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Source: (consider it) Thread: Circus: Mafia: An offer you can't refuse
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Lucinda awoke with a start. She had drifted off to sleep and had been having a strange dream where she worked as a secretary in a law firm in Paris and a partner had asked her to arrange an insane trip around North Africa for him. The itinerary was going to take in five countries, including Libya (where it is virtually impossible to get a visa, unless you have a local contact, and they couldn’t get one) in as many days. He’d finally thought better of it, but he still wanted that business class ticket to South Africa at the cost of a year’s rent, give or take, although he had made a bit of a fuss about it not having the same exchangeability terms as the one that cost eighteen months rent, give or take. Then she had had to go somewhere and getting back had taken forever because the bloody transport workers were on strike again (well actually they were supposed to be on strike tomorrow, but they apparently had decided to have a dress rehearsal today)* Goodness, she was glad that nightmare was over.

She realised that she had been woken by a noise outside and looked out of the window to see Dafyd running away, hotly pursued by a howling mob carrying torches and pitchforks. Had he really done it? She had to admit that the weight of the evidence did seem to be against him. Annoying though. Who was going to deliver the post now?

*This post may contain some autobiographical elements [Biased]

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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The votes are in, and their message is clear.

Prof Chells (Chelley): 1 vote (Autenrieth Road)
Dafyd the Post: 9 votes (§Andrew, Banner Lady, Chelley, davelarge, ephemera, jedijudy, Rev per Minute, Sioni Sais, Stevie Boy Wonder)
No lynching: 2 votes (Dafyd, Sylvander)

Dafyd the Post is lynched. Unfortunately, he was a Vigilante. Once he's posted his death scene, night will fall.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549

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Just because I thought the old lady was a paediatrician! It was an honest mistake! Dafyd the Post shouted as he went to his gallows.

And don't listen to the Doctor when he tells you to shut up because the mafia want to know what you're thinking. If you keep quiet, you help the mafia hide.

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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams

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Imaginary Friend

Real to you
# 186

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[Waterworks]

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"We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass."
Brian Clough

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El Greco
Shipmate
# 9313

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Holy crap.

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Ξέρω εγώ κάτι που μπορούσε, Καίσαρ, να σας σώσει.

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The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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Day breaks


BASEBALL BAT BRANDISHER BELTED

Little Florence's homicide rate remained high last night, despite the lynching of local vigilante Dafyd the Post, who seems to have brought a new meaning to the phrase "going postal". The latest victim, known only as jedijudy, was seen swinging a baseball bat shortly before her death, which has led to speculation that she might have been shot by a police officer who mistook it for a gun.

Lt Burke Enhare vigorously denied this suggestion, saying "Look, we might be really bad at this whole detecting thing, but give us some credit, will ya? I mean, do you seriously think we can't tell the difference between a baseball bat and a rifle? Let me tell you, my men have undertaken intensive studies on this subject, and they now have a bat/gun identification rate close to 90%. What more do you want?"

Rumours that the victim had been unfortunate enough to get mixed up in a turf war between Red Sox and Yankees scouts on the lookout for new slugging talent are currently unconfirmed.



jedijudy has been murdered. She was a Citizen. Once she's posted her death scene, nominations for lynching will be open for 24 hours.

I should warn the townsfolk of Little Florence that if they make the mistake of lynching an innocent, the mob are likely to be powerful enough to take control. No lynching would keep them at bay for another day, at least.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sylvander
Shipmate
# 12857

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ANDREW! Now wash your mouth with soap! Being involved in lynchings is one thing but no reason to forget your good manners.

The way this is going our utter inefficiency will mean that tomorrow we'll probably be lynching our very own detective - unless the Mafia get him overnight (not that he had been any use so far). Sir van der Hill was so desperate he contemplated suggesting collective suicide. At least this would deprive the gangsters from further pursuing the perverse satisfaction they found in murder.

No, he decided. It was time to leg it and attend a Burns Supper in Scotland over the weekend. Albeit being away was no guarantee against the long arm of the mafia or the blind ire of the lynch mobs, this way at least he would die having fun and possibly inebriated.
In case anyone accuses me of anything: I did not do it. And: I am NOT the detective, so, fellow citizens: lynching me would be out of character. It would not inflict maximum harm on ourselves as is our custom.

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A martyr is someone living with a saint.
2509

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Sylvander
Shipmate
# 12857

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Sorry, I crossposted with TGG.

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A martyr is someone living with a saint.
2509

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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505

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Bishop Banner sat with his uneaten boiled egg in front of him and stared with horror at the morning paper. Bunny Baker was fussing about the breakfast table when he raised a hand imploring silence. “Bunny, it must be a gang war out there. The killings are just getting worse. And I KNEW that postie was up to something. If only he had concentrated on getting the mail to everyone in good time instead of taking the law into his own hands, perhaps everyone would not have suspected him and he would still be alive...This is just too bad... Bunny?!”

Bunny Baker had dropped the toast tray with a crash at the words 'GANG WAR' Her anxiety disorder rose up like a tidal wave. “S-s-s-o sorry, your Lordship,” she stammered, “I-I-I'll fix it right away. Oh, B-Bishop, if only he had t-taken the early retirement you suggested. What is happening to our little t-t-town?” She gathered up the bits of broken toast and hurried, sobbing, from the room...

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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.

Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Rev per Minute
Shipmate
# 69

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Rev Permin felt sick. In the interests of expediency, he had helped condemn an innocent postie - and now he would have to take the man's funeral whilst avoiding (self-inflicted) accusations of brazen hypocricy. Permin had not felt so low since the morning after the Bishop's last Sherry-and-Slammers evening, which had been followed by a number of diocesan resignations and at least one police investigation (not involving him, at least).

What was left for a parish priest to do? Lynching people had clearly failed, as only the innocent had died; doing nothing was not an option, as leaving all the townsfolk undisturbed would only give the Mob another chance to murder an innocent and take the town by default. Strangely, the Book of Common Prayer did not have set prayers for this situation, although he understood the New Zealand Prayer Book to cover most eventualities, and asking the Bishop (who still seemed obsessed about problems with his housekeeper) was unlikely to help. Look where the last bit of 'assistance' had got him - an empty church and a traumatised child. That reminded him that young Judy's funeral was later in the day - he had already had to veto a wreath in the shape of a teddy bear with a baseball bat (apparently, the 'bunny with an axe' had been reserved for someone else).

'Sic transit gloria mundi', thought Permin, and his mind wandered to the young Gloria...

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"Allons-y!" "Geronimo!" "Oh, for God's sake!" The Day of the Doctor

At the end of the day, we face our Maker alongside Jesus. RIP ken

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Pax Romana
Shipmate
# 4653

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Patty Romano never knew it would be so much fun to be a ghost. Flying around and scaring people is great sport.

And she thanks all of you for sending Dafyd over to her side. He was one of the ones who put her here, and she has big plans to make his life ... er ... death quite memorable for him.

Back to what you were doing, everybody!

Pax Romana

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********************
I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.
James Thurber

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jedijudy

Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333

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Good, Mom and Sis are sleeping...finally!

*little judy opens her bedroom window, walks across the large maple limb to the bole of the tree and shinnies down.*

I love walking out at night! No grown ups or big ugly sisters telling me what to do. This is a great night to watch from the pizzeria roof!

*little j watches several suspicious characters pass on the sidewalk under her perch*

*crunch*

What? This is my spot! What are you doing up here?

*little judy backs up until she comes to the edge of the roof. She is picked up, then held by her ankles over the pavement two stories below. little j tries to whack her assailant with her purple cast*

You big bully! I'll tell my Mother and she'll take care of you!

*as the bully drops little j towards her death, she hears a whispered, "No you won't, kid."*******

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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.

Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
I should warn the townsfolk of Little Florence that if they make the mistake of lynching an innocent, the mob are likely to be powerful enough to take control. No lynching would keep them at bay for another day, at least.

I'm puzzled by this. There are 14 people alive now. If we lynch an innocent person today, and the mob kills someone tonight, there will be 12 people alive tomorrow (*).

Since there's no limit on number of nominations, the mob can't take control by simply filling tomorrow's nominated slate with innocent people. So it seems that The Great Gumby is implying that with 12 people, the Mob has almost enough members to ensure the vote goes against an innocent person. Which would seem to imply a huge Mob of 5 or 6 people.

In which case it's wierd that we haven't hit on nominating any of the Mob by sheer chance. Or maybe we have nominated them, but the Mob has been skillfully manipulating our votes away from lynching any Mobsters and towards lynching Innocents.

Or maybe we're phenomenally unlucky.

I've made a grid of everyone's votes, and I'm trying to see if there are any patterns of steering.

Is there some other interpretation of The Great Gumby's remarks, that I'm missing?

(*) Little Florentine days & nights, of course.

Jane hung up the phone. Now that the Postie was dead, she couldn't mail a letter to the Daily Wail. She hoped that the Little Florentine Party Line system would ensure that enough people were listening in to her conversation with The Operator, that word would spread.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Lucinda was outraged to think that someone would kill a ten year-old. Little judy had been stubborn and sulky enough, but she was still a child, when all was said and done. The population of Little Florence was dwindling by the day, and Lucinda was determined to get to the bottom of it. In her strange dream about working in Paris, it was a quiet day in the office (no more epic North African trips to arrange), so she had some time.

First of all, there were some facts that had never been established, like how many mafiosi there were. This was one of those appalling maths problems. Music and maths are meant to go together, but in Lucinda’s case, this was apparently not so. The minute she tried to do arithmetic, she got a terrible mental block. Nonetheless she got out a piece of paper and tried to work it out.

The voice in the sky had said that one more lynching would put the mob only a day away from overtaking Little Florence. Fourteen people were still alive, but with the Honourable Order of Watchmen apparently extinguished, it was likely that one more person would be assassinated overnight. This had to be factored into the equation. So, with thirteen people alive, the town were safe for one day more, but with only twelve, they would probably be overrun. The mob take over the town when they have a majority stake. So where x is the number of mafiosi, and y is the number of people who still need to be alive for x to be less than half of y… Good grief, she hated maths…

2x+1=y
y = 13
2x+1=13
2x = 12
x = 6

Six mobsters? Was that right? If so, how had they not managed to catch a single one? The voice in the sky had warned that lynching the wrong person would hand Little Florence over to the mob today, but it struck her that even if they didn’t lynch anyone, they were making themselves sitting ducks and their days were numbered. The mafia would still win, it would just take them slightly longer… Taken that there were apparently six ruthless killers on the loose, out of the fourteen people still alive in Little Florence, and Lucinda knew that she wasn’t one of them, that meant that even a random stab in the dark had an almost fifty percent chance of success, and surely she could do better than a random stab in the dark, after all there was more evidence every day. Nominating anyone for lynching at this stage was dangerous, but so was doing nothing. Time to see what she could turn up. She hadn’t yet thrown out the previous days’ newspapers, and they contained full reports on all the previous murders and lynchings. She sat down with a cup of tea to go through them with a fine-tooth comb.

