==Phrack Inc.==

                     Volume Three, Issue 28, File #8 of 12

           PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '89 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN
           ^*^                                                   ^*^
           PWN         P h r a c k   W o r l d   N e w s         PWN
           ^*^         ~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~         ^*^
           PWN            Special Edition Issue Three            PWN
           ^*^                                                   ^*^
           PWN       "Meet The Hackers Behind The Handles"       PWN
           ^*^                 June 23-25, 1989                  ^*^
           PWN                                                   PWN
           ^*^          Created, Written, and Edited             ^*^
           PWN               by Knight Lightning                 PWN
           ^*^                                                   ^*^
           PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '89 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN


SummerCon... What is it?  In many ways, SummerCon is much more
than just a convention that attracts America's greatest phreaking
and hacking personalities.  SummerCon is a state of mind.

Hackers by nature are urged on by a hidden sense of adventure to
explore the unknown, to challenge the unchallenged, to reach out
and experiment with anything and everything.  The realization
that we are not alone in our quest sometimes comes as a great
gift and the opportunity to meet one's heroes, partners, and
idols can be the most awe-inspiring aspect of the hacker
community -- this is what SummerCon is all about.

On the surface, SummerCon looks like a handful of youths hanging
out at a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri.  To me, it is more like
one of those madcap movies you see on late night Home Box Office
or something.  No real point or direction, rebels without cause,
all in the name of frantic fun and games.  The atmosphere
surrounding SummerCon is that of a dream world where once a year
you can escape to a fantasy where ingenuity is king and you have
friends around you at every moment.  SummerCon itself may only
last a weekend, but the friendships last a lifetime.

Welcome to SummerCon '89!  This special edition of Phrack World
News contains the exclusive coverage of the events and activities
of a handful of the nation's greatest hackers on June 23-25,
1989.


PreCon '89:  Knight Lightning and Taran King Make Plans
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We
remembered the fun at SummerCon '87 and how SummerCon '88 had
lacked something.  In a sense, the first SummerCon was very
private because almost all of the attendants were members on
Metal Shop Private, the bulletin board that was once the center
of the "elite" modem community.  The second SummerCon was a
little different.  Both Taran and I had been out of action for
nearly a year and we had not intended to hold another convention
ever again until June 1988 when we both decided that one good
convention deserves another.  SummerCon '88 was thrown together
and a few changes were made.  It was good, but this year we
decided to set our sights higher than ever.


PreCon '89:  The Early Birds                    Thursday Evening,
June 22, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first guests to
this year's convention arrived a day ahead of schedule.  Control
C, a veteran of the previous two conventions, and Erik Bloodaxe
flew in to St. Louis on Thursday evening, June 22, 1989.  They
were greeted by Forest Ranger and then after some rowdy
activities at the airport, the threesome adjourned to the Best
Western Executive International hotel -- The very same hotel
where the first SummerCon was held in June 1987.

Around 10 PM, Taran King and I met up and being unable to locate
Control C, Erik Bloodaxe, and Forest Ranger, we decided to take a
trip to the hotel on the chance that they would be there by the
time we showed up.  As we approached the hotel, I felt a strange
sensation like deja-vu.  It had been two years since I had been
to the Executive International, or even anywhere near that part
of town (with the exception of the airport).  At any rate, luck
was on our side.  We raced through the newly remodeled hotel
lobby and out past the pool.  Control C's and Erik Bloodaxe's
room stuck out like a beacon.  Their room became known as the
"Doom Room" in recognition of the many members of the Legion of
Doom/Hackers that stayed there throughout the course of the
weekend.

Control C and Erik Bloodaxe told us all about Black Ice-Con which
had taken place the weekend prior to SummerCon '89 in Dallas,
Texas.  The supposedly secret convention had been infiltrated by
security agents from U.S. Sprint.  They believed that the leak
existed on Black Ice itself, the bulletin board from which the
con took its name and all members were invited (there were less
than 20 people on the board).  They named who they thought the
leak was, but discretion prevents printing his name here.  On a
side note, Black Ice was crashed by SuperNigger and abandoned by
the members of LOD thereafter.

Erik had some interesting business cards with him.  He passed
several of them out to interested hackers and other miscellaneous
people at the hotel and in the St. Louis metropolitan area as
well.  These cards featured Erik Bloodaxe and the following
organizations;

-    American Telephone & Telegraph [AT&T] -    Federal Bureau of
Investigation [FBI] (Department of Justice) -    Secret Service
(Department of Treasury) -    Southwestern Bell Telephone Company
-    Tymnet (McDonnel Douglas)

Erik gave Taran and I each a set of the cards as souvenirs of his
visit.  Both of us had to work early morning shifts the next day
so a little after midnight we decided to leave.  I finally went
to sleep around 1 AM.


