Subject: Ackanomic Digest V2 #75
From: [email-masked] (Ackanomic Digest)
To: ackanomic-digest

Ackanomic Digest          Monday, May 5 1997          Volume 02 : Number 075

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 23:36:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Vacant Offices?

> Hrm, important... well, I suppose it might seem that way.  In any
> case, last I heard snowgod was President.  Did he resign?  I know he
> was threatening to do so sooner or later.  Interestingly enough, I'm
> pretty sure snowgod is the current maintainer of the PE page.
> Perhaps he attempted to resign, but did so imporperly or something,
> and just *thinks* he resigned.  Then again, maybe I just missed his
> resignation or something.

snowgod threatened to resign if he was elected, but did not carry out
his threat. And yes, he is therefore responsible for the duties of the
vacant Offices while they remain unfilled. (It's been my impression
that he does not intend to resign at this time.)

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 23:53:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: New Treasure (sort of)

I am hereby burying the following items: 5 Processing Chips, 10
PFbreadbox, A$20, the Gravitational Monople, and the Trinket known as
Little Bag O' Chips I.

#transfer breadbox, Buried : 5 Processing Chips : May 04 2355
#transfer breadbox, Buried : 10 PFbreadbox : May 04 2355
#transfer breadbox, Buried : 20 A$ : May 04 2355
#transfer breadbox, Buried : Gravitation Monopole : May 04 2355
#transfer breadbox, Buried : Little Bag O' Chips I : May 04 2355

The map to this treasure says:

The treasure shall be found by whoever finds the Hubert Feathers.

breadbox
hopefully adding some incentive

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 23:49:27 -0800
From: "Ross Morgan-Linial" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Treasure

I am creating a treasure worth A$10 called a cheap plastic imitation of the 
Amulet of Yendor. It is made of plastic and looks exactly like the real Amulet 
of Yendor, except for the fact that it has "Made in Taiwan" stamped on the 
back.

#trinket Antimatter:a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor:10
#transfer Antimatter,Buried:a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor

I am burying the cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor. I wrote the 
following on the ground near where I buried it, but I can't read it anymore, 
and I seem to have gotten amnesia. Here is what I can see:

I  y    an rc d this,  c ' e becr pl virg Nctna | tcc nuch.
Donatc  t  o  hc  m  c m.
- -------------------------------
Antimatter * [email-masked]
You have the power of negation.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 03:24:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <devjoe>
Subject: Acka: Treasure

I am creating a trinket called Nethack.  Because it is being created for
a cheap treasure, it isn't worth much -- just A$1.  It looks like a very
complex arrangement of ASCII characters, which makes for an amazingly
interesting game.

I am going to the Museum.  I am donating Nethack to the Museum.
I am then returning to my home.

By the way, Antimatter is right.  I *h vc* bc r pl y rg  cthc k tco mu h.
Although since he pointed me at ADOM, I haven't gone back to nethack.

/dev/joe

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 01:29:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Treasure

> By the way, Antimatter is right.  I *h vc* bc r pl y rg  cthc k tco mu h.

I've never played   cthc k myself (believe it or not), but his map
still made me laugh.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 01:48:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Strange collections of characters

Speaking of strange collections of characters: I was reviewing the
mail from Saturday when I suddenly had a vision. I grabbed a pen and a
scrap of paper and wrote down what I saw as it faded from my mind.
Unfortunately, the pen was almost out of ink. This is what I wrote,
though I'm afraid I can't make sense of it myself:

Tc tn  Gc dcr Frc . it ncan  tn t vc ' c cr tnc r yn  t a k

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:54:16 +0000
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Acka: CFJ 376 (ThinMan)

I really don't think that ThinMan would be a good judge for this CFJ.
Why? ThinMan stole that donkey from breadbox. Sure he could give a 
good comment on the hole case.
Its the same as you ask of someone to judge his own crime. 

CarsesraC

I propose -10 for the Clerk of the Courts. 

