@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 02/09/90 -- Vol. 8, No. 32 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 02/14 LZ: Science Fiction and Romance 03/07 LZ: THRICE UPON A TIME by James Hogan (Affecting the Past) _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 02/10 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Ellen Steiber (editor from Cloverdale Press) (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) 02/21 Discussion of CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ at Old Bridge Public Library (8PM) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzx!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3D-225A 949-5866 homxa!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. Well, winter is winding down and I now have the slightly frightening task of deciding what Evelyn's household responsibilities are going to be for next winter. I have mentioned here before that Evelyn leads a charmed life. My life is a lot like life in _f_i_l_m _n_o_i_r. Most films picture a world in which if you cross the street you see the sun is shining on the street and it is even sunnier on the side of the street you are walking towards. In _f_i_l_m _n_o_i_r when you cross the street there is a car bearing down on you and you can only get out of its way by jumping a little too near the heavy truck going in the other direction. I think I have always felt that _f_i_l_m _n_o_i_r films show the world much more realistically, but perhaps that is just my world. THE MT VOID Page 2 So anyway, while my life seems to go like a _f_i_l_m _n_o_i_r movie, Evelyn's goes like the world depicted in _R_e_b_e_c_c_a _o_f _S_u_n_n_y_b_r_o_o_k _F_a_r_m. If you read this notice carefully--and I don't know how you can possibly avoid having a warped view of the world if you don't- -you remember that the first snowfall of last winter I got fed up with Evelyn telling me that the driveway doesn't really have to be cleared. I know what kind of a mess you get if you don't shovel the driveway. But I gave her the responsibility to clear the driveway and you've seen the results. At least if you've lived in New Jersey you have. We are in our second light winter. Starting last year, the heavy snowfalls just stopped. They forecast six inches of snow and where I live we get an inch, easy to drive over. Earlier this year we got a forecast of "100% chance of heavy snow." They said that. "100%." They must have done some rounding somewhere. Not one flake fell that night. So at the end of last winter I told Evelyn that this year she would take care of the driveway and the world's tyrannies. It was a joke. Ha-ha! What could whatever forces that protect Evelyn possibly do about a world locked in a Cold War for 45 years, about apartheid? Surely this was one time that Sunnybrook Farm was going to fail and go under. It had to be a street I could cross without a truck. Now look what happened. The Berlin Wall has been torn down. Eastern Europe has rejected communism and is looking forward to capitalism. Elsewhere, the African National Congress has just been legalized. I just cannot believe the power of the forces aligned to make things come out nicely for Evelyn. I feel like the kid in _L_a_t_h_e _o_f _H_e_a_v_e_n. And having read _L_a_t_h_e _o_f _H_e_a_v_e_n I know how dangerous it is to have to decide what Evelyn is supposed to be responsible for next year. If this were a 1950s movie fantasy, I could go to the government. I could ask the President to help me make a choice. But my president's idea of a really good choice is Dan Quayle. That gives me two things to worry about, not just one. No, it's up to me and Evelyn to decide what Evelyn's household responsibilities will be next year. And I have decided! I won't tell you what Evelyn is supposed to do around the house, but keep an eye on your newspaper. 2. Just last week we announced the discussion of Walter Miller's _C_a_n_t_i_c_l_e _f_o_r _L_e_i_b_o_w_i_t_z at the Old Bridge Public Library, and now I read in _P_u_b_l_i_s_h_e_r'_s _W_e_e_k_l_y (jan. 19, 1990, page 61) that Miller is working on a parallel novel (not really a sequel) which he had started 25 years ago and which is scheduled to be published in late 1991 as a Bantam hardcover. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 ...mtgzx!leeper