SummerCon '89:  The Adventure Begins              Friday Morning,
June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I woke up
around 5 AM to begin my day.  I had arranged to work the morning
shift 6-10 AM in order to avoid having to work the rest of the
day and weekend.  I returned home around 10:30 AM and I began the
final work on Phrack 27.  Although the issue date is June 20,
1989, we did not really release the issue until June 27, due to
complications with SummerCon '89 and other events.  All of the
sudden I received a call from another veteran of SummerCons past,
a person who swore that he would not appear at this year's
convention...  TUC!

He tried to convince me that he was in Florida or anywhere but
St. Louis.  I asked him if he needed a ride from the airport to
the hotel or something.  The call sounded local as hell, but he
insisted on remaining consistent with his story for another few
minutes.  Then my call waiting beeped and it was Taran King.  I
juggled the lines for a few minutes and then had Taran call Tuc
(who was at the Executive International) while I got ready to go
meet him at the hotel.

As I was leaving my home, I noticed something sticking to the
front door.  It was a notice from United Parcel Service.  How
odd.  I did not notice it at 10:30 AM when I returned home and I
did not not hear anyone knock on the door since I had been home.
Still, the note said that they had left my package at the
subdivision club house.

So I dropped in there and found my package... would you believe
it came from Francis J. Haynes... Frank of "Frank and the Phunny
Phone Call" himself and that is exactly what was inside:  A
cassette tape sampler of Frank and the Phunny Phone Call.
Incidentally, Frank is being mastered on to compact disc and will
be available for sale soon.  More details on this will appear in
Phrack World News in the near future.

Eventually, I reached the hotel.  Control C and Erik Bloodaxe
were nowhere to be found and Forest Ranger and Taran King were
unavailable.  I found Tuc and we decided to go grab lunch and
drive around for a while.

We returned to the hotel and traded war stories about the past
year and decided to call the hotel office to see who might have
checked in during the past few hours.  No one we recognized was
here yet, but there was a call for Tuc on another line.  The lady
at the office switched the call into Tuc's room and I picked it
up.

It was Crimson Death of 618.  He wanted us to know that he was
arriving by bus later that evening and would need a ride at about
10:45 PM.  He also informed us that Dr. Cypher was on his way in
and would arrived at the airport's bus terminal and take the
shuttle to the hotel.  He was unsure about what time this would
occur.

I told him I could pick him up at the bus terminal and that I had
to get off the phone.  I did, you see because it was at about
this time that Tuc had opened the windows and looked out by the
pool terrace.  Control C, Erik Bloodaxe, Forest Ranger, The
Urvile, and a guy by the name of Phil Free (known under various
other handles including Judas Christ) were out poolside and upon
noticing us had run over to climb through the window into the
room.


A Gathering Of Phreaks                          Friday Afternoon,
June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally the convention began
to get underway.  Greetings were exchanged and some discussion
about last year's convention took place.  I had brought laser
printed copies of Phracks 21 - 26 into Tuc's room and everyone
was interested in taking a look.  The Urvile was especially
curious about a certain quicknote that appeared in Phrack World
News Issue XXV/Part 3.  I would guess that the particular
quicknote in question was number five...it was about Telenet
security, but this is a story for another day.

The phone rang and Tuc answered.  He handed the phone to Control
C, who then disappeared without saying anything.  It was obvious
that Lex Luthor had arrived.  However, he wished to make his
current state of residence remain anonymous and so he decided to
park his car someplace other than the hotel parking lot and thus
he needed covert assistance.  After a few minutes Control C
returned with Lex and then all of the LODies ran quickly to the
Doom Room.  Taran King showed up around this time and then Tuc,
FR, TK, and I joined the others.

Shortly afterwards, Taran King, Erik Bloodaxe, and I decided to
go have a listen to Frank and the Phunny Phone Call.  I had not
played it yet and so we set up in the hotel lobby.  The first
part of the tape was not about Frank at all.  It was a
never-released, newly produced musical selection that seemed to
be called "My Telephone Is Acting Crazy."  It was interesting as
it employed different familiar telephone error messages, common
types of recordings, and touch tones.  When the actual Frank
messages began, we stopped the tape and left the lobby
immediately to avoid being thrown out -- the language was a
little too obscene for the conservative employees behind the
desk.  So we wandered the hotel looking for a place to play the
tape.  In the process we met Doc Holiday and Hugo Danner.