> May 04 20:43 EDT: -10 fnord: did not deliver a verdict on CFJ 376
> 
> It has been assigned to ThinMan
> 
> Clerk of the Courts
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Call For Judgement 376
>   Subject: CFJ 364 continued
> Initiator: xebra bod
>     Judge: fnord (failed to deliver verdict)
> 2nd Judge: ThinMan (assigned May 04, 1997, 20:43h EDT)
> Judgement:
> 
> Statement:
> 
> In Round 2 of the current game of Grab-A-Donkey (the results of which
> were released by Wrangler snowgod on 24 Mar 1997), ThinMan grabbed
> breadbox's donkey.
> 
- --               |
 \.             /;       
 \`--.._      //:        
 '\/////\  __/;' 
   '\////\`\`)' [email-masked]          
       \/'  |    
       :'_\'\    
      / | '" "'  
      ~~~

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 06:55:53 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Potato + Aliens

Niccolo Flychuck has found the Magic Potato.

Alien rolls:

1075
1030
695

None of these are rules.

Malenkai
Speaker

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 04:19:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: CFJ 376 (ThinMan)

> I really don't think that ThinMan would be a good judge for this CFJ.
> Why? ThinMan stole that donkey from breadbox. Sure he could give a 
> good comment on the hole case.
> Its the same as you ask of someone to judge his own crime. 

A large part of Ackanomic (and most nomics) is setting aside your
biases when called upon to judge a CFJ.

Furthermore, if ThinMan doubts his ability to judge this CFJ fairly,
he certainly has the option of declining it.

In this case, however, I sincerely hope that ThinMan does *not*
decline it. ThinMan is an excellent judge, and has proven himself to be
more than capable of being impartial.

Furthermore ... you will note that this CFJ is a continuation of CFJ
364. As it turns out, ThinMan had the option of judging that one,
too. He declined it for the exact reason you brought up: a potential
conflict of interest. The CFJ then went on to get tangled up in red
tape, and no definitve judgement was ever returned. If ThinMan had
*not* declined it back then, this whole thing would likely have been
settled over a month ago.

(CFJ 364 could have still been appealed, of course, but since I am on
the Supreme Court, I felt that *my* conflict of interest had the
potential to snarl things up further. That is why I submitted this new
CFJ; I wanted to start afresh.)

> I propose -10 for the Clerk of the Courts. 

I presume that this was meant as a joke. The Clerk of the Courts is
required to choose a judge by random means, as dictated by the
rules. It would be highly inappropriate for em to not obey the rules.

(Now, if you think the rules should prevent players with conflicts of
interest from being selected as judges, that's another matter. Such an
idea has been considered several times in the past. However, it is
extremely difficult to determine exactly what is and isn't a potential
conflict of interest, in a way that can be written down as a rule. In
the end, really, *everybody* has a conflict of interest, since we are
all potentially competing for higher scores. Whenever this has come up
in the past, it has been decided that it's a much better solution to
just trust each other. And there are checks and balances: if you think
somebody was not impartial in their judgement, you can always appeal
it.)

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 04:21:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Potato + Aliens

> Alien rolls:
> 
> 1075
> 1030
> 695
> 
> None of these are rules.

Does this mean we can vote again??

Though, pragmatically speaking, we probably need to wait for acrobot
to be started up again....

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 09:02:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: "A.K.A. TheWiz" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Ackanomic Digest V2 #69

>Here the current Swingpoint totals
>Niccolo Flychuck 9
>Mohammed 7
>When did Red Barn go AWOL?
>
>Use them while they last.
>
>Niccolo Flychuck

  Roughly two weeks ago, now.

- -Red BaRN

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 08:32:32 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: Vulcan

/dev/joe wrote:

> I am volunteering to become Vulcan Swinger.
> 
In case this requires approval, I approve /dev/joe as Vulcan Swinger.
 
> If any player would like to join the Vulcan party, so that we can
> once again get unity votes, contact me or ThinMan.
> 
That's right!  This is your chance to join the party with the best
record of unity votes in the history of Acka!  Memberships are
unlimited (but not guaranteed) so call now!

ThinMan
Vulcan

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 08:48:06 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Treasure (Proper Format This Time?)

