XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX >>>>>>>>>>>> XXXX XXX NEWS FLASH XXXX XXX >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Vol 1, Issue 03 - Mar. 29, 1996. Current Events, Poetry and Verse. Submissions welcome, please keep them short though. Send to: 103763.351@compuserve.com or mswilson@usa.pipeline.com. There are no more commercial ads at the end, welcome to socialism! (c) 1996 MSW Enterprises. PO Box 1770, Des Moines, Ia 50306. *********************************************************************** CHINA AND TAIWAN. Looks like things have cooled down a bit over there. That is a relief. Folks should live and let live, not try to meddle and dominate. At the time of this writing, the two countries are extending olive branches to each other. Peace is indeed breaking out - radical thought. China is rapidly modernizing and becoming more powerful. Despite the media's scoffing about their antiquated military, we had better watch out, and even keep our "powder dry". As the US loses industry after industry to other countries, China is industrializing and modernizing. Lest we make some important sacrifices, such as sacrificing the present quarter's dividend for some serious R & D, we will end up a relic, dominated by the new powers in Asia. If the US Congress weren't for sale to the highest corporate bidder, it might help too. We need to remain strong to confront the challenges from these emerging powers. MIR AND SHANNON LUCID. A U.S. astronaut recently began a 5-month stay aboard the Russian Space Station the other day. 5 months - no English spoken. Cyrillic alphabet on everything. Lousy canned meals. Isolation from family and friends. All this in addition to doing daily, high-level chemistry experiments in weightlessness. Not too bad for a 53-yr old woman - sort of puts the rest of us to shame. At least the US and Russia are working together on a long-term basis, which is encouraging. For all of the animalistic killer instincts in the Human Race, sometimes we can do amazing feats. SUBMISSIONZ I was conceived in love; I was born ready for loving. Society was not prepared for my individual freedom, Nor was I prepared For it's social restrictions. So I sit in here and wonder why My love for you Will never die. Mother =========== The Longing By Martin C. Barry =========== ------------------ Under a heavy grey sky, in the damp air of a rainy summer, when the hard wooden seats of playground swings are soaked to the grain and won't dry, and droplets stand out like beads on chipped painted surfaces, she looked for somewhere to sit. Wiping away the droplets, she eased onto a swing. But it was no good. She felt the moisture seeping through her faded jeans and got back on her feet. The park benches were all the same. There was nowhere to sit. She stood a moment, motionless, hands in the pockets of the black vel- vet jacket she wore perpetually, eyes liquid. Her face was lined beyond her years. Her mouth sank into a slowly lowering droop. She lit another cigarette. In the mist that grew deeper the further she looked across the park, she saw a slide, nearly concealed in the pervasive atmosphere. Drawn, she be- gan to walk in its direction. Like the swings and the benches, it too would be wet, she thought. As she walked across the verdant field, she felt the moisture creeping into her sneakers, dampness soaking the greying canvas and then her white socks. With every step, her feet squished. ########################## In the faint orange light of a cooling August evening, they had watched a crimson orb, descending behind an apartment block at a corner of the park. As she dangled her sneaker in the sand beneath her swing, second by second the enlarged dying sun descended to the horizon line of the building's roof. In her twelve years, she had never seen a sun move so fast. "I don't believe," she started saying, but stopped. "I don't know, it's hard to explain," she said again. "I don't think," she stopped again. "I don't believe there's -- that love is real. I mean..." She paused briefly. "A man, a husband, he works, he gives money to his wife, and in return she keeps the house clean and that, but it's just an arrangement. I don't know." Ruth listened, her round face resting in the palms of her hands. She nodded, but Kelly didn't think she understood at all. "I know, I know," Ruth kept saying. But she didn't know. The last dazzle of the sun's corona sank beneath the line, and the playground was cast in the growing twilight blue of night coming. ########################## Ruth whispered in her ear. "Kelly, there's a guy over there. See him?" Kelly looked. They were standing in line in McDonald's. He was about her height, wearing faded