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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/25/92 -- Vol. 11, No. 13
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
10/07 HO: THE FORGE OF GOD and THE ANVIL OF STARS by Greg Bear
(The Fermi Paradox) (HO 4N-509)
10/28 HO: Book Swap (HO 4N-509)
11/18 HO: DOOMSDAY BOOK by Connie Willis (Plagues) (HO 4N-509)
12/09 HO: A FIRE ON THE DEEP by Vernor Vinge (HO 4N-509)
_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.
09/19 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
10/10 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1D-505A 908-834-1267 hocpb!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 mtfme!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Sorry, you are a lifelong loser, but thank you for playing.
2. A club member and friend (whom many of you would recognize) was
telling me about his dealings with someone he had dealings with and
whom he suspected was on the mossy side of the law. He said he
hoped he never ran into this guy again, particularly if the club
member had a gun at the time. I thought I would share my response
with you good folks. I have to say part of what gave me the idea
is hearing about a car detailing house that even sprayed the cars
they fixed with new car scent. I always thought that most new cars
smell horrible, but there are people who seem to like the miasma of
a new car. It strikes me that car detailing is not the only place
where the amateur would want to give things a professional look.
Anyway, I told him that he had nothing to worry about....
THE MT VOID Page 2
"Don't worry. You won't run into him again. He got to me and I
got to him first. Luckily someone else got the rap. That's
because I knew how and now ... you can too. Or at least you can if
I get my latest soon-to-be-published book _C_r_i_m_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e
_P_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l _T_o_u_c_h. Would you like to know how to make your common
everyday crimes look like they are the work of professionals?
Haven't you ever seen a film where the police are investigating a
crime and they say with admiration "This looks like the work of
professionals." Haven't you asked yourself what is so special
about the way professionals kill and steal. Now you can commit
crimes with the same great style as the pros.
Is your neighbor's daughter going to get the cheerleading spot you
want for your daughter? Killing is the obvious answer. But if you
do it wrong you could end up being the laughing stock of the
nation. (And I do mean "end up.") Do you know what it takes to
make it look like a genuine gangland slaying? Read _C_r_i_m_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e
_P_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l _T_o_u_c_h. Learn the 73 tip-offs that scream at police
that a crime was done by an incompetent amateur. Make just one of
these 73 mistakes and the police will know they are looking for a
klutz. Learn 14 clues that have been tested and proved to scare
the bejeezus out of the police. And once they know that, how long
before they know that klutz is you? Learn how to make the crime
look like a Mafia kill. Be fascinated by how to make it look like
it was Middle Eastern Terrorists. Or, if you have a taste for the
exotic, how about making it look like the crime was committed by
dacoits? You will learn not just murder, but robbery, numbers
running, even prostitution. You know the Mafia can do it and get
away scot-free (cause who wants to tangle with them) and now you
can make your crimes look like they did it. And don't miss the
offer in the back of the book. For $5,000,000 (or best offer) and
one proof of purchase seal from the back of the dust jacket. I
will tell you the secret code word that the IRA uses to identify
its crimes to the police. Man, _n_o_b_o_d_y messes with the IRA. In
today's economy, can you affort to be without _C_r_i_m_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e
_P_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l _T_o_u_c_h?
3. Readers who receive hard-copies of the MT VOID may have noticed
that the past few week's issues have been late. Two issues were
delayed because of our vacation, and one because of the changes in
printing here. (The printer used to be right near my office; now I
have to go further to pick up the output and can't always make the
mail pick-up on time.) The net result of all this is a delay in
getting the copies out. Readers who would prefer a more timely
copy can switch to electronic delivery by contacting me at
ecl@mtgzy.att.com. (Note that you can always print out the
electronic copy at your end if you want.) [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
SCHOOL TIES
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: In 1955 an elite New England
prep school recruits a ringer quarterback who happens
to be a Jew. When the secret that he is a Jew leaks
out, we get a view of the "old boy" system and the
bigotry beneath the surface. Rating: low +2 [-4 to
+4].
In 1955 St. Matthews is an extremely elite private prep school
in New England. Graduate from St. Matthews and you are practically
assured that you will make it into an Ivy League college and go on
to a distinguished or at least comfortable career. One of the
students sums up the philosophy of life at St. Matthews: "We do the
things they tell us to and they give us the good life." But there
is something that St. Matthews finds most distressing. For three
years straight they have lost the big football game to their rival
school and the alumni are tired of it. So the school has broken the
code. They have let the coach recruit a ringer, a great high school
quarterback as well as an excellent scholar even if the boy is,
unfortunately, a Jew. But David Greene (played by Brendan Fraser)
has been cautioned by his father and his new coach to let his
religion remain his little secret.
Where _D_e_a_d _P_o_e_t_s _S_o_c_i_e_t_y is about the pressures of posh prep
schools and the wondrous joy of learning English literature, _S_c_h_o_o_l
_T_i_e_s is about the pressures and the dark underside of blooming
bigotry and the old boy system for preserving class barriers. It is
dark in tone, dark in photography, and a much more real film than is
_D_e_a_d _P_o_e_t_s _S_o_c_i_e_t_y. Greene has been given mixed signals by his
father (played by Ed Lauter, cast very counter to type). His father
has told him to fit in, but also to maintain his religious
traditions. At first, there is little anti-Semitism: a comment
here, a joke there. Greene turns out to be a great student and a
superb athlete and just the kind of guy that everyone wants to be
friends with, including the visiting girls. It is, in fact, a fault
of Dick Wolf's or Darryl Ponicsan's script that Greene is just a
little too good to be believed. But when tensions do arise through
no fault of Greene's and the secret of his religion is revealed, his
classmates show their cliquishness and religious bigotry.
Music was provided by Maurice Jarre (and, yes, there is a brief
scene of a train). Jarre's score is a bit more somber than his _D_e_a_d
_P_o_e_t_s _S_o_c_i_e_t_y score. Similarly, the camerawork is also somber and
casts a grayish tinge through the film. Photography is by Freddie
Francis--perhaps the greatest cinemagraphic stylist alive. His
style lets him down only during the football scenes where he uses
School Ties September 21, 1992 Page 2
cliched slow motion and repeated motion. The film is directed by
Robert Mandel.
Minors flaws in the script--including the Jewish boy being just
a bit too perfect and also an unsatisfying climactic scene--rob what
could have been a great film, but still leave a very good film. I
rate _S_c_h_o_o_l _T_i_e_s a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.