[ETA: EITHER great minds think alike, OR I'm in agreement with a terrible mobster. I'm trusting no one at this stage]

[ 29. January 2009, 14:38: Message edited by: lady in red ]

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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Jane had had the wierdest dream. She dreamed she was on a video call with her Auntie Beeb, who lived in Paris. Auntie said there was a transportation strike going on, supported by 80% of the people. What, did that mean only 20% of the people didn't work in transportation? She advised her Auntie to save up 18 months rent and buy a plane ticket out of there immediately.

She woke up with a start. Little Whosits was still asleep, for a change. Good, that meant she had some quiet time to think about what was going on in town, and she didn't mean the dreadful drubbing the 'Gales had suffered last night at the hands of the 'Tons.

[ETA: I prefer the Great Minds theory [Big Grin] .]

[ 29. January 2009, 14:50: Message edited by: Autenrieth Road ]

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Adam.

Like as the
# 4991

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Harry had been thinking. Hopefully, after he had been accused of being in league with Dafyd and Dafyd had turned out to be a vigilante, people would see that actually he, Dafyd (and Jane for that matter) were just playing similar strategies because they were good strategies for citizens to play.

He looked back over what people had been saying. A good sign of a mobster would be someone who had been talking lots, but not about strategy (why would a mobster talk publicly when they could talk privately?). Looking over a few people and having a glance at voting patterns (particularly people who had been quick to vote to lynch our vigilante), one name kept came up: the Bishop's.

Harry nominates Bishop Banner (Banner Lady).

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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog

Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003  |  IP: Logged
Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713

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The Man Who Wasn't Welsh wonders what the hell is going on. He thinks we may as well lynch that damn cop, Lt Burke Enhare for all the good he is doing.

Thanks to Harry's cute attempt at disinformation, TMW3 decides that he was right all along. He regrets not pushing this much harder before so he therefore nominates Harry Hartson (Hart) for a lynching.

[ 29. January 2009, 16:46: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]

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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"

(Paul Sinha, BBC)

Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505

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Another perfumed letter had arrived from Miss Austen-Wreath, this time wanting to know if her baby, little Florent, could be baptised by Bishop Banner, at her home in a private service, and did she have to name the father on the baptismal certificate? She had included a cheque for his Urban Relief Project; he assumed as a sweetener for her request.

Bishop Banner shook his head. Standards just were not what they once were. He wrote back , acknowledging the donation, and informing her that he would consider the private baptism provided she completed a baptismal class with Reverend Permin beforehand.

Then he wearily went through all the messages from the press wanting statements from him regarding his actions, inactions, and on the speculation that the church was being used as a front for Masonic feather nesting, Asian opium smuggling, Mafia money laundering and illicit alchohol production. Who began these rumours, he would never know, but it was sad that if he decided to have Sherry on the Lawns of Bishop House at Michaelmas with the deaneries, as was his custom, the press would likely report it as an orgy of booze and scmooze and all hell would break loose. Then how would he ever get his Urban Relief Project up and running? The town needed it more than ever.

He was just picking up the phone to Rev Permin about the latest funeral arrangements for St Cosimo's when a rock smashed through the window of his study. The note wrapped around it accused him of being a heartless baby killer who turned into a werewolf at night. He sighed. When would these accusations and calumnies end?

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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.

Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Lucinda sat at the kitchen table surrounded by the week’s newspapers. She wasn’t sure that she could catch anyone, since the mob seemed to be having a pretty successful run of it, but she was going to do her best. Instead of working on rumours and wild guesses, she needed to look at facts. They needed to find someone who had it in for Prof de Ville, jedijudy and - which one? Miss Smudge or Don Carmen? They now knew that Dafyd had carried out one of those two killings, but they couldn’t be sure which. He had voted to kill Miss Smudge, though, so maybe he’d killed her.

Prof de Ville didn’t have time to get a vendetta against anyone, as far as she could tell, and if the mafia had killed Don Carmen, it seemed more likely that they’d done it because they weren’t prepared to have two mobs in town than because she had definite information about who they were. On the other hand, if the mob had killed Smudge, then Lucinda wasn’t sure that there was all that much information to be gained from that either. She was just a quiet, reclusive lady with a cat.

What about little jedijudy? Whoever would kill a ten year-old? Judy had a strong dislike for Rev Permin and had even nominated him for lynching in connection to the deaths of [whichever one out of Don Carmen and Smudge the mailman hadn’t done in], for some reason, but that wasn’t proof in itself. Someone could have been trying to frame him. On the other hand, if Miss Austen Wreath was right that the mafia had been steering the town away from their own when they were nominated, that would explain why Rev Permin had ended up getting no votes, except for Miss Austen Wreath’s own. That one vote was strange though, because a sensible mafia outfit would split their votes so that if one of them got caught, the others couldn’t easily be traced. So Rev Permin and Jane Austen Wreath might both be mafiosi, and that whole business about the chart was just an elaborate bluff.

