Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu!v056qkt3 From: v056qkt3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (William W Haskell) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: rabbits and bodily functions... Keywords: You've got thawt look again.... Message-ID: <21927@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Date: 16 Apr 90 14:43:08 GMT Sender: nobody@acsu.Buffalo.EDU Reply-To: v056qkt3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu Organization: University at Buffalo Lines: 5 And there he sat, with that look on his face. That "I'm peeing in the corner again" look. :) ...wildy Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!acsu.buffalo.edu!haskell From: haskell@acsu.buffalo.edu (william w haskell) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: a little fall of rain.... Message-ID: <21931@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Date: 16 Apr 90 14:54:46 GMT Sender: nobody@acsu.Buffalo.EDU Organization: SUNY Buffalo Lines: 35 The poets voice rises from the corner. There is an eerily serene quality to his voice. "I have found many things in my life. Things that are both wonderful and strange. The greatest thing I have ever found is a friend. I came to a time in myu life not too long ago when I truly believed that I would find them no more. I have been proven wrong. This is for a friend, who shall remain nameless, but she will know... For by bringing her presence into my sphere, I am learning through her to see many things beautiful once more, s is reflected here... " Grass blades peaking o'er the ocean Fencing the depths a refelction of the sky trapped within alas, the clouds, looking down, see a rival and in their fury, attempt to assure their reign spirals start upon the sea setting the captive image free and the sky rains no more happily knowing there is no other ...wildy 14-april, 1990 The poet falls back into a seeming trance, but there is the faint touch of a smile upon his lips. ...wildy v056qkt3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Wildy Haskell v056qkt3@ubvms.bitnet 276 W. Circular St. Ext. haskell@lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 haskell@autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu Come Sail Away With Me... Path: mit-eddie!media-lab!snorkelwacker!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!xavier!news From: nap92@campus.swarthmore.edu Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: *sigh* Message-ID: Date: 16 Apr 90 18:01:46 GMT Sender: news@xavier.swarthmore.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Swarthmore College Lines: 39 Nao comes out of her corner, a distant, happy look in her eyes. She looks dazed and tired. She shakes her head to wake up a bit and heads over to the bar. "Mike, I need something special. THis is kind of an important post. I guess I'll just take my old favorite, though. A root beer, if you please." She takes the root beer, and hands Mike the requisite dollar bill. Her eyes look around the bar, and light upon Orion. "Oh, there you are. I was going to send you e-mail, but I figured I might as well just say this as long as I'm here. I'd be glad if you could pipe for us! Scottish Country Dancing need Scottish music, and live is definitely the best." She smiles happily. "We've now got four people dancing, one interested newcomer, and a piper. We're almost ready for a set of Fugal Fergus! Just four more definite people, PLEASE? We can make do with two definites, but four is preferable." She sighs. Now comes the important part... "I'm in the plight of many people here. It's approaching the end of the year, and all the students are getting panicked. Me included. Gotta catch up on the two classes I've got left. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about taxes anymore, since I got those mailed off. So you won't be seeing as much of me as you have been, until we get a set of dancers, at any rate, at which point we'll have a dance. So, I hope to see you soon. I plan on being around for the summer, at any rate, so I can catch up on stuff then. I wish I could spend more time here...." She walks up to the chalk line, and drinks her root beer. She looks bemused at Ender and Hildebaby. "Strange to think that was a year ago already! Anyway-- "To Time--there's always enough, but there never is!" *KRRASH!* Nao skip-changes back to the dancing corner..... / v \ | Nao Parkhurst | H.I.S.C.D. | | nap92@campus.swarthmore.edu | | | nap92@swarthmr.bitnet | | \ ^ / Path: mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!xavier!news From: hrr91@campus.swarthmore.edu Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: rabbits and bodily functions... Message-ID: Date: 16 Apr 90 18:52:06 GMT Sender: news@xavier.swarthmore.