We finally gained access to Tuc's room (he was with Forest
Ranger, Phil Free, and the LOD in the Doom Room).  Doc Holiday
and Hugo went to drop their bags off in their room and ended up
in the Doom Room as well.  TK, EB, and I remained in Tuc's room
to hear the rest of the tape.  There was a knock at the door...
it was Bill From RNOC.

Taran and BFR disappeared almost instantly as Erik Bloodaxe began
to pursue Bill.  He evidently had some score to settle.  However,
TK and BFR were gone as if they had become invisible.  Erik
decided to finish listening to the tape.  We did and then went on
to the Doom Room where we discovered Lucifer 666 and Synthetic
Slug had arrived.  L666 had many stories to tell about their trip
to St. Louis and he also brought a video camera.  His biggest
concern was that his camera would scare the hell out of Lex...
and to some extent it did.  You see, as it was explained to me by
the LOD members (with Lex Luthor absent at the time) there is
paranoia and beyond paranoia, there is Lex.


SummerCon Craziness                             Friday Afternoon,
June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As many readers might already
known, St. Louis is the world headquarters for McDonnell Douglas
Aircraft, the firm that also owns Tymnet.  This was no secret to
the Legion of Doom, who led a series of successful trashing raids
on them as well as Southwestern Bell and IBM.  The way I heard
it, they even took pictures.

Meanwhile, after spending some time hanging out with the gang at
the Executive International, Bill From RNOC, Taran King, Tuc, Lex
Luthor, and I went to get a bite to eat.  We ended up at Wendy's
because Tuc, being a vegetarian, wanted the salad bar.  We had a
little fun harassing the staff (who still owes BFR an iced tea).
We began to speculate on who this year's security agent would
be... after all there is always some informant or plant at
SummerCon -- it has become a tradition.

At this point, everyone's best bet was on Dr. Cypher.  Cypher had
admitted to having connections on the security side of things,
had once claimed to be busted and/or retired, supposedly told
U.S. Sprint all about Black Ice Con (to hell with discretion),
and all in all, was the major unknown who best fit the mold set
forth by Dan The Operator at SummerCon '87 (although his friend
that showed up with him, Cryptic Fist fit the mold rather well
too, but this is detailed later).  This is just what I had
gathered from various people at the convention and are not
necessarily my personal views.

The obvious telephone security person there was from Michigan
Bell -- Control C -- But no one was really worried about him.  He
had been able to attend Black Ice-Con and SummerCon '88 all
expenses paid by Michigan Bell, but he said that since his
superiors have read the PWN reports of SummerCons past, they felt
that this trip was pleasure, not business, and would not give him
a free ride any longer.

I hate to break this to the security folks out there, but
honestly, do you think I would write an article and include
information like whose computers, passwords, codes, and whatever
were handed out and discussed?  Why create negative publicity
like that.  Don't you all worry though... none of that EVER goes
on at SummerCon :-)

Before we left Wendy's, Tuc and BFR grabbed a stack of taco
shells and as we journeyed towards the hotel, BFR and Tuc
proceeded to throw parts of these shells at other vehicles and
pedestrians.  A few minutes after we had returned, everyone began
getting together to go pickup Android Pope (aka Cisban Evil
Priest) at the airport.  It was 7:15 PM by now and his flight
from New Jersey was supposed to arrive at 7:54 PM.

               "Are you an agent of the FBI or Secret Service?!"

This was Lucifer 666's standard question that he asked everyone
he came into contact with at the hotel -- guests, office
personnel, porters, and even the shuttle bus driver.  They all
replied with a confused "no."  It seemed to take an hour to get
the shuttle bus ready for passengers.  Bill From RNOC, Taran
King, and I were going to just hang out at the hotel, but I was
shanghaied on to the bus to the airport.

Just before we took off, the older gentleman that was serving as
our bus driver turned around and said, "You know how you fellas
were asking me if I was with the FBI..."  We all froze instantly
as he pulled out his badge.  No, he was not with the FBI, but he
was a recently retired deputy police chief for the St.  Louis
County Police Department.  Control C later remarked to me that
when the driver had shown his badge, he had half expected to hear
a loud series of clicks as the locks to all of the doors on the
shuttle bus shut and a barrier of some sort appeared between the
driver and the passengers... all of whom were SummerCon guests.

