Hey Gang,

Best put on your reading glasses.  Before we get to the results, we have two big, heaping servings of hot press!

Press # 1



Some think playing Austria is cool,


But not if Russia and the Pope are cruel.


Lapanto he said


Now I am dead


And oh do I feel such a fool.


 


The GM attributed stab to King Ray,


But when questioned what did he say?


If I attacked you


Its just what I do


My brain is hard wired that way.


 


With England I have peace I know


So thought the Frog King Joe.


No need to hurry


Or even to worry


Its into the Med I shall go.


 


Has the Frenchman moved against Bel?


But when asked he would not tell.


Yet Marc's heart skipped a beat


He might avoid a defeat


So his hopes did begin to swell


 


Nigs moved both to east and to west


With ineffectual neighbors he was blessed


So fast he will grow


And then he will blow


To 18 ahead of the rest.


 


I tell him all I want is Sweden


To the south lies my Garden of Eden.


So now I'm put out


Ray's a louse no doubt


So its help against him I'll be needin'.


 


The last one we come to is the Turk


Who continues to sit still and just lurk


No Black Sea


No fight in me


Stop telling me I'm such a jerk.



Press # 2
 


GOTHAM CITY --  Billionaire industrialist Bruce Rayne returned last
night to Rayne Manor only to find his residence burned to the ground.
 Just inside the foyer, the forensic team found his faithful manservant
Alfred Pennyworth on the floor, a dagger protruding through his back rib
cage.  It took Gotham City's finest no time to deduce the obvious:
Alfred had been murdered, and the Manor torched to destroy evidence.
 But a snitch gave the police what they needed:  the name of Two-Face.
 Upon his arrest,Two-Face
surprised them by demanding a lie-detector test.  After the baseline
questions the interrogator asked the $64,000 biggie:  "Did you murder
Alfred Pennyworth?".  "No" was Two-Face's
calm reply, and the stunned room went silent when the machine indicated
no untruth in the answer.  How could this be?  "I repeat!" thundered
the interrogator, "Did you kill Alfred Pennyworth?!?".  Two-Face
repeated his innocence, adding "I revere all life,and would never kill
anyone".  The machine revealed not a tremor; apparently this statement
was also true.  Completely flummoxed, Commissioner Gordon immediately
ordered the release of Two-Face.  Where had they gone wrong?


 


The answer lied in
psychology, the verbiage of the questioning, and in fact the basic
premise of the police that the crime of arson had been directly tied to
the murder.  Had the force bothered to bring in their resident
psychologist, they would have realized the role that Two-Face's multiple
personalities played in the crime.  Depending upon how you look at it,
they had asked the wrong question, or THE WRONG PERSON!  The persona of
Two-Face we shall the The Murderer, who rarely emerging from the depths
of Two-Face's psyche, was quite capable of killing, and in fact had done
away with poor Alfred.  But that is not who they questioned.  The
police in fact were talking to the personna we shall call The Arsonist,
the personality more often in control of Two-Face's conscious mind. 
Convinced that the second crime was caused by the first, the police had
never bothered to ask Two-Face the Arsonist if he had torched Rayne
Manor -- a question he could not have passed!  Two-Face the Murderer had
killed Alfred and, his bloodlust slaked, had almost immediately
retreated to the back of Two-Faces' mind.  Two-Face the Arsonist awoke
to find himself in front of the grandest arson target he had ever seen,
and nature took its course.


 


Was a crime committed? 
Most certainly.  Was Two-Face guilty of both crimes?  A tougher
question, and one to be hashed out by psychologists and law
specialists.  Should Two-Face The Arsonist be able to claim he committed
no crime merely because he was able to say he did not lie to the
police?  Some, believe it or not, would have you believe this.  You
decide.






Wow!  No one told me when I took this job that I would be doubling as editor for the DC Literature Magazine.  Awesome.


RETREATS:

Austria: A Vienna - Bohemia
Germany: A Holland - Kiel
Russia: F Sweden - Skagerrak


NEXT DEADLINE:  Fall 1902 orders are due Thursday, April 7, at 18:00 Eastern US time.


Cheers,
Chris