Mary-- Having just returned from Tom Palmer's house minutes ago, I can report that a) Matt Palmer is waaaayyyy taller than his father; b) Alexa is already (at 15) taller than Barbara, and c) this is all quite frightening. We can generalize from these 3 observations that: a) Zero children are generally larger than their parents, b) are growing at an alarming rate, and c) this should be a cause for General Alarm. Please notify the authorities in your area immediately.
Bill- A craft beer inspired and fueled my mission to fish out the zero paperatti that I scanned, for what it's worth. And as it turns out, I preemptively scanned the Halloween invite just for hysterical porpoises, so it's attached for Randy's and anyone else's viewing pleasure.
Randy-- I think this one predates the ZeroHalloweenParty you're talking about, since it would have been '87-- this event was marked by:
- Random miniature pumpkins appearing all over New West Hall for the week prior
- Pete dancing/flailing and knocking over a lamp
- Dick (and Eric) showing up spontaneously all the way from California unannounced, dressed as Bartles and James
- A 'best costume prize' consisting of an A&P Frozen Pizza (possibly won by Halla Abdalla-- don't remember)
- An abrupt exit from the ghetto after the "lamp incident" in order to avoid the fire marshal and make it to Franklin Street (favorite costume seen there: a group doing the coconut-banging troupe from the Holy Grail, asking if it was an african or european swallow)
- Some other stuff I don't remember.
The SACM rename was at least instigated by me, though it may well be that you guys bore the brunt of the grand decision that it was. I was (and still am) very anal about names in computer-related entities, and it irked me that SACM really had nothing to do with the central mission of CSA (or whatever it ended up being-- none of the names that made sense were actually catchy-- sound like a familiar problem?).Indeed. "Zero" was an invention of the Year Of Rich Etcetera's Absence, a.k.a. "The Young Bucks Go Nuts", a.a.k.a. "We're gonna rename SACM too, so there".
Oooop-- I'm out of information.
--------------------------------------------
I'm head-scratchin' about where "zero" came from though. Perhaps I was drunk when the name was concocted. It is certainly possible. Anyways, perhaps ZERO refers to:
Zero quarters surrendered due to superfluous Geek Talk after 10 PM on Thursdays
Zero chance of any member having any sort of social engagement (other than with a microVax) at 10 PM on a Thursday.
Zero probability of craft beers
Zero cash in pocket after trip to Heeeznot and subsequent pilgrimage to Grease Cathedral whose name I forget
Zero PQ (Personality Quotient, a measure of potential success in marketing or corporate leadership. Inversely related to DQ: Drooler Quotient)
Zero chance of in-tunedness during acapella renditions of famous hits of the 60s.
There may be more. I'll think about it. There is probability 1 of craft beers in my outside fridge, so I admit to a certain distractedness.
Old? Me? My 14 year old just went to his 8th-grade graduation dance. I am happy to report substantial genetic improvement in PQ, apparently.
----- Original Message ----
From: rich holloway <rlholloway@bellsouth.net>
To: Jeff Templon <jeff.templon@gmail.com>
Cc: zero@spoetzl.net; barbara holloway <holloways@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 7, 2008 3:51:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Zero] 20 years and counting
Pardon the delay, but I have been able to successfully transition the following paper artifacts into digital form:
- Exhibit 1 (zero_beer.jpg): A plea from one early zero (yers truly) to other zeroes to go imbibe. The lengths I had to go to in those days to get people to go out for a beer-- sheesh! This may be the earliest remaining evidence of Thursday night drinking in zero history. Could be 85/86/87-- the brain cells containing this information have long since shuffled off this mortal coil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_coil].
In my archives, I also found the invitation to the Ghetto Halloween Party of Doom (which featured magazine collage art) and the handwritten map for the 86 Caswell beach trip (remember handwritten maps??). If any old-timers are interested in these, let me know and I'll scan/send them.
- Exhibit 2 (jeff_benin_drawing.jp): A crude Macpaint drawing from one Jeffrey A Templon circa 1987 presaging Barbara's and my "big adventure" in Afreeka.
One last point: In the early days, the list was called the 'brain-dead' list, if I recall correctly. i think BOG turned it into the 'zero' list.
Are we old yet?
I think so.
Rich,
whose scanner caught fire as he was saving these images to disk. it is now ON FIRE (tm).
Jeff Templon wrote:Yo,
On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 4:54 PM, <howardlander@mindspring.com> wrote:
For Bill, Cathy and myself et al it was a Masters in Computer Science at UNC-CH. But one of the things I like about this list is how much it has spread out. It is sort if impressive that after 20 or so years, this list is still as active as it is.
Yeah. It's actually a bit older than 20 years. I went digging off in archive land, but found nothing earlier than 1989. I am pretty sure Rich went to Benin in '87, and the list predates that. I am pretty sure it didn't exist before 1985 though.You're right, it's still pretty active for a list that old! The messages are slightly less weird these days, I guess somebody must have given Crad some tranquilizers.
JT
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