1. Many thanks to those who contributed to last month's flea market. The pre-Christmas Seasoh had with some lousy weather, resulted in only 20 or so fellas showing up ... but we managed to increase the PW coffers by 51 dollars. Hal Thinglum donated 3 subscriptions to his MWAN, which won the award for the most-sought-after-items-on-the-block. 2. This month is sign-up time for al I local members to renew their memberships. I keep out-of-town subscribers on a separate listing ... they renew, not at the beginning of the year, but on the anniverary date of their subscription. The fee for a local membership is $10; the out- of-town subscriber pays $12. 3. A rough analysis of the PW cash flow situation starts out with the two primary, Steady income sources: Local members: $10 x 30 members (approx) ... $300 Subscribers: $12 x 60 members (approx) ... 720 Total income: $1020 From this we deduct the cost of the church rental each month, and the cost of mailing the monthly issues to the out-of-town subcribers: Church: $45 for 12 months ... $540 Mailing: (50 cents/issue)(60 subs)(12 months) 360 Total outgo: $900 Compare income and outgo and you'll see we have, in theory, a slight cushion. You'll also see there's absolutely no allowance for printing/publication costs, which is why, once each month, I tiptoe into my office at 0600 and turn on the xerox at full blast. 4. Mike Caum sent word that he's sold SOLDIER WORLD, USA. The new owner is Jim Birdseye; his address: SOLDIER WORLD, USA PO BOX 547 Radford, Virginia 24141 All during the time I've been associated with miniatures gaming, I cannot recall visiting a convention and NOT seeing Mike Caum's display. Also, during all those years, I recall Mike participating in a game ONCE ... at a PW meeting ... the rest of the time he was pushing miniatures. 5. Saw a movie the other day which had some of the best battle scenes yet filmed. The plot isn't much: Mr. Barnaby offers his hand to Little BoPeep, who rejects him (she's in love with Tom Thumb)/ and Mr. Barnaby, in a rage, then gathers all the Boogeymen to attack Toyland. The film: BABES IN TOYLAND, 1934, with Laurel and Hardy. Laurel and Hardy work for the Master Toymaker, and they've just been fired for fouling up one of his orders ... instead of crafting 600 onefoot-tall toy soldiers, they made 100 six-foot-tall soldiers. But the six-foot-tall jobbies are just the thing to counter Mr. Barnaby's Boogeymen. The toy soldiers form phalanx and tromp ahead and through and over the Boogeymen. The toy soldiers go through walls and fences and all sorts of barriers; they are unstoppable ... their feet are each the size of a large pizza and it's hard to topple a soldier based on such secure footing. In addition, each soldier has a dummy wooden rifle, it doesn't fire, but it's great for jabbing Boogeymen in the stomach, forcing them back. Some fierce hand-to-hand combat footage filmed in the center of Toyland. Toy soldiers pushing and jabbing, Boogeymen jumping up and down, Little Bo - Peep herself smashing Mr. Barnaby with her purse. I noted there were no Boogeymen light troops, nor heavies, nor mounted Boogeymen ... just Boogeymen Boogeymen. All foot troops, well trained in grimacing and howling. Definitely a "+3" in howling. I decided that Mr. Barnaby was a lousy general. He kept no reserves; he committed his entire Boogeymen force in the first attack. Of course, at that time, he didn't know he'd be confronted with 100 pizza-footed, rifle wielding, six foot tall wooden soldiers. Hard cheese, Mr. Rarnaby. 6. The leadoff article in this issue is a short one pager by Bob Coggins who refers to last month's editorial commpnt of mine on simulations. I suggested that a not-too-far-off Napoleonic French - versus- Prussian battle simulation would consist of a single 6-sided die throw for each side in which the French added a +3 to their (lie roll. Bob seems to sort-of agree, and sort-of disagree ... I'm never too sure which way the Coggins' wind is blowing ... but see for yourself. Back to PW Review January 1990 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com