Since the treasure map I posted a few days ago hasn't shown up, while more
recent ones have, I conclude that I must be doing something wrong.  So to
borrow the format from breadbox's message:

I am hereby having buried my Inky Bloater.

#transfer Alfvaen, Buried : Inky Bloater : May 02 2313

[The Ackatime that I posted my original message]

The map to this treasure says:

The treasure shall be found by whoever identifies fully(by specifying a
particular author and book title)the book whence comes the name "Tamson
House".

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:I Palindrome I
Current Book--Pat Cadigan:Fools
I've stopped payment on my reality check.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 10:54:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Matt Miller <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Musings.

Charles De Lint's "Newford Chronicles"

IB

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 09:02:10 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Musings.

Well, there seems to be some kind of consensus from the three messages I've
gotten that Charles de Lint must be the author of the book wherefrom Tamson
House sprang.  So it must be true!  But you seem to be having some trouble
identifying the particular book...  two-star sent me a list of de Lint's
complete works, but I didn't think that qualified since he didn't
_identify_ the particular work in question.  snowgod had a memory blank-out
when he tried to think of the title, and IdiotBoy has come up with
something that at least assures me that he's _read_ de Lint, but "Newford
Chronicles" is not the name of a book; if anything, it'd be a good name for
the two short-story collections and one novel set in the town of Newford.
(Of course, Newford is sort of like de Lint's "Castle Rock" sometimes, a
sort of default setting...)

I await further answers.  (I've already got another Fun Fun Fun treasure
idea...whee!  :-)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--They Might Be Giants:I Palindrome I
Current Book--Pat Cadigan:Fools
No generalization is true, not even this one.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 10:15:12 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CFJ 376 (ThinMan)

Malenkai wrote:

> May 04 20:43 EDT: -10 fnord: did not deliver a verdict on CFJ 376
> 
> It has been assigned to ThinMan
> 
Oh no, not again!  I will be ruling on this one, this time.  If
anyone doesn't like my decision then they may feel free to appeal.

ThinMan
Praetor

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 10:39:03 -0500 (CDT)
From: Guy Fawkes <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Otzma Card

I am playing my Otma Card (type Paratroop).

Guy Fawkes

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 10:47:41 -0500
From: "Bollinger, John C." <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CFJ 376 (ThinMan)

breadbox wrote:

[CarsesraC wrote:]
> > I really don't think that ThinMan would be a good judge for this
> CFJ.
> > Why? ThinMan stole that donkey from breadbox. Sure he could give a 
> > good comment on the hole case.
> > Its the same as you ask of someone to judge his own crime. 
> 
> A large part of Ackanomic (and most nomics) is setting aside your
> biases when called upon to judge a CFJ.
> 
> Furthermore, if ThinMan doubts his ability to judge this CFJ fairly,
> he certainly has the option of declining it.
> 
Indeed.

> In this case, however, I sincerely hope that ThinMan does *not*
> decline it. ThinMan is an excellent judge, and has proven himself to
> be
> more than capable of being impartial.
> 
Thanks.  As it turns out, I have not declined; my verdict is now in the
hands of the Clerk of the Courts.  I did not add to breadbox's
argument, which I believe to be valid, because I thought it would be
somewhat disingenuous.  I also point out that the last I heard on the
debate, more or less everyone who cared to comment was in agreement
with breadbox's argument, or at least with the indicated verdict.

> Furthermore ... you will note that this CFJ is a continuation of CFJ
> 364. As it turns out, ThinMan had the option of judging that one,
> too. He declined it for the exact reason you brought up: a potential
> conflict of interest. The CFJ then went on to get tangled up in red
> tape, and no definitve judgement was ever returned. If ThinMan had
> *not* declined it back then, this whole thing would likely have been
> settled over a month ago.
> 
That is the largest part of why I did not decline to judge it this
time.

> > I propose -10 for the Clerk of the Courts. 
> 
> I presume that this was meant as a joke. The Clerk of the Courts is
> required to choose a judge by random means, as dictated by the
> rules. It would be highly inappropriate for em to not obey the rules.
> 
breadbox is correct, if incomplete.  In this case, the CFJ came to me
because the previous judge accepted, but failed to deliver a verdict
within the alotted time.  It is a function of the office of Praetor
(which I hold) to judge or pass on to the Supreme Court all such CFJs.
It is therefore not even random that I was chosen to judge CFJ 376 --
it was required by the rules.  The Clerk of the Courts has always
done an excellent and efficient job of obeying the rules related to
that office.

