Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 11/19/86 -- Vol. 5, No. 19 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 12/02 MT: Film: John Wyndham's QUEST FOR LOVE (==Tuesday!==) 12/03 MT: Film: John Wyndham's QUEST FOR LOVE (conc.) 12/10 LZ: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula K. LeGuin (Sexual Identity) 12/17 MT: ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card (War in Space) 01/7/87 LZ: NEUROMANCER by William Gibson (Consciousness) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 2G-427A 949-5866 LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 1C-117 576-2068 MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 Jill-of-all-trades: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. It has come to the attention of AT&T management that many of the people at the Middletown facility are not taking advantage of this year's major new fringe benefit. The company has put up a swing off the exit to Laurel road. It is down in the depression to the left of the road as you exit. Current intelligence tells us that when people are leaving they are so intent on leaving that they are not looking to their left. Further it is felt that the CPTP has intentionally stonewalled the news that this fringe benefit is available to AT&T employees. When they list salary and benefits they make no mention that each Middletown employee also been given the use of 1/4563 part of a swing to use as he/she sees fit. (IBM and Northern Telcomm employees specifically are not allowed to use the new swing. Bell Operating Company and Belcore employees need executive director approval to use the facilities.) In fact, the swing was part of the zoning ordinance because the town thinks the outdoorsy sorts of people would otherwise spend their noontime either putting pennies on the nearby train tracks or by running sweatily up and down the streets in embarrassing, skimpy outfits and thereby driving down local property values. It is expected employees who want to leave the building during their lunchhours should go directly to the swing and use that instead of participating in their usual antisocial activities. To make employees aware of the facilities there will be a Swing awareness day (Sad) coming up at all those locations that like - 2 - Middletown offer swings to their employees. The first Sad to be held will be held for Middletown. It is expected that the Middletown employee Sad (MeSad) will be held some time in February. At that time each department will go out one at a time to see the swing and two lucky department members will be chosen to actually swing on it (based, of course, on employee performance over the previous year; the swing is wide enough for two). The company hopes to have discovered a real morale booster in MeSad. I think we all have a responsibility to make the most of this great opportunity. If we work together and make it a success (and it the telecommunications market improves a little), we can also look forward to having the company put up a set of monkey bars and setting aside time for a MeMad sometime next year. Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper THE COLOR OF MONEY A film review by Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Touchstone Films' sequel to the near classic film _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r avoids trading off of the first film and instead stands on its own as very good entertainment. Newman expands on his character from the first film. Tom Cruise is not yet a great actor but this is certainly his best role to date. While it doesn't capture the dark feel of the first film, it does seem to have a feel for the world of the pool hustler. One of the least promising coming attractions I've seen in a while was for _T_h_e _C_o_l_o_r _o_f _M_o_n_e_y. A pool film with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise is not the most promising prospect. With Newman I expected the film to be either a sequel or a tribute to _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r (it turned out to be the former). But _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r was a gritty look into a dark world. Newman was enough of an actor to carry a role in a film about that world. George C. Scott could carry it, even Jackie Gleason. But Tom Cruise would be way out of his depth. It was like casting _M_o_n_a _L_i_s_a with Annette Funicello. A cross between _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r and _T_o_p _G_u_n is a nauseating concept. As it turns out, however, the film is not too bad. If anything, it is _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r crossed with _S_t_u_n_t _M_a_n. That's not bad breeding stock even if the result does lack the power of _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r. "Fast Eddie" Felsen is about a quarter-century older than he was when he played against Minnesota Fats. He sells liquor to bars and out of the corner of his eye he keeps track of what is happening in the world of pool. That is how he meets an obnoxious and cocky young pool player who plays the game well enough to be either a very good pool player or an excellent hustler. Fast Eddie decides to take young Vince under his wing and teach him the fine art of hustling. Ah, but Vince isn't sure that's what he wants to do, so Fast Eddie has to hustle him into it. A hustle is like a flim-flam. It is a game where you rearrange reality for someone so that they do what you want. Go to Verdi's _O_t_e_l_l_o if you want to see a hustle. Go to _T_h_e _C_o_l_o_r _o_f _M_o_n_e_y if you want to see hustles with hustles and counter-hustles. _T_h_e _C_o_l_o_r _o_f _M_o_n_e_y is probably as good a sequel as you will see around these days. Perhaps assuming that not that many people who go to movies these days will have seen _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r, almost none of the publicity makes use of that fact. Certainly the producers do nothing so crass as calling the movie _T_h_e _H_u_s_t_l_e_r _I_I. But the filmmakers do what, to my mind, they should with a sequel. They expand upon the main character of the original. They make the character more believable and realistically answer the question of what Fast Eddie might be doing today. Cruise's role requires less acting and just about what Cruise is capable of at this point in his career. Give it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. I think there have been more good films from Disney in the 1980's than there were in the entire pre-1980's history of the studio. 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