Subj : Mystic Pi Year of the Dragon
To   : All
From : Mystic Pi BBS
Date : Sun Feb 18 2024 02:03 am

 _________________________________________
/ The Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest is    \
| held ever year at San Jose State Univ.  |
| by Professor Scott Rice. It is held in  |
| memory of Edward George Earle           |
| Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), a rather     |
| prolific and popular (in his time)      |
| novelist. He is best known today for    |
| having written "The Last Days of        |
| Pompeii."                               |
|                                         |
| Whenever Snoopy starts typing his novel |
| from the top of his doghouse, beginning |
| "It was a dark and stormy night..." he  |
| is borrowing from Lord Bulwer-Lytton.   |
| This was the line that opened his       |
| novel, "Paul Clifford," written in      |
| 1830. The full line reveals why it is   |
| so bad:                                 |
|                                         |
| It was a dark and stormy night; the     |
| rain fell in torrents -- except         |
|                                         |
| at occasional intervals, when it was    |
| checked by a violent gust of            |
|                                         |
| wind which swept up the streets (for it |
| is in London that our scene             |
|                                         |
| lies), rattling along the housetops,    |
| and fiercely agitating the scanty       |
|                                         |
| flame of the lamps that struggled       |
\ against the darkness.                   /
 -----------------------------------------
|02      \                    / \  //\
       \    |\___/|      /   \//  \\
            /0  0  \__  /    //  | \ \    
           /     /  \/_/    //   |  \  \  
           @_^_@'/   \/_   //    |   \   \ 
           //_^_/     \/_ //     |    \    \
        ( //) |        \///      |     \     \
      ( / /) _|_ /   )  //       |      \     _\
    ( // /) '/,_ _ _/  ( ; -.    |    _ _\.-~        .-~~~^-.
  (( / / )) ,-{        _      `-.|.-~-.           .~         `.
 (( // / ))  '/\      /                 ~-. _ .-~      .-~^-.  \
 (( /// ))      `.   {            }                   /      \  \
  (( / ))     .----~-.\        \-'                 .~         \  `. \^-.
             ///.----..>        \             _ -~             `.  ^-`  ^-_
               ///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _}^ - - - - ~                     ~-- ,.-~
                                                                  /.-~

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Raspberry Pi/32)
 * Origin: Mystic Pi BBS bcw142.zapto.org (21:1/145)

.