> (Now, if you think the rules should prevent players with conflicts of
> interest from being selected as judges, that's another matter. Such an
> idea has been considered several times in the past. However, it is
> extremely difficult to determine exactly what is and isn't a potential
> conflict of interest, in a way that can be written down as a rule. In
> the end, really, *everybody* has a conflict of interest, since we are
> all potentially competing for higher scores. Whenever this has come up
> in the past, it has been decided that it's a much better solution to
> just trust each other. And there are checks and balances: if you think
> somebody was not impartial in their judgement, you can always appeal
> it.)
> 
Very true.  And in addition, we have recently made it easier for
officers of the judicial system to decline or otherwise avoid judging
CFJ's regarding which they are partial.  I acknowledge that I have an
interest in _how_ CFJ 376 is resolved, but I am more interested right
no that it _be_ resolved.

ThinMan
Praetor

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 12:25:47 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: CFJ 376 Verdict

CFJ 376 has been judged TRUE

Clerk of the Courts
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Call For Judgement 376
  Subject: CFJ 364 continued
Initiator: xebra bod
    Judge: fnord (failed to deliver verdict)
2nd Judge: ThinMan (assigned May 04, 1997, 20:43h EDT)
Judgement: TRUE

Statement:

In Round 2 of the current game of Grab-A-Donkey (the results of which
were released by Wrangler snowgod on 24 Mar 1997), ThinMan grabbed
breadbox's donkey.

xebra bod's reasoning:

The Supreme Court's reasoning for its decision on the highly similar
CFJ 364 seemed to hinge upon the question of whether the Little Lamb
was "grabbed before, after, or simultaneously with, the grabbing of
Donkeys". Since the court found no clear answer to this question, it
returned a decision of UNDECIDED. To be specific, it saw the
"simultaneously with" case to be unplayable, but could find no reason
to prefer either "before" or "after".

I wish to argue that the question itself is misguided, which is why
there is no clear answer for it to be found, and that Rule 1213 is not
ambiguous (though perhaps not worded as forcefully as it needs to be),
and that the correct verdict for this CFJ should be TRUE.

Firstly, consider the game of Grab-a-Donkey when the Little Lamb is
not involved. Upon a careful reading, one will notice that the Rule
carefully avoids any situation wherein two or more players could be
grabbing a single donkey (by having all such players automatically
fail), or wherein a player could attempt to grab a donkey that is not
there (by having players without donkeys removed from the GAL before
any further grabs are possible). What this means is that the Wrangler
only needs to know the state of the game at the moment the current
round began, and what every player's move is.

This is important for two reasons. First, at no point does the
Wrangler need to determine the outcome of one player's move before
being able to determine another's. Second, the Wrangler cannot
determine any of the moves' outcomes until every player's move is
known.

Once these conditions are observed, it becomes obvious that this is no
accident. Section E of Rule 1213 states: "At the end of the Round, the
Wrangler will publicly report what each player on the GAL did, and
determine the results." Clearly, the results are not determined before
all the moves have been submitted. We will come back to this.

Grab-a-Donkey is structured similarly to a cellular automaton (such as
Conway's Game of Life), in which, at any given "round", the state of
each cell is dependent upon the states of its neighbors. Like players
in Grab-a-Donkey, a given cell's state at the end of a round is
determined by considering the states of its neighbors at the beginning
of that round. Even though the neighbors are undergoing state changes
of their own, none of these changes can actually affect the cell's
outcome. It is the states of the cells at the beginning of the round
that is used to determine their states at the end. To ask if the cells
all change their states simultaneously, or instantaneously, is to ask
moot questions, as these considerations have no bearing on determining
the outcome of each round. They are non-issues.

