Today's Topics:
Martin Gardner
News from the Conspiracy Front
what do you call...
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Date: Tue, 12 Nov 91 23:34:14 EST
Message-Id: <9111130434.AA06806@transit>
From: Alan Bawden <Alan@lcs.mit.edu>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Martin Gardner
Something that you should all know about:
From: sanelson@milton.u.washington.edu (S. A. Nelson)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Is Gardner "Trickster?"
Summary: a Martin Gardner cult in Seattle
Date: 11 Nov 91 04:06:23 GMT
I don't know if any of you guys know about this yet, but here in
Seattle there is apparently a new new-age group, centered on the person-
ality of Martin Gardner! I couldn't believe it at first, but then I actual-
ly talked to one of them. He is a programmer for the City of Seattle. I
will keep his name secret for obvious reasons. In his spare time, he
participates in seminars at the Greenwood Community Center, well known for
the wide variety of wacky organizations that meet there (the EMIN, for
instance.)
They meet once a week, meditate, and intently study Gardner's works,
especially "Relativity for the Million." He told me that this will prepare
them for an age in which science will be "obsolete" and "the force of human
will" will allow a closer spiritual empathy with the universe. They publish
a small newsletter "The Light" and plan to have a booth at The Northwest
Psychic Fair.
I thought this sounded silly and asked him if he was not aware that
Gardner was a secular humanist and a debunker, and utterly hostile to the
type of ideas this group supported. He replied "Well, Martin, he's Trickster,
he's the Coyote. We all collect his columns from 'Skeptical Inquirer.'" Then
he said something about Gardner's "just trying to throw people off." In much
new age material, taken (and much abused) from Native American mythology,
Coyote is a "cosmic trickster," who delights in misleading people for a
deeper spiritual purpose. Apparently these people view Martin Gardner in much
the same light.
He went on to claim that they recieved "encouraging letters" from
Gardner himself. I find this _very_ difficult to believe. I have seen the
newsletter and will try to find another copy. Can anyone else shed any
"light" on this peculiar group.
-Sunny Nelson
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sanelson@milton.u.washington.edu
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
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Date: Wed, 13 Nov 91 01:21:09 -0800
From: 66016000 <gristle@ucscb.ucsc.edu>
Message-Id: <9111130921.AA09192@ucscb.UCSC.EDU>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: News from the Conspiracy Front
I am an undercover agent working for HeadQuarters in Dobbstown,
Malaysia. I have infiltrated the extent of the Jewish Conspiracy
and here is my report:
The Jewish Conspiracy has one person as its focal point
of power: Irving "J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs" Lipschitz.
I broke into their compound in Palestine, Texas and found
tunnel with an light rail heading south towards Dallas. I
boarded it and took it till it stopped. It emerged into the
SubGenius Headquarters in Dallas, directly behind the
office of Ivan Stang. As I was walking out, Stang was walking
in saying
"funny, I thought the Palestine Branch was closed Friday nights"
I explained my investigation to Stang and he gave the following
statement for me to issue:
"You are working for Dobbstown? This damn Church is like a
beast with two backs- I mean beast with two heads. Each
head thinks that they are in charge. Of course the Jewish
Conspiracy exists! They are merely another branch (the
accountants and movie directors) of the Church of the
SubGenius. Now get back to Dobbstown and put THESE WORDS
into your pipe and smoke it!"
-UberRabbi Reverend Kareem du Gristle, Santa Cruz 25 Hour Klench
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From: dryfoo@athena.mit.edu
Message-Id: <9111132142.AA12537@thelonious.MIT.EDU>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: what do you call...
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 91 16:42:15 EST
...a guy with no arms or legs, floating off the Canaries?
------- Forwarded Message
From: an anonymous source
One of the folks in our office had a great line about Maxwell. The
newscaster had just said "flamboyant publisher Robert Maxwell has
drowned off the Canary Islands" and she said, "he WAS flamboyant, now
he's just bouyant."
------- End of Forwarded Message
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End of Subgenius Digest
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