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Swarthmore College Lines: 25 In article <21927@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, v056qkt3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (William W Haskell) writes... > > And there he sat, with that look on his face. That "I'm peeing in the >corner again" look. :) > > ...wildy > Eretria looks disgusted as she rises from her seat and moves over to wildy's chair. She rolls a piece of paper he has just written on and the ink flows out of it, still wet, moving like a black stream to pool on the table below as she quietly raises the roll of paper and hits the poet on the head with it. Hoping nobody noticed her, she moves back to her seat and wraps herself in the blue-black silk she'd left on the floor before she began dancing with Nao. The room is cold, she feel, cold not with the leftover dew, but with the misery of humankind. She protects herself against it, rubbing her face against two bright colored fuzzies and a black rabbit. ____________________________________________________________________ Hannah Rosner // "If it were now to die, // 'Twere now to be most happy." // --Shakespeare's _Othello_ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Path: mit-eddie!media-lab!snorkelwacker!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!xavier!news From: hrr91@campus.swarthmore.edu Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: *sigh* Message-ID: <7JQHX7B@xavier.swarthmore.edu> Date: 16 Apr 90 19:06:19 GMT Sender: news@xavier.swarthmore.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Swarthmore College Lines: 33 In article , nap92@campus.swarthmore.edu writes... >Nao comes out of her corner, a distant, happy look in her eyes. She looks dazed >and tired. She shakes her head to wake up a bit and heads over to the bar. >"Mike, I need something special. THis is kind of an important post. I guess >I'll just take my old favorite, though. A root beer, if you please." Eretria visibly shakes herself, as if the sudden happiness of a single human is enough to throw her longingness for this one's happiness. It is a surprise for her, what a single weekend can bring about in a person. She herself is happy with the spring air and suddenly throws the sir of those herry blossoms about the room as if they had not fellen off long since to be trampled underfoot. Her own weekend was busy, though happy in itself in reinstated friendships and new found others. She drips diamonds into newcomer's laps as she rises once again, and throws off the cloak as Nao's happiness warms her. The rabbit she places outside the window in a patch of violets that were once placed there. /"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. And pansies, that's for thoughts. I would give you violets, but they withered all when my father died."/ But these violets stand for true friendship, and outside the window they sparkle in the leftovers of dew and trace themselves in sparkling pastel rainbows. As she walks back to th dancing corner she steals a hug from Hildy. >"We've now got four people dancing, one interested newcomer, and a piper. We're >almost ready for a set of Fugal Fergus! Just four more definite people, >PLEASE? We can make do with two definites, but four is preferable." Eretria smiles to herself /I had thought that the time for dancing was over, but it seems that it was just beginning. An interested newcomer, a piper, and four others. I believe the poet needs must dance to feel his own humanity. Would that make a total, Nao?/ ___________________________________________________________________________ // "Beware, my lord, of jealousy. Hannah Rosner // 'Tis the green-eyed monster // That doth mock the meat it feed on." // --Shakespeare's _Othello_ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Path: mit-eddie!mintaka!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!shelby!lindy!news From: GE.LJB@forsythe.stanford.edu (Louis J Bookbinder) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: expectations Message-ID: <8987@lindy.Stanford.EDU> Date: 16 Apr 90 17:31:29 GMT Sender: news@lindy.Stanford.EDU (News Service) Lines: 163 CLANK, COFF, CLUNK, HACK, stumble bump, CLINK Nick staggers in from vacation, a slight sunburn (really), and a cold, from which he is recovering - slowly. He looks at the depleted woodpile, the scattered glass shards, scortches from various flammable fluids toasted. He shakes his head and sighs. "Back to work! "I'm glad Diana pointed out that sometimes sharing and being sympathetic and offering advice are not sufficient to help people in trouble. We need to remember that if the solution to the world's trouble was that simple, it would have been solved long ago. That is not the mission of Alt.Callahans. Why IS alt.callahans here and what needs does it serve? "It is here because we are, and serves our needs. "Since I can only speak for myself, I will spout off only about my own reasons. I hope some of this applies also to you and others. "I am here because I am an incurable romantic. I read "The Guy with the Eyes" way back in 72 or whatever in Analog, and immediately fell in love with the place. I saw that it was a fantasy - that the real world couldn't possibly work that way - that real people who go to bars usually have too many of their own problems to care about the problems of others. But it was a lovely dream, anyhow. Here were a mixed bunch of non-mainstream (certainly not Yuppie!) part-failures who somehow found the spirit and love to create an atmosphere of trust, understanding, and joy, without getting preachy or religious. And having a hell of a lot of fun doing it. If only....." Nick stares off into space for a moment, then continues his monologue: "I have shared this story with others along the way (even reading it aloud in a teen group) and found mixed reactions. Most knew at once that it was fantasy and shrugged