Our chief editor, having a very severe cold, feels in bad humor and in consequence our readers are requested to humor themselves as best they can if the editorial columns are filled up with borrowed and purloined second-hand matter.

The atmosphere here at Simulacrum Head Office becomes charged as the publishing deadline approaches.

That editorial from the August 23, 1877 issue of the Sorel Pilot makes me homesick for the good old days when it was still possible to purloin matter and get away with it. The advent and general embracing of the Internet means that I must become very circumspect with my choice of quotable passages, lest I be forced to play Pelutho. For those of you unfamiliar with the late Douglas Adams’ The Meaning of Life, Pelutho is a South American ball game, where the balls are whacked against a brick wall with a stout wooden bat until the miscreant confesses.

We didn’t just hit an iceberg with the last issue. No siree. We hit Antarctica. I plan to fire the editor and replace him with a toaster, but the toaster is playing hard ball. Perhaps if we actually win a Charles Swann Roberts II award next year, it may be sufficient inducement. In anticipation, I’ve ordered the editor’s headstone: “Here lies John Kula. As usual.”

What exactly is the Curse of Scotland? One of the more likely explanations is that it’s the nine of diamonds, named for the Dalrymple coat of arms which has nine lozenges on its saltire (and if you understand that, lang may yer lum reek). It was John Dalrymple, Master of Stair and joint Secretary of State for Scotland to William of Orange, who engineered Glencoe as part of the English policy of liquidating Jacobites. The sassenachs amongst you will likely be more familiar with this as the massacre of clan MacDonald by the Campbells (actually a company of Argyll’s Regiment led by Robert Campbell). Unlucky? Och aye!

While I remember, Simulacrum now has a web presence. Set your browser to www3.telus.net/Simulacrum/main.html (note the “3” in the leading “www”, and the capitalization of “Simulacrum”).

Change is something you should not expect only from vending machines. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in the world. It’s not even new in North America. The Anarchist movement of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s used terror as its prime methodology. The only real difference is that the tools available, and the opportunities, are so much greater now. Greater not only for the terrorists, but also for those seeking vengeance. It is for this reason that the world needs a measured response. The article on page 44 is just such a response, and the events of 11 September 2001 are ipso facto justification for being this far off topic.

This is an opportunity for me to segue into another area that might be thought of as off topic by those of you with no souls. I would like to draw your attention to Mark Wegierski’s article in issue 12 on Dark Futures, and point you specifically to page 22 where he discusses Shattered States: The Game to Reunite the United States. Mark gets the coveted Cassandra of the Month Award with Delphinium Leaves and Crossed Purposes. I will rest on my laurels.