Why was it that she had disagreed with Dr. André about Dafyd and voted for Chelley? No one else had. Dr. André had been wrong of course, but that wasn’t proof of anything in itself. Dafyd did have the evidence against him. Making accusations of murder against people who weren’t guilty did tend to make one look dodgy. And of course, Dafyd wasn’t entirely innocent either. He wasn’t in an organised gang, but he had killed someone. Miss Austen Wreath claimed that she thought that Dr. André was accusing Dafyd because he was in league with Prof Chells, but Lucinda couldn’t see the evidence for that either. Prof Chells had been voting the same way as just about everyone. Admittedly that was probably what some mafiosi had done, but the trouble was you couldn’t prove it. The family were hidden among a mass of misguided but innocent people.

Dr André had thought that Miss Austen Wreath was in league with Dafyd the post and Harry Artson the barber. That clearly wasn’t true. Dafyd had acted alone. But what if the doctor was onto something and part of it was right? Just not the bit about Dafyd? She thought about calling Miss Austen Wreath’s bluff, but saw that the Man who wasn’t Welsh had already called for Harry Artson to be called to account. And it was better to stick to one evildoer. Otherwise they might split the votes and no one would get caught. She was keeping an eye on Miss Austen Wreath, though. She didn’t trust those people who had been baying for blood since the beginning, but without catching a single villain.

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
I should warn the townsfolk of Little Florence that if they make the mistake of lynching an innocent, the mob are likely to be powerful enough to take control. No lynching would keep them at bay for another day, at least.

I'm puzzled by this. There are 14 people alive now. If we lynch an innocent person today, and the mob kills someone tonight, there will be 12 people alive tomorrow (*).
...
Is there some other interpretation of The Great Gumby's remarks, that I'm missing?

Agggg! The other interpretation is that he had a monumental brain fade at an embarrassing moment. Please disregard that warning, which was the result of having too many things on the go at once, and forgetting how to count. [Hot and Hormonal]

I will warn you when a conclusion is near, but we haven't reached that point yet. Please accept my apologies.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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quote:
Originally posted by lady in red:
Why was it that she had disagreed with Dr. André about Dafyd and voted for Chelley?

For the reasons I laid out at the time: Because even before the nominations that round came in, I'd started to wonder if the reason there was only one murder the 1st Night is because Chelley had been out of town. (It wasn't until later that I reread the original rules and realized that we probably had a Vigilante in our midst instead of a Second Mob.) I'm also generally suspicious of people who nominate someone who has just made a nomination. So those two things combined made me suspicious of both Chelley and Dr. Andre. Given that, I felt it made more sense to vote to lynch Chelley than to lynch Dafyd.

Also Dafyd's call to Citizens to share information was a most sensible Citizen strategy, so I found Dr. Andre's using that as the basis for his (Dr. Andre's) suspicions of him (Dafyd) to be wooly-minded and naive at best.

I hadn't yet made my grid to track who had voted how, so none of my previous votes, including the one to lynch Chelley, were influenced by thinking about splitting the vote or following the crowd. They were purely representing my own thinking on what I think would be the right choice. I'm a very independent-minded thinker in general (except of course when I can't make up my mind at all, and go along with tradition, the crowd, or someone I trust instead).

Since I didn't have my grid yet, I also hadn't tracked anyone's voting patterns to determine whether or not Chelley, Dafyd, or Dr. Andre had a suspicious voting pattern or not.

Once I reviewed the rules and made my grid (after I'd voted against Chelley, but before the Great Gumby's announcement about Dafyd), it occurred to me that the murder of Smudgie was very likely a Vigilante murder by someone who had voted unsuccessfully to lynch Smudgie. I wasn't surprised therefore when Dafyd turned out to be a Vigilante.

Interestingly, even before this round of nominations began I'd been thinking, "who's been flying below the radar?" And Bishop Banner's apparently virtuous episcopal persona struck me as one possibility. So it was interesting to see at least one other person has been thinking along the same lines as me.

Jane set down her pen. Coming out so publicly against the Bishop would make the arrangements for little Florent's (née Whosits) baptism that much more difficult, but in an emergency she could always conduct the baptism herself. In the meantime, she counted down the expected minutes until The Great Gumball's next pronouncement, at which time she would bravely make her way to the church and tack her vote to the door.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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P.S. at this point I don't know if I'm still suspicious of either Chelley or Dr. Andre or both or either or neither. Was Dr. Andre's "Holy Crap" the expostulation of a rudely awakened naive and wooly-minded citizen; or the crafty impersonation by a fiendish and devious Mobster of said naive & wooly-minded citizen? Fortunately given the nominations this round I don't have to decide that.

P.P.S. I think the length of my reasoning argues that I'm a Citizen, because from my time as a Mobster in a previous incarnation I found it hard to construct a long chain of reasoning without finding it full of obvious holes. The irony I suppose is that maybe other Citizens will still find my reasoning in this incarnation to be full of holes. If so, at least they're honest holes.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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P.P.P.S. Thank you TGG for the clarification. It's somewhat reassuring to know that we're not surrounded by A Great Cloud Of Mobsters, and also that we probably get a few more chances to shoot our Citizenly Selves in the foot before being Completely Done In by the Mob. Just to be Tragically Pessimistic for a time.

Maybe we'll be lucky and smoke out an Episcopal Fraud this round.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
El Greco
Shipmate
# 9313

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quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
P.S. at this point I don't know if I'm still suspicious of either Chelley or Dr. Andre or both or either or neither. Was Dr. Andre's "Holy Crap" the expostulation of a rudely awakened naive and wooly-minded citizen; or the crafty impersonation by a fiendish and devious Mobster of said naive & wooly-minded citizen? Fortunately given the nominations this round I don't have to decide that.

