"Seattle Mayor Paul Schell expressed initial reservations about the influx
of penguinheads. "Obviously, when I found out that we were going to have
tens of
thousands of outsiders coming to our city, sleeping in their cars, on the
sidewalk- I was very concerned. We hadn't dealt with crowds this size since
the last Grateful Dead show here-
and I'll tell you, these computer nerds are touchy. At least the
hippies stayed mellow till we sent police to the lot to bust their
skulls with nightsticks."
""I went down and met with them, and they were really nice for a bunch
of computer-geeks. They had some sort of cellular hookup or something,
and were on the Internet conspiring with people all over the world. They
had cellphones, moving lifesize penguin holograms- the penguin is their
symbol- and fax machines, some sort of cable satellite TV so they could
watch Star Trek- they impressed me as
good citizens. I'll admit, they fooled me.. When they got tired of playing
soccer or throwing frisbees, they'd get out little homebuilt robots- cute
little things, that play what they call 'fooball.' They said they believe
that technology, if kept in the hands of the people, will be a source of
very good social change. Up until now, our only big problem was with their
all-night laser-tag games all over downtown. Deep down, though, I knew
it wouldn't take much to push them over the edge.""
