[On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, P Nathan wrote:]

Dear Friends...

Today was the big day, and our plans worked well.  Please allow me to
paraphrase some of the remarks from various witnesses -- we can craft
this into a follow-up press release to the public from Friends United.

Austin has 4 B&N superstores, currently.  We've actually had some B&N
staff running G2 missions on both sides of the fence: some who posed
as concerned customers seeking details of our F.U.C.K.F.A.C.E. plans
and others who kept us updated with a feed from their corporate
bosses.

About a half dozen of the core staff from FringeWare went to the north
store (Arboretum) -- where one of our informants works, far from the
expected target at the central store (The Drag).  Arboretum staff
seemed to be expecting us, but we kept quiet and let the ironic
tension of our protest work its magic.  I overheard several B&N
customers asking the Arboretum store's staff about why people were
wearing bags in their store; since we didn't explain our action, the
B&N had to do their best to paraphrase our press release about the
protest.  Generally, the retail staff seemed amused, but one manager
appeared to be a bit irate.

Down at the central B&N store on the UT/Austin "Drag" area, about 30
"billies" assembled.  Apparently some of the corporate types had read
our flyers (we only printed 100, only for distribution in Austin) and
in reaction, B&N had faxed copies of those flyers to each of their
many superstores worldwide.  They also issued a formal policy to bar
any billies from entering their stores, which the B&N staff ignored.
The B&N exec who manages the western district of the US (hundreds of
stores) was personally onhand to observe the protest, and did not seem
amused to find nearly every other customer browsing inside his store
to be wearing a bag over their head.

News journalists from throughout the US have kept the phone at
FringeWare ringing off the wall subsequent to the protest, to inquire
about today's events.

So far, we've heard no reports from other cities which had planned B&N
protests, but then again we just moved our servers to a new physical
location and have been off the Net most of Monday for that to be
finalized.  Please let us know whatever you've heard! :)

thanx -
paco.