Jane, are you trying to manipulate us? I mean, really, even I stand confused at the moment as to whether you are mafia or not.

The easiness with which you jumped on Dafyd's argument about sharing information (which I still think at that point looked awfully suspicious), your trying once again to make Prof. Chells look suspect, because he was nominated but not lynched, your repeatedly trying to link me with the good Professor....

And now playing all innocent "finding it hard to construct a long chain of reasoning" and thanking The Great Gumby for the reassuring information that the mobsters aren't that many....

I don't know what you are up to. Is the bishop one of you and you decided to sacrifice him so that you and Harry get saved, and then, being beyond the shadow of suspicion (after all, you exposed a mobster!) get the rest of us and take over the city?

Or is the bishop innocent and you are just trying to distract us and save Harry for another round?

Once again, there is too much group thinking going on between you and Harry.

So, Jane, what's going on?

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Ξέρω εγώ κάτι που μπορούσε, Καίσαρ, να σας σώσει.

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Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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quote:
Originally posted by §Andrew:
Jane, are you trying to manipulate us?

No. I'm reasoning at great length out loud, and probably confusing the issues for everyone else from well-meaning over-thinking. Rats.

quote:
I mean, really, even I stand confused at the moment as to whether you are mafia or not.

Interesting wording. Is there a reason you would have access to special knowledge about who is Mafia or not?

quote:
The easiness with which you jumped on Dafyd's argument about sharing information (which I still think at that point looked awfully suspicious),

This truly baffles me. Of course I agreed with Dafyd's argument about sharing information, because it's the one thing I've always thought is true in Mafia: that the Citizens need to share information and their reasoning, publicly. I still don't understand why you think that's suspicious. I'm willing to grant you the benefit of the doubt that you're a Citizen: can you explain why you think it's suspicious for Citizens to advocate public sharing of info, as the only way to counteract the Mafia's extra private knowledge?

quote:
your trying once again to make Prof. Chells look suspect, because he was nominated but not lynched, your repeatedly trying to link me with the good Professor....

No, on third thought I realize since my original reason to suspect Chelley was groundless (based as it was on an incorrect belief that there was a Second Mob), that there's also no reason to suspect you just because of your possibly tit-for-tat nomination of the person (Dafyd) who had just nominated Chelley. It's certainly possible to be a Citizen and make mistaken nominations and votes.

I do find your thinking about why you suspected Dafyd to be wooly at best, but maybe you can explain more and we just have drastically different baseline assumptions about sharing information vs. playing our cards close to the chest.

quote:
And now playing all innocent "finding it hard to construct a long chain of reasoning" and thanking The Great Gumby for the reassuring information that the mobsters aren't that many....

Would you rather that we be on the verge of losing to the Mafia?

quote:
I don't know what you are up to. Is the bishop one of you and you decided to sacrifice him so that you and Harry get saved, and then, being beyond the shadow of suspicion (after all, you exposed a mobster!) get the rest of us and take over the city?

No, it just so happens that Hart's nomination echoed something I'd been thinking already, and I don't have any particular reason to suspect Hart, so to keep myself from turning myself into knots by seeing wheels within wheels and plots within plots, I'm quite happy to let myself restfully go along with trying to lynch the Bishop this round.

quote:
Or is the bishop innocent and you are just trying to distract us and save Harry for another round?

I guess we'll find out in 24 hours who's what. I don't know, but for whatever evanescent reasons I'm willing to put my money on lynching the Bishop this round. Although alas if the Bishop turns up a Citizen, or worse luck a Detective, I'll have to get ready for a neck-stretching myself pretty soon.

It's wierd, reflecting on circumstantial evidence. Although I know myself to be a Citizen, I can see this dreadful trail of Looks Guilty mounting up around me.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
El Greco
Shipmate
# 9313

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I do think it was too premature to "share" information at that point, because there were yet no clues as to what's going on.

I also think that that would help the mob find out the most dangerous citizens, people who could expose them as the days went by, and so they could murder them early in the game.

In fact, I believe that others thought the same as well, which is why there was no substantial "sharing" of information at that point.

Needless to say I was unsure myself as to when I should share my thoughts with the community, in case that meant I would get murdered before being able to offer any substantial help to the community.

As to the "interesting wording", are you being manipulative again? I still think you are one of the criminals, and I felt so even stronger before your your post. That's why I said that your post, which might be carefully designed to achieve that goal, was making me doubt your guilt.

I still find your, let's say timing, suspicious. Before the voting starts, right after two people expressed their suspicions about Harry... all this sounds too strange to me.

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Ξέρω εγώ κάτι που μπορούσε, Καίσαρ, να σας σώσει.

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Chelley

Ship's Old Boot
# 11322

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Prof Chells was starting to consider her image a bit... not only was she coming under all-too-regular suspicion regarding the violence in the town, but she also seemed to be getting regularly confused for a man. She acknowledged that her beloved old boots and love of Spurs (the Tottenham Hotspur kind, not the cowboy boot kind) wasn't exactly the most feminine image around, but still...

But, she shook herself out of those reflections to consider the latest news. Aut Road had seemed to be making some sense for one who only a day before had had the Prof very suspicious - and then there was the swift and harsh reaction of Andrew that surprised her and caught her attention. Perhaps this townswoman also needed to go and draw up a little grid of recent events...

