[ Thanks to Mike
Golvach for this link. ]
“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.””