it off as such. A few believed in it completely. And a very few thought about it for a long time and tried to see if it was a useful set of ideas. (NOTE: Isn't it funny how people reject obvious fantasies out of hand while accepting uncritically the more serious fantasies in their lives? Like the fantasies of unlimited natural resources, democratic government, civilian control of the police and the military, or the fantasy of self-control over drug and alcohol habits, or the more obvious fantasies of religion, faith healers, psychic powers and the like. It all points out that if we were completely grounded in the real world, we'd have given up struggling to keep our heads above the surface of the pile of shit we are in. Well, it aint really that bad, but it sure gets depressing at times)" Nick looks sad, but pulls himself together and straightens up. "The story's chief effect on my life was to allow me to remain optimistic about human decency. I could now look at the world, at the horrible mess we've made of things, and see that there were still good people here, that sometimes all we can do about the pain and suffering, when we can no longer correct it, is to share it, to love each other, and to laugh once in a while, and to share the laughter. This part of the Callahans story is NOT fantasy. It is as real as the people here who make it so, and I love you all." Nick blows a kiss around the room. "October 1989 was one of those turning points of history - for me at least. No big trauma or crisis, but the world changed in a lot of ways. The Berlin Wall began to crumble. The San Francisco Bay Area suffered a massive quake which jolted people out of their complacency as well as their homes. And Alt.Callahans was created. Why all at once? Coincidence? "I jumped on a.c. immediately. If it was to be at all like the "real" thing, it would be terrific. So I wanted to see just how the paradigm got realized. "I was astounded and delighted. It seems hundreds of others read the stories and felt somewhat like I did, that people were basically OK, that sharing pain and joy was a productive activity, and that fun was an essential human endeavor. "We do have fun. a.c is an outrageous costume party, a role playing game, a humor pool, an ego trip. Even if, like me, you don't know how to say funny things, you can get enough here to lighten your day. We have fantasy - vampires and were-persons, time travelers and Star Trek crews, a green tiger and a tin woodman and animated warm fuzzies. We have pathos aplenty - the joy of new found love, the pain of rejection and loneliness and failure, people sharing hopes and fears, happiness and sorrow. Heavy. "People immediately started adopting personas to post from - instead of coming in as themselves, they came as something at least slightly else. Not all of them, but enough. I adopted a kind of undefined human persona, then "accidently" picked up this one when one of us mentioned OZ (Oktave claims it was she). It fit so well I've kept it since. "Nick Chopper took on a life of his own. Many of the events he experienced were not planned by his owner. They sort of grew out of the cooperative imagination of all the patrons. The internal logic has not been terribly strong, but strong enough to get me to believe in it as a kind of separate reality. The role-playing becomes easier with time, yet more demanding. I LIKE being the Tin Woodman of Oz. I want to WORK at being a good Tin Woodman. It is also a lot of fun. "While my persona was evolving, so was the Place. Without exception, to my knowledge, everyone who posted accepted the paradigm of the bar. The regulars (Mike, Tom Hauptman, Doc, Jake, Fast Eddie) are there in minor ways. Sometimes posters use them to simulate dialogue. There are drinks - the famous "If Mike ever heard of it, he'll serve it; if he hasn't he'll get it and serve it free" offer. There is the Deal - the chalkline, the toast, the fireplace. There is the piano and the puns and the tall tales and high-back chairs and the circular stairway and much of the rest." Nick waves a metal arm around the room. "Then we added a few things. we knew there were lurkers - readers who never post - so we gave them tables in dark corners of the Place, and since there must then be so many corners, we gave the Place a fractal character. Some more features were added - a bulletin board, windows onto alternate worlds, rafters. At the last West Coast meeting (only 6 of us, to be sure) we spent an hour comparing drawings of our individual concepts of the floorplan. Lots of differences, but many similarities. "The most important feature of the paradigm is, however, not the "physical" setting and characters at all. It is the Basic Rule of Callahans - nobody pries, nobody condemns, we all listen, and we empathize if we can. "I am always amazed at the anti-flame effect of the Basic Rule. In January someone posed a question about ethics (from a college course, I think). I flippantly shrugged it off in a posting in which I used a few words which were taken personally. The original poster complained to me in a private EM. As a result, Nick Chopper flamed himself, in public, for the response! I still don't know how it happened; it was rather independent of his owner. The event started a rather interesting episode with Nick's axe. It was kind of fun