's table and bows. >"I know not what the full extent of your quest is. But I can tell you >some of mine. I am a paladin of life, liberty, happiness, and truth. >I seek and defend the following: 1. Truth 2. Friendship 3. Honesty 4. Love 5. Freedom 6. Nobility 7. People >"These are just the major elements of my life; specifics are more difficult >to explain fully. I believe that this is harmonious with some aspects of >your quest as well. An odd light comes into Jilara's eyes. She laughs softly. "An interesting place, this one. I have encountered more idealism herein than any place in the outside world. Rather like a place where paladins come for R&R. I sum up my quest with the inscription I wrote for my own tombstone, years ago: "Her quest was Truth, Her weapon Love." And I intend to buy my own tombstone, set it on the family plot, so that I may indeed have it, and let others wonder over the meaning of those words. I was inspired by one I found years ago, in San Luis Obispo: "Unhampered by religion or creed, he tried to do what was Right." Isn't it interesting what words we write as our Exit Lines?" >"Jilara the Exile, I, Sir Bruce Sterling, ask thee to join my quest. She nods to him, and looks thoughtful. "I suspect that we already are on the same quest. Different roads, with a meeting place here, where roads meet and cross, mayhap." >"If you are agreeable, we could announce this venture to all of callahans. >The choice is yours. All I ask of you is a chance." She looks at him oddly, as if there is some thought not quite ready to be voiced. Shakes her head as if some strange voice has just whispered in her ear. Her voice has an odd quaver when she speaks. "Odd things happpen in this place, friend. Share a glass of subliminal scotch, discuss the things that bind your heart and your path in a corner with some friends, and suddenly, there is an entire group of questors travelling down the road together. And sometimes you meet people you didn't believe existed." She looks over at a table where a former regular, now a misty shadow of his former self, is having a quiet conversation with Taldin. Feeling her gaze, he looks up, looks over at her, and smiles. For just a moment, gazes lock, and a look of ---understanding? ---empathy? ---a shared vision? passes between them. She looks down at her glass and her finger circles its rim, somehow producing a small sighing, singing sound. "A company has formed, a venture decided, somewhat. And Quests discussed here seem to be going on down the road, outside. For me, for several friends, companions, whatever... The Place seems to link with several dimensions. A small group, this white company, and good of heart. Things bound us in the early days, when not so many people were here... And we have the feeling we may be riding away from the Place, fairly soon, because---well---we're questors. Places outside call us. Yet, we walk out the door, and into another dimension, and find the road calls to us there, as a unit, on that Quest. We are seekers of the Dream, spinners of our own reality, and..." Her voice trails off, as if she can't quite find words to suit what she would say. "Life has gotten awfully complex, somehow, somewhere along the corridors between Worlds..." she says in a quiet voice. "This place is a Nexus. Have care what you say and do here, for there are many meetings, and things said and vows made affect many more worlds than this small corner of time and space." She looks oddly at the mist-figure at the next table. "By a knight of ghosts and shadows I am summoned forth to tourney, Nine leagues beyond the wide world's end... Methinks it is no journey..." Her voice trails off, like the tail of a comet fading into the starry void... >"Fair Lady, would you perchance like to dance? I`m sure Fast Eddy could >whip up something appropriate....." She smiles, still an odd look in her eyes. "That, my kind Sir Sterling, is always one of my supreme pleasures, a weakness of the worst sort. I wonder if Fast Eddie knows the Queen of All Argyll? It's always been one of my songs... I would be honored." Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM!jane From: jane@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM (Jane Beckman x2637) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Quests Message-ID: <9001191536.AA22716@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> Date: 19 Jan 90 23:36:59 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 88 Sir Bruce Sterling approaches Jilara's table and bows. >"I know not what the full extent of your quest is. But I can tell you >some of mine. I am a paladin of life, liberty, happiness, and truth. >I seek and defend the following: 1. Truth 2. Friendship 3. Honesty 4. Love 5. Freedom 6. Nobility 7. People >"These are just the major elements of my life; specifics are more difficult >to explain fully. I believe that this is harmonious with some aspects of >your quest as well. An odd light comes into Jilara's eyes. She laughs softly. "An interesting place, this one. I have encountered more idealism herein than any place in the outside world. Rather like a place where paladins come for R&R. I sum up my quest with the inscription I wrote for my own tombstone, years ago: "Her quest was Truth, Her weapon Love." And I intend to buy my own tombstone, set it on the family plot, so that I may indeed have it, and let others wonder over the meaning of those words. I was inspired by one I found years ago, in San Luis Obispo: "Unhampered by religion or creed, he tried to do what was Right." Isn't it interesting what words we write as our Exit Lines?" >"Jilara the Exile, I, Sir Bruce Sterling, ask thee to join my quest. She nods