MIT Science Fiction Society
84 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
MITSFS Meeting Minutes
Friday, January 12, 2007
MITSFS meeting called to order, 1700 SST, Kevin Riggle, President and Skinner, presiding; John Carr, pseudo-Onseck, recording.
On the twelth day after Christmas the Onseck left for me...some minutes that were read.
JM: Condemn the minutes for failing to record all those things we said about how the Skinner hates Fragile Things. Fails 3-6-1+Spehn.
BING!
BING!
JFC reads an advertisement from the January-February 1971 issue of The Progressive Teacher:
New ``Compulogical Tutor'' is world's first computer designed for home useA full-fledged computor for use in the home? It's now a reality with the introduction of the COMPULOGICAL TUTOR, the first computor ever available at a popular price.
Comparable in functions and performance to bulky academic computer trainers, the Compulogical Tutor weighs only 4 lbs. and is constructed as a desk-size portable to take up a minimum of space.
The same issue contains a song by JFC's grandmother and an article by Vice President Spiro Agnew titled ``Good Child Care One Key To Final Solution.''
We still have new TZs, for the low, low price of $1, a 50% discount from the previous price! Back issues for only 25 cents!
Usual stuff.
BING!
Before opening the library JFC found a bunch of Vericon posters guarding the entrance. They were not very tall, so he stepped over them.
KR: Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Illuminatus! trilogy, died this week. He was about 60. The cover story is cancer. JM assumed he was already dead because he hadn't been writing new books.
Y: The issue of NeoOpsis on the new magazine shelf has a table of contents that could have come from the 1950s.
BING!
Something about calendars.
There is a new movie out called Pan's Labyrinth. This is somehow related to the David Bowie movie mentioned in last week's minutes.
Neither of the previous items was actually about the future.
David Bowie provides the voice in a new animated fantasy movie. This is in fact distantly related to last week's minutes, but may not be related to the future.
KR notices a new stack of boxes of books and utters a four letter word. In the future the Gadouri donation will be dealt with somehow. ``Find me another room and we'll talk.''
It would be helpful if somebody donated books that had all the pages replaced with $100 bills, or books that were made out of solid gold. What if the books are ticking? The Skinner warns: ``I do not want a radioactive library.'' He is then instructed on the difference between a clock and a Geiger counter.
Y expresses regret for the demise of housing shortage science fiction, which was a microgenre popular for about a year after WW2. Counterexamples to the demise of the genre are noted, such as ``Billennium,'' Make Room! Make Room!, Stand on Zanzibar, and more.
Mystery hunt talk is not recorded. In the future the Skinner will be on the team that acquires a penny. Or a banana? A banana. This is motionized and passed by Skinnerial decree.
BING! Meeting adjourned, 1830 SST.