Once Upon a Time...

A long, long time ago, in Pre-Historic Times (or at least Pre-PC), people used a certain primitive tool called the 'typewriter'.

These 'typewriters' were big and heavy and awkward, and they made lots of noise, but they seemed an improvement on writing with sticks in the sand. This was especially the case in Northern climes, where the ground freezes up in the winter... snow is an unreliable medium for communication.

There were certain advantages to typewriters. Once you had one, when you tapped out your message on the keyboard the typewriter actually printed the letters onto paper as you went; nobody had to wait in line for the printer, or worry about paper jams, or had to take their equipment to the repair shop when the needles from their Christmas tree got into the works.

Times were simpler then.

But there were disadvantages to typewriters, too. There was no Internet (gasp!) or Conference Calling, and so it was difficult for groups of people to communicate with each other when they were geographically separated.

That made The People sad.

It made the Geeks and Nerds *particularly* sad, because they had trouble communicating in person, as well. Which pretty much left them sitting alone in dark corners, fondling their Pocket Protectors and Official Star Trek Fan Club membership pins.

But the Geeks were clever, and the Nerds were creative, and they came up with a solution to their tragic isolation. They began publishing independent magazines, which they sent out to a number of subscribers, who largely consisted of other Geeks and Nerds who shared similar interests. These were called variously "'Zines'" (zeens) or "Fan 'Zines", and they were largely printed up by a mysterious and rather messy blue process called "Mimeo", which involved typing onto a special set of treated papers that could be attached to a machine that would create multiple gradually-fading copies. These papers gave off a sour smell that Old Geeks still remember with nostalgia today, similar to what they experience when they think of the smell and taste of Library Paste.

You youngsters are tragically deprived.

The important thing to remember about the Mimeo process, Dear Readers, is that the sheets that The People typed on were relatively expensive, and that it was not possible to erase or 'white out' mistakes. If a mistake was made, one had to either re-type the entire page, or strike it out.

The Geeks and Nerds would type up contributions to a particular 'Zine and mail or deliver their sheets to a Central Geek who had access to a Mimeo machine (this was usually an employee of a school or someone who had access to the office during off-hours). This Central Geek would print up, hand-collate, and staple enough copies of the 'Zine to be mailed out to all the Subscribers.

Many 'Zines consisted of two parts.

One part would be 'official' contributions, which would vary depending on the common interests of the subscribers of the particular 'Zine. These could consist of articles, stories, poems, songs, rants about whether George Takei was a sucky choice for Guest Speaker at the next Con - whatever was of import to the subscribers.

The second part would consist of comments from the various subscribers, and were generally addressed to the *other* subscribers. Sometimes these comments would be general, but often they were specifically addressed to a particular fellow subscriber, in response to a comment made by that subscriber in a previous issue. It was in these Comments sections that the strikeout came to be used as a (supposed) form of High Humor, such as "John - George Takei is a Son of a Bitch Grand Fellow, and we should certainly tar and feather support the Con Committee in their assinine well-considered decision to waste our money invite him to attend as Guest Speaker. Please convey to the Chair my deepest loathing and white hot hatred gratitude and appreciation."

The Alert Reader will have come to two conclusions by this point in our story:

1. The Geeks and Nerds who published these 'Zines had designed a form of printed communication that seems suspiciously similar to that used in the modern electronic Bulletin Board/Email/Elist. This should not be surprising. Remember who *designed* the modern electronic Bulletin Board/Email/Elist. Duh.


2. The author seems suspiciously conversant with Geek and Nerd history.

Umm, yah, there's a reason for that...