T h e P a n d a P a n d a R o u n d This is a one-off (probably) title for the letter column. It takes a lot for me to drop a gratuitous game show reference but all the letters have had things to do with the Panda Name Sweepstakes this time, hence the change. This is from GEOFF BROWN in MANCHESTER, and I wish you could see how much effort he had put into it with neatly positioned, carefully selected clipart: > [GRAVE LOGO] You would think that, given all the other Hollywood > personalities that have given up the ghost in the last couple of weeks, > Frank Sinatra would have launched himself into oblivion without a moment's > hesitation. However it looks more like he's going to do a comeback tour! This refers to the ongoing game of The Dead Pool that I'm running and that doesn't look like being close to completion yet. Eyes on the obit pages... > [PANDA LOGO] I can't believe I'm discussing names of sodding stuffed toys! And I can't believe it's not butter. Can you? All this and more (oh yes, much, much more!) to come in future issues of GIT. DAVE PERCIK handed me this at Manorcon, saving him the postage from BOLTON: > How can anything as good as a Panda Name Sweepstake be reduced to > Spacefiller level? On top of that, you have besmirched the good name of > the panda. As far as I am aware, pandas in the wild do little more than > look for bamboo shoots and then eat them, with most of them staying in > areas well-populated with bamboo so that the looking part isn't too hard. > This might be considered a vice by fitness fanatics, but I have it on > good authority that real pandas are big and look cuddly. I admit that they > wouldn't be pleased about people trying to cuddle them, however. Sounds like the typical reaction of big cuddly-looking women to me, but... > You started me looking through my family's cuddly toy collection. I could > only find one duck, but there are seven pandas in our house and there used > to be nine. To match your number I do have to count an old TSB piggy- > (panda- ?) bank and my sister, but the fact that her childhood nickname > was Panda suggests how important the animals were to us. That's a lot nicer than my childhood nickname (no, not telling - and no childhood nickname sweepstakes are forthcoming). I'm glad to hear that your sister was not nicknamed Panda for permanently having two black eyes. B E F F Y N O S E - turn 6 results *GM ERROR* 256 contains exactly one odd digit, a 5. Thus John Colledge should have been credited with +256 points in game L. B/F scores corrected. Last time the random number was 9. Numbers chosen by at least 2 players score. GAME H GAME L Mark Stretch 691 0 points 4 0 points James Hardy 189 0 points 189 0 points Andrew Huddleston 699 0 points 258 0 points 846 -846 points John Colledge 988 0 points 989 0 points EVERYBODY ELSE NMR! 0 points NMR! +1000 points Running totals: Huddleston 3203 points Huddleston -3027 points Stretch 2484 points Stretch 0 points Colledge 1229 points Colledge 1721 points Hardy 99 points Hardy 2099 points Everyone Else 0 points Everyone Else 6000 points Exciting, dynamic turn, eh? That rule was invented with the hope of having more than four players in the game... Andrew Huddleston looks like winning and so is sentenced to life imprisonment in accountancy for his sins. HA! These are the ten rules for turn 7. Pick a number based on these ten rules, one of which will apply to the numbers that you all pick. 1: Must be a prime number. 2: All digits must be 4 or less. 3: Digits must sum to at least 16. 4: Must be divisible by three. 5: Must be strictly between 600 and 777. 6: Second digit must equal last. 7: Digits must sum to a multiple of 4. 8: Must be no higher than 350. 9: Must be chosen by at least 2 players. 10: Must be exactly 1000.