Notes from Hades

nother issue, another trip. This time, London. I arrived early Sunday morning, and when I got to my hotel, my room was not yet available. Since the hotel was right next to the London Eye, I took a “flight” on it. Despite the fact that the weather was slightly hazy, the view from there is pretty amazing. It's right across the river from parliament and Big Ben, and much of central London is visible. I still had plenty of time to kill afterwards, and so I took a walk and stumbled across the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, part of the Imperial War Museum. Most of the area is the underground bunker in which the British Cabinet spent most of World War II, particularly during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Much of it has been preserved, and you can see the quite austere environment in which they functioned. The Churchill Museum is located in what was back then a storage room, and has quite a few interesting interactive exhibits spanning the entire life of Winston Churchill. The most interesting was a long table at the center which has touch sensitive panels along the side. It displays a timeline of Churchill's life, and the pads allow you to zoom in on particular dates of interest. You can easily spend hours there.

Later during my trip, I was able to have dinner with Chris Geggus. I also had dinner with a former subscriber, Mike Stewart. It was nice to reconnect with both of therm.

Beyond that, the most notable item of interest was that I got back the results from my second foray into the Orange County Fair Home Wine Competition. This year, I entered three wines: my plum wine, a blackberry port, and a chardonnay. The chardonnay didn't get anything, but the blackberry port got an honorable mention, and the plum once again got a gold. I'm just about to start a new batch of plum, and based on my feedback, I am hoping to get double gold for two years from now with it. In next year's competition, I will be entering the plum wine I started last year. Wine making is not a quick process, especially if you want to do it right.

The next deadline is Tuesday, August 18 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please do not call or fax orders after 10:00 p.m. Pacific time. My wife and I tend to retire early. Also, if you want to fax in orders, call first. We hang up on unannounced faxes.

Hunter. Silverton. Will start after Terrier ends. Have Dave Partridge, Michael Longdin, Ward Narhi, Cary Nichols, Bill Scharf, and Dave Hooton. This game is full.

Dogbreath. History of the World. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, Andy Lewis, Kevin Wilson, Dave Anderson, will take up to 2 more.

Basset. Outpost. Will start after Hound ends. Have Andy York, Cary Nichols, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, Eric Brosius, Andy Lewis, Michael Lowrey, and Kevin Wilson will take up to 2 more.

Bolognese. Machiavelli. Gunboat. This game will start after the next Machiavelli game ends. Have 5, will take up to 3 more.

Boston Terrier. New World. This will use the exploration variant, plus the Non-Player Nations variant in the event I get less than 6 players. Have Andy York, Andy Lewis, Dave Partridge, Bob Robles, and Dave Hood, will take up to 1 more.

Purebred. Machiavelli. This game will start after the second Machiavelli game ends. Have Ward Narhi, Bob Robles, Pasquale Giovine, Dave Partridge, and Walt O'Hara, will take up to 3 more.

Industrial Waste. Have Andy York and Dave Partridge, will take up to 2 more.

Silverton. Will start after Hunter ends. Have Eric Brosius, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, will take up to 3 more.

Kremlin. Will start after Pateel ends. Have Walt O'Hara. Will take up to 5 more.

Seavarers of Catan. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton. Will take up to 3 more.

Outpost. Will start after Basset ends. Have Eric Brosius, will take up to 9 more.

Goa. Will take up to 4.

In general, game ownership is recommended, but not required.

Note that a subscription to S.O.B. is not required to play in a game run by flier, but that a game fee will be charged to non-subbers.

S.O.B. is a zine of unusual postal games, and anything else I feel like including. Your publisher is:

Chris Hassler a.k.a. Cerberus

2000 S. Armour Court

La Habra, CA 90631

Phone: (562) 690-7827

Fax: (562) 690-7827

chassler@roadrunner.com

Subscriptions cost $2.00 per issue ($3.00 overseas). Web subscription is free.