Instead, several of the hackers, Hugo and Forest Ranger for the
most part, began to question the retired officer about his gun
fights.  The driver remarked how he had been shot before and even
went so far as to show us some of his scars.  Lucifer asked, "Did
you kill the guy who shot you?"  The driver responded,
"Certainly."  This line of questioning went on for the duration
of the trip.  We got to the airport and moved out.


Erik Bloodaxe:  Missing In Action                 Friday Evening, June 23, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon entering the lower terminal of Lambert Field (St. Louis
International Airport), this "motley crew" encountered a blonde
bombshell named Stephanie on one of the nearby payphones.
Control C was the first to approach her and he asked her if she
was talking to her boyfriend.  She wasn't and so he proceeded to
take the handset and talk to her friend.  In the meantime,
Lucifer 666 was filming the entire affair and several members of
the group (not including Lex or Tuc) began having their pictures
taken with blondie.  This situation soon turned to riot as almost
everyone wanted in on this action.  Eventually we shuffled off to
the American Airlines ticket counter to check up on Android
Pope's flight while Forest Ranger apologized for our behavior.

The scene at the ticket counter was somewhat grim.  You see
Android Pope was scheduled to arrive at 7:54 PM and apparently
the flight's arrival had been delayed... until 9:00 PM at the
earliest.  In the meantime, Forest Ranger was having a little
chat with Erik Bloodaxe.  He told EB that the blondie chick
thought he was a big geek and some other nasty things.  Erik
became so depressed that he headed back to talk to her again, but
none of us knew it at the time.

So now we had to kill an hour.  We started towards the far end of
the airport where a restaurant and bar were located.  On the way,
we encountered some people striking against Eastern and
Continental Airlines and handing out stickers that showed
"Lorenzo" with a circle around his name and a line through it
(much like a no U-turn sign or the NO FEDS pin from SummerCon
'88).  We took a lot of those stickers and put them on
unsuspecting people all over the airport.

Upon reaching the area just outside of the bar, we found a row of
payphones, a fancy vintage replica of a car, and a wheelchair.
Control C hopped into the chair (deja vu of SummerCon '87
occurred here when I remembered how Control C ended up in a
swimming pool last time) and Lucifer 666 started driving him all
about the airport.  The problem was that the wheelchair belonged
to this lady who was on the payphones and when she finally
noticed that it was missing she tracked Control and L666 down
screaming theft.

Finally we got to the bar.  We sat down and talked for a while
watching planes take off and land.  After a few minutes I noticed
that Erik had disappeared.  We retraced our steps all the way
back to the payphones where we encountered blondie without any
success whatsoever.  Then we went to the American Airlines ticket
counter and had Erik paged.  We also did the same thing at the
Trans World Airlines and Braniff ticket counters.

Since we could not find him, about half of us decided it was time
to head back to the hotel and let the rest of the group wait for
Android Pope.  We all went out to the street where the buses stop
and waited.  A very strange incident took place here.  Another
group of guys ventured forth with a person who was blindfolded
and handcuffed.  They said, "This is what happens when you break
the law guys... illegal trafficking in cocaine... Columbian."
Forest Ranger asked if they had any to spare.  Oddly enough, they
had their own video camera and were filming this and us while we
were filming them.  They soon disappeared into a parking garage.

Eventually the bus came and picked us up.  The Urvile, Lucifer
666, Tuc, and Doc Holiday stayed behind to search for Android
Pope.  They caught a later shuttle bus back to the hotel.
However, mere moments after they had arrived, Dr. Cypher showed
up claiming he had just got off the shuttle bus.  Obviously this
could not be true because these buses are very small and there is
no way L666, Urvile, Tuc, DH, and AP could have missed him and
his friend Cryptic Fist.

It was around 11:00 PM when I remembered that Crimson Death was
due at the bus station downtown.  Bill From RNOC and Taran King
accompanied me to go pick him up and were we ever surprised when
we saw him.  He was no longer the short little kid we had met at
SummerCon '88.

We returned to the hotel to discover that Erik Bloodaxe had
finally made it back.  After hearing what Forest Ranger told him
about what Stephanie had to say (calling him a geek or something
similar), he decided to go to her again.  He walked with her to
her gate and stayed until her plane left.  He later remarked that
he had heard us paging him, but decided to ignore it.  After his
return, the entire SummerCon group headed out to the midnight
showing of the premiere day of "Batman."  L666 attempted to sneak
his video camera into the movie, but changed his mind and did a
"jaywalk" instead.  After the flick everyone just hung out for a
while.  The Doom Room crew went to sleep because Control C had an
early flight to catch the next morning and Taran and I crashed
around 5:30 AM.