Now: with all this in mind, let us take a closer look at what the rule
actually says. The passage under scrutiny is section C. It begins: "If
exactly one player ('A') chose to grab another player's donkey ('B'),
and if B did not Cover their donkey, then B will lose their donkey and
be removed from the GAL at the start of the following Round ..." Note
that it does not say that player B loses their donkey; it says that
player B *will* lose their donkey. (So exactly when does B lose eir
donkey? At the start of the next round? when the Wrangler posts the
results? or maybe an infinitesimal amount of time after the grab?
Again, such questions are moot. They ignore the fact that either way,
the results of the round - and of the following rounds - are exactly
the same.)

The rule then continues: "... unless player B is in possesion [sic] of
the Little Lamb, in which case A will become confused and grab the
lamb by mistake and B will remain in possesion [sic] of his donkey.
(In this situation, possesion [sic] of the Little Lamb will transfer
to player A.)" Without specific wording to the contrary, I argue that
it would be a perverse reading indeed that treated the time referred
to by the clause "the Little Lamb will transfer to player A" as
meaning a significantly different point in the game as that referred
to by the clause "B will lose their donkey", especially considering
that they both appear in the same sentence. In fact, considering the
wording of Section E, I argue that the point in time referred to is
none other than at the end of the round.

In the situation that forms the question of this CFJ, the round began
with Malenkai, ThinMan, and breadbox on the GAL (among others), and
with Malenkai possessing the Little Lamb. Malenkai made a move other
than to Cover his Donkey, breadbox attempted to grab Malenkai's
donkey, and ThinMan attempted to grab breadbox's donkey.

For ThinMan to successfully grab the Little Lamb would require
breadbox to be in possession of the Little Lamb. Not to be at some
point soon, but at the time that the results of ThinMan's move is
being determined. Which means that breadbox's move must have already
been completed, and its outcome already determined and enacted, at
some point in time before the results of ThinMan's move is being
determined.

Once again I quote Section E: "At the end of the Round, the Wrangler
will publicly report what each player on the GAL did, and determine
the results." Surely the results of each player's moves cannot be
enacted before they have even been determined? It seems clear that
breadbox cannot possess the Little Lamb any earlier than the end of
the round.

Consider also: what if somebody else had also attempted to grab
Malenkai's donkey? In that case, breadbox's attempt to grab anything
of Malenkai's would fail, and he would not possess the Little Lamb at
any point during that round. breadbox's successful possession of the
Little Lamb is dependent upon the moves of every other player.

I argue that the outcome of one player's move cannot be sensibly
construed as being enacted before the results of every move have been
determined.

ThinMan's Reasoning:

Despite being an interested party in this matter, I submit a
judgement to try to get it  out of the judicial system, where it has
been kicking around for over a month.  The general consensus appears to
be in agreement with Xebra Bod's reasoning, or at least with the
indicated verdict.  I judge TRUE without further comment.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 12:50:56 -0400
From: Malenkai <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Vacation

I am placing myself on vacation, with an expected return date of
June 01, 00:01 hrs.  I will be leaving for Europe and Africa around
noon, May 8th.  Given that I could not complete any three day tasks
presented to me (such as nominations/elections) because of the 
hard departure date, it makes sense to go on vacation now to avoid that
problem (it also makes sense to go now, rather than be forced on by
quorum failure due to the aliens; I may be able to come back in a 
couple of days, and in so doing, clean some gook up).

1) ThinMan has volunteered to be Acting Speaker in my absense, and I
thank him very much for this.  I will post a list of stuff to him
tonite that I know has to be handled at certain dates.

2) The CotC and Count Tabula and Current Events dockets are clear at
this time; hence another reason for this timing.

3) snowgod will be Acting CotC, and Mohammed will be Acting Count
Tabula.  I want my jobs back when I come back :)

4) As for the Treasure web pages, I did not miss the Charles De Lint
treasure or any other; no updates to my pages have occurred in the last
few days, so unless someone has compromised my account, no treasure
info *after* that treasure was originally posted are up there either.
I intend to update all those pages before I leave, but I have been 
pressed for time due to preparations, and those pages are kept 
unofficially anyway.

