Pouch Deposits The Editor and the Readership

Getting Right Down To Business....

Well, here near the top of the pile are some solutions to the acrostic and cryptic pencil puzzles in the last issue. Looks like we received solutions from Bradd W. Szonye, Stephen Araps, Andrew Hejl, and Brett Clegg. I also see that a number of people said The Pouch should have more puzzles. We'll do our level best.

Well, let's see what else we have in here....

Mail Received Concerning Discovering the Religion of Donism

From Brandon Clarke (the author, [email protected]):

Absolutely, Manus *chuckle*, and as I said, cricket is still like baseball for grown ups!

I love it when Americans try to talk about cricket and baseball and unknowingly make my point that much more ironic....

Editor's response: This from the man who sang to Shane Warne about his jelly donut diet. (smile)

From Chris Wade ([email protected]):

I've only just got back into playing Diplomacy by e-mail and as for the cricket, no-one over here has a clue.

Excellent article.

Mail Received Concerning From Russia With Love

From Jeff Serandos ([email protected]):

Author's response: True - Germany could send Hamburg north to Denmark and Berlin to the Bornholm Sea and then support itself into Sweden. This is maybe even a reasonable tactic for Germany, so that it can better control the north and go after Britain. Because of this, however, Britain is more likely to support Russia into Sweden in 2000, and it's also easier for Russia to get a third unit on Sweden than for Germany.

Germany also has so many other SCs it can take that annoying Russia in 1999 is probably not his top prority. But thanks for pointing this out. I guess we should rectify all those mentions of 'guarantees Sweden' to 'almost guarantees Sweden.' [Editor's note: that change has now been made.]

Thanks again, and thanks for your comments. The articles wouldn't be the same without all the player comments. I think Manus deserves some of the credit too, for the final touchups and layout.

Editor's comments: Well, my editing of the Modern articles does suffer in that when I choose to call myself done, what we have is a very huge single file. In the course of editing, I kind of trample on Vince's well-thought-out divisions of where useful hyperlinks would send the reader to shorter passages. This has unfortunately become a tradition since the first time I edited one of his submissions -- I must have procrastinated and been under a time crunch, and never went back to give it his more sensible presentation. Subsequent articles in his series were done the same way for consistency, but on the proverbial "someday," it sure would be nice if I would go back and reorganize all of his articles so that they are split into subject-related pieces, with links. The article in the current issue ("The Spanish Armada") is a bit of a departure. Because of the lateness of the issue publication, I chose to adhere more closely to Vince's original rather than to be consistent with the other published articles. It's still a single page, but it's a bit easier to navigate.

Mail Received Concerning Super-Alliances in Modern Diplomacy

From an anonymous someone:

The alliance broke down with a Turkish stab of Egypt, as well as a Ukranian stab of Russia.

A Couple of the Messages of General Praise (Aw, shucks)

From Macario Reyes ([email protected]):

Again, I thank you for the great effort you have put into the development of Diplomacy through your Internet site. I'm crazy about the game myself and I'm playing a bundle of games as well as mastering many others and would like to contribute an article to The Pouch some time in the future if you allow me to do so.

Publisher's response: If I allow you to contribute???? You apparently don't know me (the eternal nag, begging and pleading for articles from anyone, anywhere, anytime) very well. Yes, apparently you don't know me very well......yet!

From Alvaro Campos ([email protected]):

Mail Received Concerning The April Fool's Front Page

From Ketan Gangatirkar ([email protected]):

From Ed Lybrand ([email protected]):

From Jeffrey Kolb ([email protected]):

From David Lay ([email protected]):

Excellent choice of fooling material given the current wave or corporate crackdown on non-revenue generating web sites.

The giveaway, for me, was the failure to name the sender of the cease and desist letter and the plea to extinguish flames against Avalon Hill. Nevertheless, there's something strangely satisfying about the shock to realisation to ROTFL cycle.

Please pass on my thanks to The Council for making my April Fool's Day, 1998.

From Kent Liljegren ([email protected]):

From Corey Barr ([email protected]):

That had me going, since it was so believable and done in the writing style that I have come to expect from the Pouch. The checkers part threatened to give it away, but I chalked that up to resigned wishful joking.

Great job!

From Dan:

Publisher's response: I liked it too. As usual, 95% of the credit should go to Simon.

Well, there you have it. Another Deposits column. Yep, it sure is.