TOURBUS: Thursday, December 12, 1996

DRIVER: Patrick Crispin

TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP:
Peter Langston's Fun People List


Hi, kids!  If you are looking for any hard-to-find musical CDs or
cassettes, you really need to pay a visit to today's TOURBUS sponsor.  Not
only were they kind enough to pay for today's bus, but they also have a
really cool search engine that helps you find the exact CD or cassette that
you are looking for!  :)
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Also, for those of you who want to hear what you fearless bus driver
actually sounds like, I am pleased to announce that a recent commentary
that I did for Minnesota Public Radio is now available on the Net!   You'll
have to have Netscape or Internet Explorer *AND* a Real Audio player to be
able to hear the sound file (you can download a Real Audio player for free
at http://www.realaudio.com/), but if you have both of these just point
your Web browser to http://www.mnonline.org/mpr/futuretense and then click on the "10/30/96 If You Are Spammed" link.  My commentary
starts about a minute and a half into the sound file.  :)

PETER LANGSTON'S FUN_PEOPLE LIST
While there may be a whole bunch of humor distribution lists on the Net,
finding a really *GOOD* humor list is darned near impossible.  Most humor
lists are incredibly redundant, recycling the same old jokes over and over
again.  As a matter of fact, just as you can tell how old a tree is by
counting its rings, you can tell how long someone has been on the Net by
counting the number of times she has received the "If Operating Systems
Were Airplanes" post (which, regrettably, can be found on the Web at
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/humor/
compjokes/os.airplanes.html).

There is an exception to this sea of mediocre humor lists, though: Peter
Langston's Fun_People list.  I have been a Fun_People subscriber for over a
year, and I can honestly tell you that the Fun_People list is hands-down my
favorite list on the Net!

What makes the Fun_People list so cool?  Well ...


Fun_People is edited.  Unlike other humor lists, the only e-
        mail letters that are distributed to the Fun_People list are
        the e-mail letters that Peter Langston thinks are funny and/or
        interesting ... and Peter is an EXCELLENT editor.  The e-mail
        letters that I receive from Fun_People are consistently the
        funniest e-mail letters that I have ever seen!

Fun_People not offers great humor, but Peter also occasionally
        sends out posts on topics of social, cultural, or even
        practical import.  It is not uncommon to see a joke on the
        Fun_People list followed by a cutting-edge article about the
        latest legal news on the Communications Decency Act.

I do want to warn you, though, that occasionally the posts on the
Fun_People list contain language or topics that may not be appropriate for
everyone.  Unlike other humor lists, however, on Fun_People this is the
exception, not the rule (and this is yet another reason why I like the
Fun_People list so much).

To see if the Fun_People list is for you, point your Web browser to the
Fun_People archive at http://www.empire.net/psl-bin/Fun_People.cgi

This archive contains every article that has ever been posted to Fun_People
since the list was created back in 1991.  Just click on any of the years
(1991 to present) to see a complete, chronological listing of that year's
Fun_People posts.  I do want to warn you that these listings may be a bit
long (about 100K each), so please be patient.

The best way to experience the Fun_People archive is to simply start
randomly clicking on the links in one of the chronological listings.  While
you are poking around the archive, make sure that you check out two of my
favorite jokes from this year (by the way, both of these jokes are suitable
for all audiences).  The first joke -- the "duck food" joke -- is at http://www.empire.net/~psl/Fun_People/1996/1996BCY.html

and the second joke -- the "stranded engineer" joke -- is at http://www.empire.net/~psl/Fun_People/1996/1996BQZ.html

If the Fun_People archives leave you wanting more, you can always subscribe
to the Fun_People list and receive the posts through e-mail.  I do want to
warn you about two of things, though:

 
Peter Langston runs this list completely by hand. Before you
        ask him to add you to the Fun_People list, make sure that you
        *REALLY* *REALLY* *REALLY* want to subscribe to the list.

     
While the Fun_People list averages only 4 posts a day, there
        might actually be between 0 and 20 posts on a single day.
        Before you subscribe, make sure that you check the recent
        Fun_People archives so that you can gauge how many e-mail
        letters you can expect on a typical day.

After all that, if you are still interested in subscribing to the
Fun_People list, send a personal e-mail letter to Peter Langston at PSL@ACM.ORG and beg him to add you to the Fun_People list.  In your letter, make sure that you tell him your city and state (or country), and it never  hurts to include a Fun_Tidbit or two, just to prove how much fun
you are. :)

As I said earlier, Peter maintains the list by hand, so it may take a week
or two for him to respond.  In other words, don't expect an immediate
response.  While you are waiting, though, you can always find the latest
Fun_People posts in the archive.  :)

That's it for this week!  Have a safe and happy weekend!
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--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------

YURP (noun).  A collection of coutries located across the Atlantic
              Ocean from 'Marika.
Usage:  "The QE2 takes ya from New York to Yurp."

(Special thanks goes to Skip Stocks for today's wurd.)

YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html