Conference Day A.M.                             Saturday Morning, June 24, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hotel was trashed.  Forest Ranger and Lucifer 666 watched as
the hotel employees were forced to clean up the mess that was
left behind after the previous evening's activities.  One maid
remarked, "I know my boss wants your business, but he sure as
hell don't want all these beer cans."  Control C was gone, but he
had performed a practical joke on Lucifer 666 and Synthetic Slug
before he left, leaning a trashcan full of ice on their door so
that when it was opened, all of the ice would fall into the room.
According to Erik Bloodaxe, Control C also walked off with a jean
jacket that did not belong to him -- No honor among hackers?

Aristotle and Predat0r arrived sometime during the morning with a
small suitcase full of TAP issues and other materials for the
convention.  Crimson Death lit a pizza on fire in one of the
rooms in order to perform a demonic ritual that was reminiscent
of the first SummerCon (1987) when Lucifer 666 attempted
(unsuccessfully) to eat fire.


The Conference                                Saturday Afternoon, June 24, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was at this time that Taran King, Forest Ranger, and I handed
out the Official SummerCon '89 buttons and posters.  In addition
to this, I handed out keychain flashlights that showed the logo
of Ameritech as well as a few specially designed "Legion" buttons
to the LOD members that were there.

Forest Ranger got things started by welcoming everyone to the
conference and asking them to take a seat.  Mysteriously, Dr.
Cypher had decided not to attend the conference, but his pal
Cryptic Fist was there with a micro-tape recorder in the pocket
of his leather jacket (that he refused to take off even though it
was a blistering 94 degrees).

Our first speaker was Aristotle.  He talked for a while about the
new TAP Magazine, how it worked, and how to subscribe.  He took
quite a beating from the large amount of criticism directed at
him because of the lack of originality in the name of the
publication as well as not having been given official permission
to use the name.  As it turns out, the ownership of the TAP name
currently resides with Tuc.  Tuc was there at the conference, so
Aristotle put the question to him, "Can I do it?"  Tuc basically
said he thought it was ok, but he wanted to talk to Cheshire
Catalyst about it.  The situation remains unresolved.

The next speaker was Lex Luthor.  Lex discussed a topic that was
a little more familiar to most everyone at the conference -- Code
Abuse.   For the most part, he presented the standard methods in
which companies try and track down code abusers and strongly
advised that everyone not abuse codes.  He also went on to
criticize Brew Associates for releasing a new edition of Code
Thief.

Taran and I spoke next.  For the most part we talked about Phrack
Inc. and what lies ahead concerning the newsletter.  We also
brought up discussion on the Internet and the plausibility of
security agencies using "grep" to track down hackers across the
world.  We also discussed our recent excursion through a GTE
Central Office and what we found.

The Urvile gave a short lecture on Unix hacking and then it was
Bill From RNOC's turn to speak.  For the most part, he discussed
2600 Meetings (that take place once a month at The Citicorp
Center in New York City).  He spoke briefly about Eric Corley and
the publication 2600 Magazine.  Afterwards, he played a humorous
recording in which he engineered an insane gentleman to believe
that he was a news reporter and got his story about computers in
Utah taking over the world.  That concluded the regularly
scheduled speakers.

Group discussion began and the topics included:  TelePub '86,
Scan Man, Cheshire Catalyst, The Bootleg, and Red Knight.  We
listened to segments of Frank and The Phunny Phone Call and Group
Bell Presents the Adventures of Dom Tuffy for a while and then
started being really creative.  In a high spirited moment we
formed a large human pyramid and took pictures (that are supposed
to appear in TAP Magazine's next issue).


Poolside and Mellow                             Saturday Evening, June 24, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aristotle, Predat0r, Doc Holiday, and Hugo Danner had to hit the
road soon after the convention ended.  However, another friend
named Stephan showed up after the conference and so did Doctor
Cypher with ParMaster and Rabbit.  Cypher told us a story about
how PM and Rabbit had carded plane tickets to St.  Louis and
stayed at the Holiday Inn-West.  However, after running up huge
tabs at the hotel, the management asked them to pay up in cash
and would not accept their credit card numbers.  They made a
narrow escape from the hotel and arrived at Best Western to stay
the night.