5) Like I said, I will be here for the next three days, and will help
out with stuff where possible, and be on IRC (hopefully to play a game
of chess or two).  If anyone is interested, I will be tracking black
rhino in Zimbabwe after a quick trip to Saaremaa.  Details can be found
at http://www.earthwatch.org/x/Xalibhai.html, or check out the wonderful
work Earthwatch does at http://www.earthwatch.org

Malenkai

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 11:05:14 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Vacation

> 4) As for the Treasure web pages, I did not miss the Charles De Lint
> treasure or any other; no updates to my pages have occurred in the last
> few days, so unless someone has compromised my account, no treasure
> info *after* that treasure was originally posted are up there either.

A thousand pardons for impugning you, O Great One; just think of me as the
new guy who's running around all over the place saying "I wanna play now!
C'mon guys!  Why are you so slow?"  Full of the exuberance and freshness
of...well, game-youth, at least.

> I intend to update all those pages before I leave, but I have been 
> pressed for time due to preparations, and those pages are kept 
> unofficially anyway.

So who, if anyone, is going to be unofficially keeping them in your
absence?

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Song In My Head--Split Enz:Message To My Girl
Current Book--Pat Cadigan:Fools
"Exit?  Does it say 'exit'?"

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:55:42 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: House, Trinket and Treasure (fwd)

I tried sending this a couple of days ago, but apparently it didn't go
through. Here is my second guess on the treasure.

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 10:46:35 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
To: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: House, Trinket and Treasure

> Nice try, but I'm afraid that, in my view at least, to _identify_ a book,
> you have to do more than say, "It's one of the books in this list."  But if
> you are convinced that it has something to do with this Mr. de Lint, then
> you'll have to read all his books(or at least synopses thereof)to satisfy
> yourself one way or the other.
>  
I guess. But to send thirty-odd separate messages each _identifying_
one book would have been just plain rude. Anyway I found a more helpful
De Lint bibliography that lists _Moonheart_ as first in the Tamson House
series, and _Spiritwalk_ as second in the Tamson House series.

As it happens, I am reading Dreams Underfoot at the moment, and I like it
quite a bit. If you can recommend any other De Lint books, I would be much
obliged. After this treasure hunt is over, of course.

**two-star

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 23:53:33 -0700
From: **Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: yet another treasure

Good morning, Acka!
Curious things have been happening on my computer lately. I discovered
that at some times it would crash at the slightest provocation, and at
other times it worked quite smoothly. I finally dedused the one factor
common to every instance of my computer crashing, and with a few clicks,
I fixed the problem. Now in any circumstance where my computer would
have crashed before, it is stable, and in any circumstance where it
would have been stable, it crashes. Seeing as discovering the nature of
my problem was a challenging puzzle to me, I thought it might be
interesting for the rest of you, so the first person to publicly and
correctly state what I did to "fix" the problem will find the treasure
that I am about to create and bury. All of the information you need is
here.

I am creating a trinket called Falafel Fallen Off, worth 11 A$. It is
made mostly of garbanzo beans and spices and stuff, and it is lying in
front of my foot, where I accidently dropped it. It is half covered with
a cucumber yogurt sauce.

#trinket two-star:Falafel Fallen Off:11

I am burying it.

#transfer two-star,Buried:Falafel Fallen Off

The text of the map to this treasure is this post.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:08:53 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: House, Trinket and Treasure (fwd)

I tried sending this a couple of days ago, but apparently it didn't go
through. Here is my second guess on the treasure.

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 10:46:35 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
To: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: House, Trinket and Treasure

> Nice try, but I'm afraid that, in my view at least, to _identify_ a book,
> you have to do more than say, "It's one of the books in this list."  But if
> you are convinced that it has something to do with this Mr. de Lint, then
> you'll have to read all his books(or at least synopses thereof)to satisfy
> yourself one way or the other.
>  
I guess. But to send thirty-odd separate messages each _identifying_
one book would have been just plain rude. Anyway I found a more helpful
De Lint bibliography that lists _Moonheart_ as first in the Tamson House
series, and _Spiritwalk_ as second in the Tamson House series.