in the long run. There were one or two more near-flames, but the level has been astoundingly low for a group dealing with personal feelings, ethics, behavior, and the like." Nick pauses for breath, lifts his cap (an old tin funnel), and takes out the warm fuzzy there. It says "QUEEP?". Nick carefully rubs it against the patch over his heart, then puts it back on his head and replaces the cap. "Bottom Line Time - what is this worth? Well, it won't solve all the world's problems. It may not even be of much help to anybody - a.c. is brand-new and the verdict is not yet in. Realistically, this whole thing is a bunch of ego-trips. Those who post are showing off - we like the sound of our own voices and the shape of our own words. But the paradigm organizes our egotism in useful ways - we try to live up to the Callahan's standards of empathy, acceptance, and caring. This channels the ego toward constructive ends - which is as much as you can ask of any group - from a bridge club to a government. So you have to ask a more personal question - what do I, Nick Chopper, do in alt.callahans and why is it good? I post things like this. I respond to the posts of others. I try to add to the hope, warmth and fun. I spend time in this alternate reality learning empathy (very hard for me). "I hope I have helped one or two others. I have had some positive feedback to that effect. You have no conception how happy it makes me when someone gives Nick a warm fuzzie. Yes, it is egotism for sure. Considering what goes on here, egotism is not a bad thing, I think. "I doubt if anybody who asks for help here is ever going to have us solve all their problems. A.C. is not a miracle. It is just us dumb people playing our games and hoping for the best. But if even a few can find an easing of pain or some brief happiness or a taste of fun, that is miracle enough!" Nick staggers back to get his buckets and broom. Nick Chopper - my opinion? dont ax! LB>- GE.LJB@Forsythe.stanford.edu Path: mit-eddie!bu.edu!bucsf.bu.edu!austin From: austin@bucsf.bu.edu (Austin H. Ziegler, III) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Happiness!!! Message-ID: Date: 16 Apr 90 18:11:20 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Boston University College of Engineering Lines: 37 In-reply-to: austin@bucsf.bu.edu's message of 12 Apr 90 17:20:25 GMT "Greetings, friends," booms Austin as he enters the Place. You hadn't seen him leave, but he is entering again. "I've been in New Hampshire all weekend. I had an *awesome* Easter weekend. Let me replay what I said Thursday night because this is an addendum to it: > "No, this is not just another joy posting. I've found someone that > I really like and that really likes me for who I am. There is just one > problem. You see, she met someone else just before she met me. And when > she found that she liked me, she (rightly) said she just can't dump the > other guy. The worst part is that Ron and I are good friends. Well, we > came upon a setup: she will date us (both of us), and choose between us. > Right now, (in my biased opinion) I think I'm the best 'candidate' but if > she should choose Ron, I'm very willing to back out. I'm keeping my > fingers crossed." "Whereas that was not just another joy posting, this one is. You see, Mary chose me this weekend. Ron has graciously backed out and we are being very careful of his feelings. Mary is a lot like I am, and I'm glad she chose me. She doesn't have net access, but I will tell you, she is one of the greatest people I know. Were she able to be here, she'd want to look like this:" He works a little bit of illusory magic. In the air forms a sprite with brunette hair. Her eyes are hazel and the pupils look as if they are the moon passing before the sun in eclispe. She is a statuesque five-foot four and one-half. There is an emphasis on the one-half. "Diet Sprite again, Mike." "To true happiness and love. May Mary and I find it!" <> austin -- austin@bucsf.bu.edu (bigstuffto austin@buengf.bu.edu) 700 Commonwealth Box 2094, Boston, MA 02215 (617) 375-8272 BUENG '93 "Death is dead. Long live Death!" -- PNS, _On a Pale Horse_ Path: mit-eddie!rutgers!sunybcs!ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu!v056qkt3 From: v056qkt3@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (William W Haskell) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: rabbits and bodily functions... Message-ID: <21962@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Date: 16 Apr 90 18:48:20 GMT Sender: nobody@acsu.Buffalo.EDU Reply-To: v056qkt3@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu Organization: University at Buffalo Lines: 30 In article , hrr91@campus.swarthmore.edu writes... > >Eretria looks disgusted as she rises from her seat and moves over to >wildy's chair. She rolls a piece of paper he has just written on and the >ink flows out of it, still wet, moving like a black stream to pool on the >table below as she quietly raises the roll of paper and hits the poet on >the head with it. Hoping nobody noticed her, she moves back to her seat >and wraps herself in the blue-black silk she'd left on the floor before she >began dancing with Nao. I am sorry, but I really must protest being swatted with inkless paper in such a way. I told you it was coming, m'lady. > >The room is cold, she feel, cold not with the leftover dew, but with the misery >of humankind. She protects herself against it, rubbing her face against >two bright colored fuzzies and a black rabbit. Young rabbit... your sweetness, her affection her love is your protection in heart you are bound ...wildy 14-april-1990 v056qkt3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu v056qkt3@ubvms.bitnet haskell@lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu haskell@autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu Path: mit-eddie!media-lab!snorkelwacker!