jeans and sneakers. He was walking towards them. Ruth whispered in her ear: "That's what you look like, Kelly. You're slim like him. That's how you're slim." Without making her presence known, she watched him and felt overjoyed to think she had been likened to someone as attractive. "That's what I look like," she thought. For the first time in her life she felt she knew what she looked like. She had never known. Spontaneously, she blurted out: "Ruth, you make me horny." Then she caught herself. That wasn't what she had meant to say, she had meant to say it somehow else. It wasn't at all what she meant. In an instant she was aware of all the people standing in earshot. She began to blush. She whispered: "I mean, Ruth, the guys you make me look at make me horny." As she was speaking, the stranger turned. Her words still fresh in her mind, he glanced, just below eye level, at her chest. In the split second that his eyes met her body, her nipples stood out. Then he was gone. She could never have met him under these circumstances, anyway, she thought, perhaps not under any circumstances. It didn't matter whether she met him. She had seen him. She could hold the memory vividly within. But now a great longing and an aching disappointment were filling her. ########################## Later that night, in the playground of their childhood, the cool breeze of autumn blew, disturbing the trees around them. Ruth and Kelly said nothing. Finally, Ruth spoke. "Kelly Green," she intoned softly. "You know that in this world there are only men and there are only women." Her voice shifted to a little more serious. "Some choose to act like men, and some choose to act like women, but it doesn't matter whether they really are or not. "But even if you're allowed that freedom, don't forget that if you don't choose who you're going to act like, someone will end up choosing for you. "Because unless you're a man, Kelly, you're a woman. And the way you are now won't last forever." "Do you understand what I'm saying, Kelly?" Ruth finished. Kelly did not answer. ########################## With every step, her feet squished as she arrived at the slide. Here it stood, solitary and isolated from the playground on the park's other side. She looked back. Now the playground was nearly concealed in mist. Condensation and humidity pervaded the slope. She felt the clammy surface and lit another cigarette. _____________________________________________________---end For Mel The most influential voice isn't merely enclosed in a Saturday morning structure, but follows us somewhere every hour through the visual kingdom you rule, and haunts us to know we never knew you (the closest you ever got was Sylvester). But we wanted to. And every year as you grew younger, more remembered, deeper voiced, your mask spread and enveloped a higher ability and, like the god of a small child, you became worshipped through every further market syndication, program increase, until there was nothing left of yourself, giving so much, unless you count the thousands of hours smiling strangers will infiltrate without knowing your name. - Ben Ohmart TIPS AND TRICKS. FTP Commands to uze: type FTP at unix prompt. Type OPEN 'host.domain.site' where host.domain.site is the address of the site you want. It will say 'connected to xxx.yyy.zzzz. etc' then ask you for a login. You type ANONYMOUS. It will say 'Anonymous accepted, enter your email address as a password' You type in your full email address, I.E. dudek@kewlsite.com. Then you will be into the root directory. You type CD \PUB in most cases to get to the public accessible directory. then you type LS to see what files or sub-directories are in that one. You type GET filename.ext to get a file. If it is a binary file, like a program or a picture (gif, jpg, etc), you first type TYPE BINARY before you get the file. Then if you want an ASCII or text file, you have to type TYPE ASCII before you get that file. After you have retrieved all the files you want, type CLOSE to close the connection. Type QUIT to quit FTP. Typing 'MAN FPT' can get you a complete list of ftp commands. Remember, when in doubt, read the instructions on the screen. Some sites to try with ftp: ftp.eff.org ftp.etext.org boombox.micro.umn.edu ocf.berkely.edu sunsite.unc.edu ftp.cis.upenn.edu ftp.rutgers.edu ftp.cs.wisc.edu Explore and see what you can find! Have fun. NO MORE ADVERTISING. Due to someone's complaining about unacceptable usage, there will be no more commercial advertising here. What is bitter to endure may be sweet to remember - anonymous You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs - anonymous ***********************************************************************