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"I love old things, they make me feel sad."
"What's good about sad?"
"It's happy for deep people!"

Sally Sparrow to Kathy - Doctor Who

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Rev per Minute
Shipmate
# 69

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Rev Permin was confused. This was not an unusual state for him - to be honest, once there had started to be more than one hymn book, life had become over-complicated - but he felt that he should have a better grasp of recent events than he had so far shown.

The fact that the Bishop had now been accused of taking part in the murders simply stunned Permin. His own views on His Grace he kept to himself, but they didn't stretch to the Bishop bashing the innocent over the head. But who else could be involved? Patrick Permin was starting to realise why the Lord had limited himself to twelve disciples: more than that, and it was difficult to remember who was who. He (Permin, not the Lord) couldn't find a clear reason to point a finger at anyone. But he (Permin, and the Lord too) knew that someone out there was simply working for his (or her) thirty pieces of silver.

Permin turned back to his desk and the ever-increasing number of funeral sermons he was having to write. The tradition of having one sermon, which was adapted slightly for each of the deceased, may have worked in normal times, but these were far from normal times. With the Bishop taking an interest, Permin could hardly repeat the same phrases at each service, especially when there was more than one a day. He thought of calling 'Sermons-R-Us', but the memory of the supposed wedding sermon which in fact addressed the Feast of the Circumcision still made him cringe.

Rev Permin poured another medicinal Scotch and turned back to his sermons. At least here, among his Bibles and commentaries, he fet safe - even if he knew no-one was really safe in this town anymore.

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"Allons-y!" "Geronimo!" "Oh, for God's sake!" The Day of the Doctor

At the end of the day, we face our Maker alongside Jesus. RIP ken

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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Goodness, Miss Austen Wreath had become very vocal all of a sudden. Mewonders if the lady doth protest too much... Lucinda felt even more inclined to point her pizzicato finger at her, but decided that if she was a mafiosa, then she was almost certainly in league with that Mr Artson, so they would be better of trying to catch the baddies one at a time.

She was a little disappointed to learn that the voice in the sky had got its wires crossed about the numbers. It had given her a headache trying to work the maths out, and now it turned out she'd still not arrived at the right answer [Help]

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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The nominations are:

Bishop Banner (Banner Lady) nominated by Hart
Harry Artson (Hart) nominated by Sioni Sais

You may now vote for Bishop Banner (Banner Lady) or Harry Artson (Hart) to be lynched, or for no lynching. As it's Friday afternoon here in Blighty, the voting will stay open until Monday, or until we get a clear result. As before, wrangling over the vote will be allowed throughout, and a majority of those voting will ensure death at the end of a rope. With 14 players still in the game, 8 votes for a nominee will guarantee a lynching.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

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El Greco
Shipmate
# 9313

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Professor Chells,

harsh? I'm having doubts and second thoughts here about Jane's role, I'm not being harsh!

I will have to think hard about what she said, because I might have been right from start to think she was up to something crooked, but I could be wrong, so I will have to think about it over the weekend.

What do you think is going on with Jane?

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Ξέρω εγώ κάτι που μπορούσε, Καίσαρ, να σας σώσει.

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Gwai
Shipmate
# 11076

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If she's mafia, she's sure spending a lot of time trying to think as a citizen. I do think that would be hard. But not impossible. But then, the same argument goes to say that Dr. Andre may be innocent. I just can't imagine spending that much effort writing all that if I were mafia and knew it were crap.*


*Though, now that I said that, if I do become mafia in a future game I'll have to carefully show the same amount of effort that I am now showing.

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A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea.
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.


Posts: 11914 | From: Chicago | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505

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Bishop Banner had a hide as thick as a rhinoceros. He knew most of the clergy under his jurisdiction found him tiresome; but then administrators like hmself often had to be both pedantic and pushy to get things done. He didn't really care if people didn't like him, although he was somewhat bemused by recent accusations levelled against him. If the poor misguided souls of Little Florence looked carefully at the evidence around them, surely they could see that there was no pattern to anything he had ever done; or for that matter ever would do.

He hoped Patrick would preach the kind of sermons at the funerals of Travis and Judy this week that would inspire the confused townspeople to better behaviour. He wasn't sure he could trust Patrick on this. Bunny Baker hadn't been back to church ever since Permin expounded a far too detailed account of the rape of Tamar. He sighed again and picked up the phone. Perhaps he'd better check what readings Patrick was intending to use just to make sure...

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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.

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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549

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quote:
Originally posted by Pax Romana:
And she thanks all of you for sending Dafyd over to her side. He was one of the ones who put her here, and she has big plans to make his life ... er ... death quite memorable for him.

Dafyd the Post's ghost doesn't see what ground there are for complaint. He was lynched a couple of times when he was young, and it never did him any harm. He was all the better for it. That's the trouble with young people these days: not enough lynching. Although, even if it may not be politically correct to say so, lynching's too good for them....

[ 30. January 2009, 19:55: Message edited by: Dafyd ]

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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams

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Adam.

Like as the
# 4991

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Harry stands by his previous arguments and votes for Bishop Banner.

He'll have to do some serious thinking about pretty much everyone else!

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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog

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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713

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Is that a threat I see before me now Harry?

String him up. Hang Harry High.

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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"

(Paul Sinha, BBC)

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Autenrieth Road

Shipmate
# 10509

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Jane votes to lynch Bishop Banner. She turns her attention to knitting little Florent a baby hat in the 'Gales' colours.