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu!v056qkt3 From: v056qkt3@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (William W Haskell) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: *sigh* Message-ID: <21964@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Date: 16 Apr 90 18:50:59 GMT Sender: nobody@acsu.Buffalo.EDU Reply-To: v056qkt3@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu Organization: University at Buffalo Lines: 14 In article <7JQHX7B@xavier.swarthmore.edu>, hrr91@campus.swarthmore.edu writes... > Eretria smiles to herself /I had thought that the time for dancing >was over, but it seems that it was just beginning. An interested newcomer, >a piper, and four others. I believe the poet needs must dance to feel his >own humanity. Would that make a total, Nao?/ Is this your way of implicating me in this danse? I am not a dancer, but I might care to learn. > The poet moves from his corner, and goes to the corner where people are preparing to danse. < >Hannah Rosner ...wildy Path: mit-eddie!media-lab!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hplabs!hplred!egly From: egly@hplred.HP.COM (Diana Egly) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: On touching Message-ID: <20940053@hplred.HP.COM> Date: 16 Apr 90 03:43:54 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA Lines: 65 I used to hate being touched. It felt to me like being entrapped. Confined. Restrained. And I hated the feeling. But that changed for me when my younger sister returned home after a year and a half of intensive thera. (For those of f you who haven't heard me speak of my younger sister - she had encephalitis, an epidemic variety, on her first birthday and was left seriously impaired as a result.) She returned with so much greater physical control of her body that it was amazing -- miraculous. And so she could touch people, hug them, for the first time. And so she did. Taking the initiative. At first I recoiled from her hugs, but I was so intellectually intrigued by the change in her that I adapted. I even became a toucher. Learning the power of touch. And it is powerful. But I try to use it carefully -- knowing that it can set off powerful reactions. Someone has already mentioned sex as one of those reactions.... I remember others. I remember a woman. I believe her diagnosis -- for those who care about such things -- was borderline personality. I won't tell you of her history as a psychiatric patient, that seems a bit personal, but she was one who could not be touched. She shrank from it and retreated and withdrew into isolation and was diminished by it. It was as if a hand on her shoulder was like a vampire sucking the very vitality out of her. So I did not touch her. (And I expect, Chris, when you saw the results of being touched neither would you have...) Or rather I didn't touch her to comfort her. But she was terminally ill, and as she grew sicker and in more physical pain, I did touch her. And she welcomed it. I touched her with the will to make her pain go away. And often it did. The healing touch. Now I'm not asking that you beleive in faith healing. Or that touching someone is as effective for pain as a shot of morphine. But laying on of hands for healing pervades so many societies and so many healthcare traditions, that you might not want to simply dismiss it. Especially if you're around someone in pain, and you care, and you're not a doctor. You do what you can do (she says with a wry smile.) Whatever else can be said, it had a powerful effect on physical comfort even for this woman, who so hated to be touched. When there was not much that could be done medically to improve the quality of her life. And it *was* incongruous that touch proved healing for her. And I think of epilepsy. Touching someone who is on the verge of a seizure anyway can be the added stimulus that induces the seizure. Not that it's a mistake to touch (standard approach to a conscious patient in an emergency situation is with the hands as well as with words...) But it can be eerie to have someone collapse in a seizure as a direct consequence of touching them. And a trauma patient who says on your approach "don't touch me" is probably telling you that there is spinal damage. And is appropriately protecting him or her self from greater injury. I wonder if the people who've been emotionally traumatized at some point in their lives are rather like this as well. The "don't touch me" is a sign that there's serious damage and the person needs protection from greater injury. And they've taken responsibility for their own protection. Touch, I'm convinced, is powerful. It can provide healing or it can cause further wounds. It can hurt or it can nurture. I touch people. But I also realize that sometimes it's best that I don't.