to him, and looks thoughtful. "I suspect that we already are on the same quest. Different roads, with a meeting place here, where roads meet and cross, mayhap." >"If you are agreeable, we could announce this venture to all of callahans. >The choice is yours. All I ask of you is a chance." She looks at him oddly, as if there is some thought not quite ready to be voiced. Shakes her head as if some strange voice has just whispered in her ear. Her voice has an odd quaver when she speaks. "Odd things happpen in this place, friend. Share a glass of subliminal scotch, discuss the things that bind your heart and your path in a corner with some friends, and suddenly, there is an entire group of questors travelling down the road together. And sometimes you meet people you didn't believe existed." She looks over at a table where a former regular, now a misty shadow of his former self, is having a quiet conversation with Taldin. Feeling her gaze, he looks up, looks over at her, and smiles. For just a moment, gazes lock, and a look of ---understanding? ---empathy? ---a shared vision? passes between them. She looks down at her glass and her finger circles its rim, somehow producing a small sighing, singing sound. "A company has formed, a venture decided, somewhat. And Quests discussed here seem to be going on down the road, outside. For me, for several friends, companions, whatever... The Place seems to link with several dimensions. A small group, this white company, and good of heart. Things bound us in the early days, when not so many people were here... And we have the feeling we may be riding away from the Place, fairly soon, because---well---we're questors. Places outside call us. Yet, we walk out the door, and into another dimension, and find the road calls to us there, as a unit, on that Quest. We are seekers of the Dream, spinners of our own reality, and..." Her voice trails off, as if she can't quite find words to suit what she would say. "Life has gotten awfully complex, somehow, somewhere along the corridors between Worlds..." she says in a quiet voice. "This place is a Nexus. Have care what you say and do here, for there are many meetings, and things said and vows made affect many more worlds than this small corner of time and space." She looks oddly at the mist-figure at the next table. "By a knight of ghosts and shadows I am summoned forth to tourney, Nine leagues beyond the wide world's end... Methinks it is no journey..." Her voice trails off, like the tail of a comet fading into the starry void... >"Fair Lady, would you perchance like to dance? I`m sure Fast Eddy could >whip up something appropriate....." She smiles, still an odd look in her eyes. "That, my kind Sir Sterling, is always one of my supreme pleasures, a weakness of the worst sort. I wonder if Fast Eddie knows the Queen of All Argyll? It's always been one of my songs... I would be honored." (Jilara requests permission to post this, as I think it says some things that need saying on the floor. But I always reply to email via email, until I get the mailer's feelings on the discourse.) Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: Money and Materialism Message-ID: <418@sixhub.UUCP> Date: 19 Jan 90 23:55:08 GMT References: <12894@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <9060009@hpfcso.HP.COM> Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY Lines: 13 In article <9060009@hpfcso.HP.COM> daq@hpfcso.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom) writes: | ---------- | I agree with your post in most ways. Here are a few of my personal | proverbs. Someone once said "Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a Cadillac so you can go look for happiness." Sorry, I can't remember who or where. -- bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX davidsen@sixhub.uucp ...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!apple!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: The Woman Beside Message-ID: <419@sixhub.UUCP> Date: 20 Jan 90 00:17:59 GMT References: <9001151717.AA03010@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> <9060008@hpfcso.HP.COM> <1990Jan19.160031.19228@granite.cr.bull.com> Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY Lines: 33 In article <1990Jan19.160031.19228@granite.cr.bull.com> mandel@granite.cr.bull.com (Mark Mandel) writes: | My lady and I don't expect 100% compatibility. (Also remember what | Janelle said about compatibility; net timewarps being what they are, | you may be reading this before you read her observations.) But being | together, with its compromises, disagreements, and choices, is much, | much better for both of us than being alone. We lean on each other. | We enrich each other. Amen. My wife and I have finally worked out how to live together with minimal friction and maximal enjoyment. We each have our own interests and pleasures, and while I take pleasure for her when she does well at something, and she takes pleasure in my successes, we each do things which don't involve the other. That leaves us time to do the things together which we both enjoy. Since we both pursue things which don't interest the other, neither of us is "dragged along" to activities we dislike. One less source of disagreement. Because our schedules only leave us a limited time to be physically together, we concentrate on finding things to do with that time, to make it "quality time." Finally, we compromise on things which are areas of disagreement. Neither of us tries to make the other into a different person (any more). This takes committment to making things work, to agreeing on a compromise and having both people abide with it instead of trying to renegotiate. This is the secret, because a compromise only works if you make it, live by it, and then stop fighting about it. -- bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX davidsen@sixhub.uucp ...