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Truth

Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Well, if everyone else was going to make a chart of votes, then Lucinda decided she might as well have one. She was getting no practise done, but the way things were in Little Florence these days, she doubted that anyone would come to the recital anyway, the only music anyone wanted was for funerals. It was a shame. Her Rachmaninov would have been a triumph, glorious and tragic.

Lucinda decided to start by examining the two accused, along with Miss Austen Wreath, who she thought was acting very suspisciously and had become extremely talkative since the finger had been pointed at her. So… in connection with the death of the unfortunate Prof de Ville…

Now that was interesting. Harry Artson and Miss Austen Wreath had both voted the same way, for the Smudge. Two other people had done the same, Dafyd and Patty - and they were now both dead. What to make of that? It could be coincidence, but on the other hand, it would be a very useful way of claiming that there was no collusion between them. ‘It weren’t us, Guv, the other people who did the same were innocent.’ Were the mob that clever? The Bish on the other hand had abstained, along with most of the town. This was not proof of innocence either because the mafia would try to stay hidden, at least early on. Still, a fairly high number of the abstentions were presumably innocent.

Conclusion: three dodginess points for the Bishop, and seven each for Miss Austen Wreath and Harry.

Next: the assassination of Smudge and Don Carmen. The Bishop hadn’t voted at all, and neither had Harry the Barber, which was odd, because he was among the accused. But the writing had been on the wall for Patty, which meant that the mob could leave the misguided townsfolk to get on with it, and then emerge later with their hands clean. So voting was not really a proof of guilt, but neither was not voting. Jane Austen Wreath, on the other hand, had voted for Rev Permin, and she was the only one. That meant that she was either a lone agent, or the mafia were trying to avoid leaving a paper trail by splitting their votes.

Conclusion 2: two dodgy points for the Bish, three for the barber, and five for the lady madonna.

After that, the lynching of Dafyd the mailman: Miss Austen Wreath had again voted alone, which was becoming a habit for her. Harry Artson hadn’t voted again, which was also becoming a habit. Was this an attempt to fly under the radar and go unnoticed after being accused earlier on? Very odd. His Grace (apologies if that’s not the right term, Lucinda is a Pentecostal cellist [Razz] ) had voted for Dafyd, quickly it was true, but then general opinion had been against him. Furthermore, Harry and Jane, who were the ones claiming that this was a dodgy thing to do, had just done exactly the same, voting for the Bishop himself. So either the Bishop was a mobster on the quiet or he just had the courage of his convictions. Hard to tell.

Conclusion 3: three dodgy points for Bishop Banner, five for Harry Artson, and five for Jane Austen Wreath.

Right, now for the final conclusion and overall dodginess quotient:

Bishop Banner: 3+2+3= 8 dodgy points
Harry Artson: 7+3+5 = 15 dodgy points
Jane Austen Wreath: 7+5+5 = 17 dodgy points

Lucinda now regrets not having the courage to launch a formal complaint against Miss Austen Wreath. On the other hand, the barber also has a pretty high dodgy score and doing nothing is not an option at this stage, so Lucinda votes for Harry Artson.

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Rev per Minute
Shipmate
# 69

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Permin's stocks of medicinal Scotch were getting dangerously low, given the number of funerals and sermons that were on his desk. And now he had heard that the Bishop was concerned about some of them: it was enough to make a vicar turn to drink...

Patrick knew that voting for no lynching only allowed the mob to get further ahead. His head span at the idea of voting for the Bishop to be lynched, so he tried to make sense of some of the other arguments. Lucinda had made a very detailed argument that led her to vote for Harry Artson the barber: however, the detail of the argument reminded Permin of some of the more outré lectures on the Trinity at theological college and he wasn't quite sure who had done what (by this example, was the Bishop Father, Son or Holy Ghost?). He was more drawn by the arguments of the Man Who Wasn't Welsh - a response to apparent threats.

Permin sighed and decided to call for the lynching of Harry Artson, and prayed that he would not regret this as he did the death of Dafyd the Post.

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"Allons-y!" "Geronimo!" "Oh, for God's sake!" The Day of the Doctor

At the end of the day, we face our Maker alongside Jesus. RIP ken

Posts: 2696 | From: my desk (if I can find the keyboard under this mess) | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Lucinda walked through the door and was surprised to find herself in a vast tract of void, a bit like the hyperspace chamber in Magrathea. There was no one there except herself and the vicar.

She was rather disappointed about this, as she had been enjoying playing the lovely game and now it seemed to have ground to a juddering halt. Where was everyone? Had Little Florence gone into suspended animation?

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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The tumbleweed down Little Florence's High Street may have blown in from the UK, where strange weather conditions have been causing a certain amount of disruption.

In the event that the townsfolk are hiding or dithering in confusion, they have until this evening GMT to cast their votes on the latest lynching.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505

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Bishop Banner had had a busy weekend away promoting his Bishop's Urban Relief Appeal to other churches in the greater Little Massachusets area. He arrived home in time to realize that if things were not to fall apart completely, he would need to exercise some leadership in his own home town. Leadership, in the Bishop's books was usually necessitated by self-preservation, and so it was without hesitation that he decided it was time to back up his clergy (but only because it suited him) and shop Harry Artson.

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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.

Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged
Imaginary Friend

Real to you
# 186

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Mr Avelarge had been through a rather busy weekend. The Nightingales had lost again, and the crowd was the smallest in living memory. And he hated seeing the smug looks on the Patriot's faces... grrr...

But now it was Monday and things were back on a more even keel, so he managed to get five minutes to have a think about the situation facing Little Florence. Clearly, the most important thing was to secure a lynching. If the town was going to submerge under the rule of the Mob, it might as well go down fighting.

Therefore, with a heavy heart, D. Avelarge cast his vote for Harry Artson.

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"We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass."
Brian Clough

Posts: 9455 | From: Left a bit... Right a bit... | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
El Greco
Shipmate
# 9313

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Dr. André was thinking hard about the exchange he had earlier with Jane. What if Jane is innocent? This means there is no criminal connection with Harry. But what if she is guilty? Then either she is manipulating the good doctor to vote for Harry, in which case Harry is innocent, or she is cooperating with Harry, in which case Harry is a mobster.

The doctor was thinking about the kind father's thoughts, that if there was no lynching that would serve the interests of the mafia. The great philanthropist mr. Avelarge seemed to agree with that.

On the other hand, if they lynched another innocent person (and with the bad karma the city has accumulated from previous lynchings surely this time they would lynch the detective!) then that would be very damaging to the city!

What's a man to do?

The doctor couldn't sleep. The matter was troubling him. He wasn't sure that he should vote for any of the people to whom the city's suspicions seemed to focus at the moment. But, if he voted against the lynching, then he might be accused later of helping the mafia.

A man's got to do what a man's got to do.

Taking full responsibility for what he was going to do, and with the ghost of Dafyd the Postman to haunt him, the doctor decided to vote no lynching, as doubt and uncertainty overcame him. He folded his vote, and casted it in the ballot.

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Ξέρω εγώ κάτι που μπορούσε, Καίσαρ, να σας σώσει.

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Chelley

Ship's Old Boot
# 11322

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Prof Chells decided that the citizens needed to do something to stop the gangsters taking over their town, therefore she reluctantly voted for Harry Artson to be lynched.

--------------------
"I love old things, they make me feel sad."
"What's good about sad?"
"It's happy for deep people!"

Sally Sparrow to Kathy - Doctor Who

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Gwai
Shipmate
# 11076

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Miss Sal sighed.
How on earth were ordinary citizens supposed to know who was guilty when the police didn't? Everyone seemed dangerous these days and she trembled to leave her house, let alone call for someone's death! That Harry guy did seem suspicious, but then he'd been associated with that poor postman by many. And the poor postman certainly hadn't been guilty. So maybe Harry was innocent too?
Similarly, the Bishop could be a bit pushy when he wanted money. (Speaking of which, maybe Miss Sal thought she should write out another copy of her letter to the Bishop that accompanied the check, and drop it in his mailbox. After all, he hadn't mentioned receiving it, and one did want to know whether the check would be cashed. Yes, she would do that when she went out.) But one didn't really know him. I mean maybe he was hiding behind his episcopal self. Definitely don't trust anyone right now. But that didn't mean one wanted to hang a good person!
Still, the man who claimed not to be Welsh* said that Harry had been spreading misinformation. She didn't know where, but if so, that was pretty sketchy. Miss Sal figured she'd better vote for him and hope that she hadn't been misinformed herself.

*Bet he is, really. Will have to ask around town.

[ 02. February 2009, 17:45: Message edited by: Gwai ]

--------------------
A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea.
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.


Posts: 11914 | From: Chicago | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Stevie Boy Wonder
Shipmate
# 11869

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Steve Buckland still had no idea who to trust, but he saw a bandwagon rolling through town and decided to jump on it quick before it disappeared. He thought back to that shaving cut Harry had "accidentally" given him. Was it really an accident... or could it have been attempted murder?

He wouldn't take that risk again. Steve decided Harry Artson wouldn't be going anywhere nice on his holidays this year...

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Jesus saves. But in the current economic climate, His pension probably won't be enough for eternity...

Also by the same author

Posts: 1599 | From: Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
The Great Gumby

Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989

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The votes are:

Bishop Banner (Banner Lady): 2 votes (Autenrieth Road, Hart)
Harry Artson (Hart): 8 votes (Banner Lady, Chelley, davelarge, Gwai, lady in red, Rev per Minute, Sioni Sais, Stevie Boy Wonder)
No lynching: 1 vote (§Andrew)

Harry Artson is lynched. Unfortunately, he was a Detective. Once he's posted his death scene, night will fall.

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

A letter to my son about death

Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Imaginary Friend

Real to you
# 186

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quote:
Originally posted by §Andrew:
On the other hand, if they lynched another innocent person (and with the bad karma the city has accumulated from previous lynchings surely this time they would lynch the detective!) then that would be very damaging to the city!

[Paranoid]

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"We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass."
Brian Clough

Posts: 9455 | From: Left a bit... Right a bit... | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Adam.

Like as the
# 4991

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Harry looked back over the slightly embarrassed looking townsfolk for one last time as the black sack was put over his neck. The barbering-detectiving double life he'd been leading recently had been hard, but still this release from it was not welcome. He hoped their hair got unmanageable and their sideburns uneven, especially the mobsters, precious few of whom he'd been able to discover. Remembering back to that Lewis & Short from page 2, he made sure his last words would be memorable:

Innocens morior!

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Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
Preaching blog

Posts: 8164 | From: Notre Dame, IN | Registered: Sep 2003  |  IP: Logged



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