As it happens, I am reading Dreams Underfoot at the moment, and I like it
quite a bit. If you can recommend any other De Lint books, I would be much
obliged. After this treasure hunt is over, of course.

**two-star

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 12:21:48 -0700
From: **Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re Acka: House Trinket and Treasure

I tried sending this a couple of days ago, but apparently it didn't go
through. Here is my second guess on the treasure.

- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 10:46:35 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alexandre Muniz <[email-masked]>
To: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: House, Trinket and Treasure

> Nice try, but I'm afraid that, in my view at least, to _identify_ a book,
> you have to do more than say, "It's one of the books in this list."  But if
> you are convinced that it has something to do with this Mr. de Lint, then
> you'll have to read all his books(or at least synopses thereof)to satisfy 
> yourself one way or the other.
>I guess. But to send thirty-odd separate messages each _identifying_
one book would have been just plain rude. Anyway I found a more helpful
De Lint bibliography that lists _Moonheart_ as first in the Tamson House
series, and _Spiritwalk_ as second in the Tamson House series.

As it happens, I am reading Dreams Underfoot at the moment, and I like 
it
quite a bit. If you can recommend any other De Lint books, I would be 
much
obliged. After this treasure hunt is over, of course.

**two-star

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:20:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: yet another treasure

> I finally dedused the one factor common to every instance of my
> computer crashing, and with a few clicks, I fixed the problem. Now
> in any circumstance where my computer would have crashed before, it
> is stable, and in any circumstance where it would have been stable,
> it crashes. Seeing as discovering the nature of my problem was a
> challenging puzzle to me, I thought it might be interesting for the
> rest of you, so the first person to publicly and correctly state
> what I did to "fix" the problem will find the treasure that I am
> about to create and bury. All of the information you need is here.

That last sentence is the key. There is hardly any information here at
all, so for that paltry amount to be sufficient can only mean one
thing.

You turned the computer off. By doing so, in every circumstance (ie, a
sequence of key strokes or other user actions) where it would have
crashed before (every time), it is stable now. And in any circumstance
where it would have been stable (never), it crashes.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 15:18:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: "A.K.A. TheWiz" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: yet another treasure

>common to every instance of my computer crashing, and with a few clicks,
>I fixed the problem. Now in any circumstance where my computer would
>have crashed before, it is stable, and in any circumstance where it
>would have been stable, it crashes. Seeing as discovering the nature of

  Hmmm... before, the power wasn't on, so you clicked the power button a
few times, and now it crashes when it's off and works when it's on?

- -Red Barn

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:30:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Acka: CFJ 376 (ThinMan)

> Thanks.  As it turns out, I have not declined; my verdict is now in the
> hands of the Clerk of the Courts.  I did not add to breadbox's
> argument, which I believe to be valid, because I thought it would be
> somewhat disingenuous.  I also point out that the last I heard on the
> debate, more or less everyone who cared to comment was in agreement
> with breadbox's argument, or at least with the indicated verdict.

You might also note that the two "opposing" parties are myself - the
CFJ's initiator - and yourself - the CFJ's judge - and we are in full
agreement as to the verdict.

> breadbox is correct, if incomplete.  In this case, the CFJ came to me
> because the previous judge accepted, but failed to deliver a verdict
> within the alotted time.  It is a function of the office of Praetor
> (which I hold) to judge or pass on to the Supreme Court all such CFJs.
> It is therefore not even random that I was chosen to judge CFJ 376 --
> it was required by the rules.

Whoops. Excuse me; that is of course correct. For some reason, I can't
get used to the Praetor Rule, even though we've had it for more than
half of the time I've been in the game. (No offense intended, btw.)

> The Clerk of the Courts has always done an excellent and efficient
> job of obeying the rules related to that office.

I heartily second that.

breadbox

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 12:32:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: yet another treasure

>> common to every instance of my computer crashing, and with a few clicks,
>> I fixed the problem. Now in any circumstance where my computer would
>> have crashed before, it is stable, and in any circumstance where it
>> would have been stable, it crashes. Seeing as discovering the nature of
> 
>   Hmmm... before, the power wasn't on, so you clicked the power button a
> few times, and now it crashes when it's off and works when it's on?