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!yale!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: callahans get together and a story Message-ID: <417@sixhub.UUCP> Date: 19 Jan 90 23:42:34 GMT References: <9001190721.AA22780@ccb.ucsf.EDU> Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY Lines: 28 In article <9001190721.AA22780@ccb.ucsf.EDU> robin@CCB.UCSF.EDU (Robin Colgrove) writes: | re proposed callahans realspace self-assembly in Boston Area | responses so far | | From: ckd%bucsf.BU.EDU@bu.edu (Christopher Davis) | From: inmet!justin@uunet.UU.NET (Justin du Coeur MKA Mark Waks) | From: eliz@world.std.com (Elizabeth Lear) | From: gilly%bucsf.BU.EDU@bu.edu (Gilly Rosenthol) | and robin@ccb.ucsf.edu (Robin Colgrove) | | suggested night -> Tuesday 1/23/90 | suggested time -> 8-11pm | suggested site -> no suggestions so far Some time you might do this on a weekend, when some of us who are not quite so close can come over. Maybe a Saturday afternoon for a long lunch? I sure would like to meet some of you, but a weekday night is really hard to do if you live out of town (about four hours out, in my case). Maybe in February sometime in one of those little pubs down by Faniul Hall? Or anywhere else relatively easy to find. -- bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX davidsen@sixhub.uucp ...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon Path: mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!shelby!neon!lucid.com!lucidboston!kdo From: kdo@lucid.com (Ken Olum) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Marriage (was: The Woman Beside) Message-ID: <156@boston-harbor.lucid.com> Date: 20 Jan 90 02:25:49 GMT References: <9001151717.AA03010@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> <9060008@hpfcso.HP.COM> Reply-To: kdo@lucid.com Organization: Lucid East, Sharon MA Lines: 26 In article <9060008@hpfcso.HP.COM> daq@hpfcso.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom) writes: >My male friends are all slowly being sucked up and devoured by the >evil disease of marraige. Marraige. I hate it. It steals your >friends and makes them dead to you. No longer can you do the things >you did. They are gone, and it is never the same. I don't think it's an intrinsic problem with marriage, but in the way your friends view it. Marriage doesn't have to be an exclusion, where you leave your friends behind. There are lots of reasons to get married and marriage doesn't have to mean that you merge identities with someone and give up all your unshared friends and interact with the world only as a couple. I get irked whenever I hear a group of people described as "2 couples and 3 singles." That's 7 people, and just because some of them are married to each other doesn't mean that you don't still have 7 individual human beings. Anyway, if your friends stop acting like your friends when they get married, then it's your friends to blame, and not the institution of marriage. They don't have to act like that. Still, I've seen people get swallowed by marriage as you describe. I guess it's the sterotype that you are supposed to give up your former life and "settle down" when you marry. But as in many cases, if you buy what society wants to sell you, you'll end up with a load of garbage. Ken Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!yale!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpfcso!daq From: daq@hpfcso.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: Lyrics, 1990 Message-ID: <9060010@hpfcso.HP.COM> Date: 19 Jan 90 01:15:08 GMT References: <4818cdfe.1faaa@ferrari.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA Lines: 15 >Yesterday's over my shoulder >So I can't look backward too long >There's just too much to see >Waiting in front of me >And I know that I just can't go wrong ... >I occasionally write strange poetry of this nature and if I get over being >embarassed about it and anyone wants to see it I might post some of it... ---------- Like the Nike commercial says, "Just do it." Cynic Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!yale!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!iuvax!pur-ee!pur-phy!maxwell.physics.purdue.edu!sterling From: sterling@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu (Bruce S. Woodcock) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: The Woman Beside Keywords: Fast Eddy, play us a tune... Message-ID: <3007@pur-phy> Date: 20 Jan 90 03:56:59 GMT References: <9001151717.AA03010@fsdcupt.csd.mot.COM> Sender: news@pur-phy Reply-To: sterling@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu.UUCP (Bruce S. Woodcock) Distribution: na Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., W. Lafayette, IN Lines: 21 Sir Sterling walks stiffly to the bar. He puts 2 on the bar. "A Pink Lemonade for me, and whatever the lady wants," he says, pointing to Jilara. The paladin takes his drink to the line, sipping it slowly. He then speaks. "It is with great pain that I announce that I have decided to move on from my current relationship. She just wants to be friends, and there`s nothing I can do to change that. I still love her, I think always will if it was true love, but all I can do now is be her friend and move on in the search for new friends and lovers. If she changes her mind, she`ll let me know." "To the future," he toasts, "and whatever new propsects it brings." *****CRASH***** "Jilara, would you care do dance? I`m sure Fast Eddy can think of something appropriate...." -Sterling-