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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