Hubert! Hubert! Hubert!

breadbox
should've gone and dug up those damn feathers myself

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 15:53:03 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Treasure Found

two-star wrote:
> Anyway I found a more helpful
> De Lint bibliography that lists _Moonheart_ as first in the Tamson House
> series, and _Spiritwalk_ as second in the Tamson House series.

And two-star has correctly identified the title of the book--both of them,
actually, because, as I forgot until after I'd posted my original query.  I
suppose I would have accepted either.  And I also forgot(though nobody
seems to have checked)that I actually have a review of _Spiritwalk_ on my
own site, though the only mention of Tamson House is in the bibliographic
info at the bottom...

Anyway, two-star is now the proud owner of an Inky Bloater!  Be sure not to
feed it regularly.

> As it happens, I am reading Dreams Underfoot at the moment, and I like 
> it quite a bit. If you can recommend any other De Lint books, I would be 
> much obliged. After this treasure hunt is over, of course.

This should probably go private, but let me just mention _Moonheart_ itself
and _The Little Country_ as among his best novels; if you like the Newford
stories from _DU_, _The Ivory & The Horn_ has some longer ones, and _Memory
And Dream_ is a novel-length one.

I will be announcing a new treasure hunt shortly, just as soon as I've
worked up a description for the Trinket which shall form its treasure.  (I
have lots of ideas for trinkets, but I'll try to restrain myself from
making too many until there is an actual Trinket-Harfer...)

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Current Album--Murray McLauchlan:The Modern Age
Current Book--Pat Cadigan:Fools
This is not a rebel song, this is 'O Canada'!

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 16:17:39 -0600 (MDT)
From: Aaron Humphrey <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: New Treasure

I now create a new treasure, the Manx Cat, with a value of A$30.

The Manx Cat is a dark-coloured statue of a cat--made of some dark, shiny
substance.  Under different lights it will look purple, indigo, navy blue,
dark green, or even black.  The cat depicted is an impossibly slender,
stylized sitting cat, with of course no tail.

It will promise you everything you ever wanted, if you just take it with
you.  But it lies.

#trinket Alfvaen:Manx Cat:30

I will then immediately bury this treasure, with the following map:

#transfer Alfvaen,Buried:Manx Cat

Some of you may have noticed that in my email signature, I include
something different every time on the bottom line(which I call a
"tagline", from the time spent on Fidonet).  These come from a variety
of sources--some from my own twisted little brain, some from other
people's collections, some from song lyrics, some from books, some from
the Net, some from comics.  Now they don't all have identifiable
sources, but some do.

All you need to do, to discover the Manx Cat, is to identify...well,
let's say three of these, for now.  I'm looking for the source,
specified as explicitly as possible--if it's a song, the title and at
least one artist who's recored it.  I'll let you know if you've
specified it well enough.  If I've already attributed it--it's got
something like "--billbill" on the end--it doesn't count either.  (Most
of those are from the good folks on talk.bizarre, with some
exceptions.) For your own benefit, send it in a private message to me,
because if you spill it publicly, anyone else can send it in, too.  You
don't need to identify them all at once; I'll keep track of who's sent
in how many.  (Oh, yeah, they're only eligible if I've posted them in a
_public_ message to one of the Acka mailing lists.)

I'll be putting up a list of the taglines at 
http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/acka/tags.html sometime tonight, and try
to keep it up to date, for those people who don't archive all their email
like I do.  :-)  And I will be continuing to post more of them on new
messages.  I'm genuinely curious to see which ones people will be able to
identify, and who will be able to.  There may be some clues on my Web page,
since for instance I've got my entire album collection up there.  I don't
care how you get your information, if you've got the right answer.

And if you have an attribution that I don't know about, then you'll have to
give me enough information to check on it myself, but if you're right, you
get two points for that one.

Good luck to you all!

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.terranet.ab.ca/~aaron/)
Current Album--Murray McLauchlan:The Modern Age
Current Book--Pat Cadigan:Fools
Life is complex.  It has real and imaginary parts.

------------------------------

End of Ackanomic Digest V2 #75
******************************