Par and Rabbit were very outgoing, they wanted to have Tuc, Lex,
and Erik come to their yacht in New York and go sailing.  It was
a very strange situation and parts of their story still do not
seem to make sense even today.  However, they proceeded to "fuck
the phones" at the hotel so that all calls going to the front
desk would be intercepted into BFR's room.  This was not very
pleasurable.

Most people went downtown for dinner that night and then everyone
ended up outside by the pool having a few drinks.  At one point
in the evening, Taran, BFR, Stephan, Forest Ranger, and I went
back to BFR's room and were followed by Erik Bloodaxe.  He
accused Bill of being a cocaine dealer and Forest Ranger erupted,
"THAT'S NOT COOL FUCKING WITH RNOC MAN!" and the two of them
(Erik and FR) came very close to blows.  It was soon settled and
the partying resumed.  A small group of us went on a mission that
night and what we discovered is a story for another day, but it
kept us busy until almost 6 AM.


So Long Farewell                                          Sunday, June 25, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the exception of Erik Bloodaxe, the Legion of Doom gang had
disappeared by the time Taran and I showed up at Best Western.
In fact, the only other hackers remaining in the vicinity were
Forest Ranger, BFR, Stephan, L666, and Synthetic Slug as far as
we could tell.  We said goodbye to L666 and SS and the rest of us
(not including Erik Bloodaxe, Tuc and Crimson Death who we found
out later were still in town) journeyed to Westport Plaza where
we spent the rest of the afternoon until it was time for BFR and
Stephan to catch their flights.  And that was SummerCon '89.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The following are the people who attended SummerCon '89:  (23
Total)

             Android Pope \ Aristotle \ Bill From RNOC \ Control
  C Crimson Death \ Cryptic Fist \ Doc Holiday \ Doctor Cypher \
  Erik Bloodaxe
   Forest Ranger \ Hugo Danner \ Knight Lightning \ Lex Luthor \
     Lucifer 666 ParMaster \ Phil Free \ Predat0r \ Rabbit \
     Stephan \ Synthetic Slug
                         Taran King \ Tuc \ The Urvile

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Who Didn't Attend SummerCon '89... And Why!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ax Murderer:  "Definitely next year."
Bad Subscript:  "Dan wouldn't pay for me this time."
Broadway Hacker:  "I have a date that weekend."
Cheshire Catalyst:  "I have a HAM convention."
CompuPhreak:  "I was trying to fix my Watson."
Eric Corley:  "It's either this or GHP."
Cray-Z Phreaker and SkunkWorks gang:  "I was competing in a regatta."
DarkMage:  "My hard disk drive broke and I need the cash to fix it."
The Datamaster, Peter Pulse, Magnetic Surfer:  "It should be in New York City."
Dave Starr:  (Disappeared off of the face of the earth again)
Dead Lord:  "I was at camp."
Delta-Master:  "I am going to the Galactic Hackers Party too."  (No show)
The Disk Jockey and Shade:  "I thought it was next weekend...sorry."
Epsilon:  "My mom said she didn't feel like going to St. Louis."
The Executioner:  "I had a beauty shop appointment."
Katie Hafner:  "Forest Ranger would not let me go."
Hatchet Molly:  "I got married."
Karl Marx:  "I had a job interview... sue me."
The Leftist:  "<Sniff> I'm in the hospital."
MAC???:  "Why don't you guys have it in California this year?"
John Maxfield:  "I was there... the Holiday Inn-West, right?"
The Mentor:  "I'll have my own in Texas instead."
Oryan QUEST:  "I got deported."
Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet:  "We went camping... with our parents."
Phrozen Ghost and Surfer Bob:  "Scared of seeing Crimson Death."
Promethius:  "I decided to spend the weekend with Broadway Hacker instead."
Red Knight:  "I was in Kenya visiting relatives."
Remington Steal and Chanda Leir:  "We'd rather be alone if you don't mind."
Sigmund Fraud:  "I still have another 7 or 8 weeks of basic training."
Silver Spy:  "I'll be there if I can."
Sir Francis Drake:  "Had to get my other nostril pierced."
The Renegade Chemist:  "I didn't feel like taking the heat for MY TAP."
Tuc:  "I am never coming to another convention again... whoops!"
VaxCat and Phase Shifter:  (In August) "When is that anyway?"
Violence and The Scythian:  "We got busted by SoutherNet, but we'll be there!"

Needless to say, those who missed the convention, missed out.  Plans are
already underway for SummerCon '90 --KL
__________________________________________________________________