Conference noted::sf

The thing that astonished me about the announcement was the sheer gall of
the Scientologists who made it.  The way I heard it reported, it boiled down
to this:

1. L. Ron Hubbard is dead.

2. We cremated him.

3. We buried the ashes.

4. His estate was "substantial".

5. He left most of his estate to us.

The implication I felt was "Prove us wrong -- we dare you."
Very strange.

					andrew 

One wonders what the fate of Hubbard's ten-book series will be.  Only the
first volume came out.  If we start to see more of them, with some sort of
explanation that they were written before his death, it will be difficult
to believe that Scientology's fingers aren't in the pie somewhere.

Dave W.

re:.1

I agree. It almost seems as if he actually *was* dead for some time
(as some, most notably Hubbard's son), and the Church is now deciding
to make it "official".

--- jerry

	Nope - he did die recently - the local coroner saw the body, and
	took fingerprints to prove the identity. Looks like the son's claim
	of some previous death was unfounded. It's funny what the chance
	at a slice of a big pie will do to people.

	" Oh, Money!
	  Money changes everything... "

    On a strange note, I was at Boskone this weekend.  They were marketing
    a new book "Heroes in Hell", a Theives World type book about various
    famous characters now in Hell.  Several people in the audience asked
    if they were going to include this gentleman.  The pannel responded
    "no way, he's got a sizeable estate with many followers, we're
    aren't going to suggest that he ends up in Hell!"  They kept on
    being asked this (this was a pannel discussion with several of the
    authors involved) by the audience who either didn't hear the question
    or didn't believe the answer!  He seems to be pretty unpopular with
    SF fandom!!
    
    Charlie
    

        By the way, I heard (somewhere) that all 10 books of Hubbard's
        series have actually already been written, and will therefore
        still be released posthumously.  This may, of course, have
        been merely another of the many different Hubbard rumors.
        
        	/dave

    RE: .6
    
    It's true, or at least the publisher (Bridge) is saying it's true.
    That is, of course, if you believe Hubbard actually wrote the
    "dekology" ("a undertaking *so large* a new word had to be invented
    to describe it ..." :-)) in the first place.
    
    My favorite "L. Ron, Deceased" instance so far is the full-page
    ad that "The Friends of L. Ron Hubbard" took out in the Globe (and
    I assume in other major papers), crediting their deceased mentor
    with every human achievement ever made except writing Shakespeare's 
    works and curing the common cold.
    
    On the other hand, I probably shouldn't give them ideas ...
    
    Fred

    re:.7
    
    Well, of course, they couldn't expect anyone to believe that
    Hubbard wrote Shakespeare's works. That's crazy.
    
    Of course, Bacon's works are another matter... :-)
    
    --- jerry

    Way I heard it; after the dekology is published a pentology will
    begin, entitled "The Lost Works of Shakespeare" (translated from
    Olde English by Elron) followed by his book: "Self-hypnosis and
    the Common Cold".
    
    Very clever, as "Cold" won't be out for ~2 years; ample time for
    the Scientologists to reap the benefits of their self-hypnosis
    seminars (offered for a modest fee, of course) at which one can
    learn how to suppress cold symptoms and eventually become Master
    of the Universe.  (What you learn to do is mentally put the little
    beggers in stasis until your bod generates an overwhelming number
    of antibodies which wipe the suckers out.  Too bad ol' Elron "died"
    before he figured out how to dispatch the cold virus ASAP.)  
    
    Our loss.                                                  
    
    							Don
    
    P.S.  This is what happens when you overstimulate your neural synapses
          with Dave Barry.

    Has anyone given any more thought to Scientology and Hubbard and
    Dianetics?
    
    The recent Time article really surprised me, since I always associated
    Hubbard with sci-fi.
    
    Has anyone here looked into it?