xchar (11/07/82)
I must admit that alice!rhm's news note adequately justified
reviving dead babies on the net. If only he had done so
a few days sooner, net.db could have provided a haven for
mhuxt!crose("afraid to sign my name")'s dead monkey joke.
Thank goodness mhuxt!crose had enough restraint to refrain
from starting net.dm.
To preclude future temptations to form such overly specialized
newsgroups, I propose (following the precedent of net.startrek,
which broadened its scope and then filled up with discussions
of "Quark") that net.db become the official locus for articles
about ALL dead things. It could then also serve as the
net.followup to net.suicide. Perhaps it could accommodate
the topics (burgers, erewhon, ages, Gordon, license plates,
etc.) that net people wish to declare dead.
To implement this broadened definition of net.db, I offer
the following excerpt from last week's newspaper:
Landslide Vote for Dead Candidate
Austin, Texas--Although he has been dead for over a
month, Democratic State Senator John Wilson was reelected by a
wide margin on Tuesday, winning more than two thirds of the
votes cast. With over 90% of the precincts talleyed, he
had received 66,922 votes....
After his death on September 19, Democrats attempted to
replace Wilson with another candidate, but Republican Secretary
of State David Dean ruled that Wilson had died a day after the
deadline for altering the ballot....
--Charlie Harris, Bell Labs, Murray Hill (rabbit!xchar)