Octopus's Garden

Issue Ninety-Seven

5th May 2021

Current Issue

Back Issues

Eternal Sunshine

Other stuff

Last issue

Next issue

Search site

Sub-editorial

HELLO, good evening and welcome to Octopus's Garden, the subzeen with its very own Railway Rivals game. It is a subzeen to Douglas Kent's Eternal Sunshine. It's produced by Peter Sullivan peter@burdonvale.co.uk. It's also available on the web at: http://www.burdonvale.co.uk/octopus/.

Round 4 (RR 2473 B) — "Garrett Hobart" — Railway Rivals Map "B" (Lon&Lpl)

I charged AYUP 8 for his parallel with HJA south of Peterborough; should have been 2. Players notified & b/fwd scores adjusted.

JGL black (John David Galt)

4a) (Coventry) - A61 - Leicester - D57 ;
4b) (D57) - Nottingham - D53 ; (J66) - J67 - K68 - K69 ;
4c) (K69) - K71 - L71 - London ; (Shrewsbury) - A18.
=71+1[A]+5[H]+5[H]=82

AYUP yellow (Mark Firth)

4a) K61 - J61 - J66 [-1 J];
4b) (N15) - M16 - M20 [-1 B] - Birmingham ;
4c) (F7) - C9 - Liverpool ; (H6) - Manchester ; (D49) - F48 ;
=60-1[J]-1[B]=58

HJA red (Hank Alme)

4a) (B12) - B10 - A10 - Birkenhead [+6] ; (B11) - D10 ;
4b) (D10) - G7 - G8 - Manchester - Bolton [-5 J] ;
4c) (Manchester) - K6 ; (Leicester) - D57 [-5 J].
=66+6-5[J]-5[J]+1[B]=63

BASH sky-blue (Bob Blanchett)

4a) (Nottingham) - Lincoln [+6] ;
4b) (Bristol) - D30 - C30 - Newport [+6] ;
4c) (D15) - D13 - E13 - E10 [-1 H] [1 short].
=5+12-1[H]+1[A]=17

Rolls for Round Five: 5, 6, 6. Orders to me, Peter Sullivan, at peter@burdonvale.co.uk by WEDNESDAY, 9th JUNE, 2021.

EDITORIAL – Dixiecon Details

In the United States, the last Monday in May is a federal holiday. Memorial Day honours military personnel who have died in the performance of their military duties. Originally 30th May, it was moved to the last Monday in May in 1971. It dates from the Civil War, but the details of its origins are complex, with at least 25 different places, both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, claiming to have originated it.

In England, the last Monday in May is also a bank holiday, but for a different reason. Originally, the bank holiday was Whit Monday, which (being tied to the date of Easter) could fall any time between 12th May and 15th June. This was abolished in 1967, and in 1971, replaced with the pedestrianly-named 'Late Spring Bank Holiday,' fixed to the last Monday in May, neatly co-inciding with the American holiday..

In the Diplomacy hobby, however, the last weekend in May has a completely different meaning – it's Dixiecon weekend! Dixiecon has been one of the longest-running static conventions in the United States hobby, having started in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1987. (For this purpose, I don't feel Dipcon - which moves about the country and is hosted by a different group each year - is really quite the same kettle of fish. Indeed, Dixiecon itself has hosted Dipcon probably more times than any other event.)

Last year, Dixiecon was one of the first cons to go virtual, with 2 rounds packed into a single, hectic, Saturday. This year, it's still virtual, but probably closer to its 'traditional' in-person schedule, with a single round on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I, along with a number of other volunteers, will be helping tournamnent director David Hood with keeping all the boards running smoothly over the weekend on the Backstabbr platform being used to run the games. There will also be a 'Speedboat' (rapid-play Gunboat Diplomacy) event. And open gaming across the weekend, all of which counts towards the Iron Man Tournament. (Disclaimer: the winner of this does NOT receive a full Iron Man suit as a prize. Robert Downey Jr. refused to let us have it.)

This virtual event is completely free. More details, including a full time-table of what will be happening when, are on the website at www.dixiecon.com. Contact David Hood at DavidHood@dixiecon.com to sign up.

And I even got to the end of that write-up without mentioning the traditional Eastern North Carolina style barbeque on Saturday night! (also virtual this year.) Ooops...

Shamelessly stolen from Twitter

"'Citizen Kane' lost its perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, making 'Paddington 2' the new greatest film of all time."

"Paddington Bear could do Citizen Kane but Orson Welles could not convince Knuckles to change his outdated and underwhelming food menu."

That was Octopus's Garden #97, Startling Press production number 393.