From Lognet, issue 96/3.
What did you think of the new La Logli? Quite a little book, isn’t it? Both Alex Leith and Kirk Sattley—and that fotocopier who said he’d make it look like offset printing (and did)—deserve our thanks. A very professional revival of an old friend.
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As forecast, my wife Evy and I did spend half of July and all of August in Europe. We renewed old acquaintances with Spain, France, and England, countries in which we have both spent important parts of our lives. First there was England, where numerous British friends, and some American ones, came to visit us in our “exchange house” in Plymouth, or we them.
The first three weeks of our English stay were vastly enlivened by the co-visit of my daughter Jenny and her husband Joe, later by Evy’s daughter Rebecca and her daughter Tamara. A lovely “friends and relations” festival all around.
We topped off our European holiday with a visit to the continent: first, old friends in Asturias, Spain; then Alex Leith at his summer place in the Upper Loire Valley (not the Rhone Valley, as I mistakenly said last time) in the French Auvergne. The Auvergne is a beautiful, somehow remote part of France that neither Evy nor I had ever visited before. Then Paris, the Chunnel, London, and home. Lo grada!
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Please forgive me and my “staff”—my indulgent and ever-helpful wife Evy—for not updating all of the labels that went out on September’s La Logli (LL). I said on its backcover that we had deducted the various prices of that issue from your balances on these labels; we did that for everybody except Members! Somehow, this step was omitted for this largest group of customers. However, on the labels used for this mailing, that’s been rectified. You should find on your current label that the price of last month’s LL has been deducted from your balance. (Have a look; and if it hasn’t, let us know.)
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What’s happening to cause these accounting lapses is that with the revival of The Loglanist (TL) as the new La Logli (LL), and with the imminent appearance of Steve Rice’s Loglan 3 (L3), our mailing lists have become a bit chaotic. At the moment we have ten component lists! Four are involved in both LN- and LL-mailings; two, in LL-mailings only, three, in LN-mailings only, and the tenth gets used when and only when an LL-mailing contains Steve’s L3!
That June Questionnaire was great; but it partitioned our customers into an awkward number of little camps! So please be patient with us as we try to get our heads—and our fingers—around these new label-making tasks...all part of growth, I know; and I really am happier about it all, soi clafo, than I seem.
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Our June Questionnaire was a great success. When the returns were finally in—we’d seen only a few before we left for Europe—we had about 240 people to send LL to, somewhat fewer to receive LN, and our dues picture had been greatly clarified. More than a dozen people (I think) had upgraded their memberships to either Sustainer or Patron status. (I will publish an augmented list of these supporting members soon.) And a number of people paid dues that had long been overdue. Still others opted not to continue their memberships but to take advantage of our new offer to accept LN subscriptions without membership obligations...thus creating one of the new partitions of our mailing lists. While only twenty or so people took us up on this offer, I have the feeling that our willingness to do this was, in fact, long overdue, and that our mailing list will now grow. Some people want to receive LN regularly but simply do not want, or no longer need, the other privileges of membership. Certainly we should accommodate the interests of all our logli, these more watchful, waiting ones as well as those actively engaged in learning or developing the language. (Paying dues—which pay for our publishing program—is one of the best ways to cheer us active logli on.) In addition, some told us that they would enjoy receiving free copies of our serials so long as The Loglan Institute (TLI) could afford to send them out. We often can afford to add a few names to the domestic portion of our mailings. Fotocopying is not expensive and the bulk-rate for domestic postage given to U.S. non-profit organizations—even for 4-ounce books—is so very cheap.
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All in all we received more than $2,000 in revenues in response to the June Questionnaire. Indeed, our financial situation is now so good that we can actually afford to carry out our rather ambitious publishing program—the revival of TL as well as the serial publication of Steve Rice’s book—in addition to supporting all sorts of non-paying memberships ...especially the ones we extend to our Russian and Chinese logli. (We will also extend such memberships to citizens of other such countries, when we learn of them, where extra money is not easily found. If you know, or know of, people in other less affluent countries, people who might also enjoy a free membership in the Loglan Community—with all our learning tools and publications furnished to them gratis—please tell them about us. This is one of our most rewarding programs; we want to expand it.) Supporting these overseas memberships is the most important use we are now making of our extra funds. You, our Patrons and Sustainers, provide us with that extra money by paying extraordinary dues. Let us hope that that your generosity with us, and the generosity we in turn extend to potential logli around the world, have already led, and will continue to lead, to our language’s slow but steady spread over the planet. Our hopeful logo as planetary fishermen may yet come true!
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One question we asked you in our June Questionnaire was how many of you were interested in participating in a computer-aided learning experiment, and how many more would be interested if TLI supplied the tools. Many respondents said they were interested, mentioning only shortness of time as a limiting factor. Very few of you indicated that TLI’s supplying the hardware would tip your scale. That’s a welcome result! Technology is catching up with us. Very shortly anyone with a reasonably powerful computer will be able to participate in digital voice-conferencing; and that’s all we need to run our speech-community...at least among the computerized subset of us. Well, not quite all. We’ll also need those “leading learners” to act like brana logli and keep the rest of us stretched out. But, as I said in my response to the Kimerer letter (just above), Alex, Reed, and I have some ideas about that that we’ll discuss with you in January’s Lognet.
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With this doubling in the number of our serials, you could probably use a little lesson on how to read your label. If you make it a habit to glance at it each time one of our publications arrives, you’ll keep yourself apprised of (1) when your LL balance has fallen below the probable cost of the next issue; (2) whether your dues will soon be due; and, if you’re an LN subscriber but not a member, (3) which issue of LN will, unless you renew your subscription, be your last. You can help Evy and me—your unpaid office-staff—by doing your own reminding. That will save us the worry, work, expense, and, above all, unpleasantness of sending out reminder postcards. So bear with me as I try to explain your label to you...or your neighbor’s, if you already undertand yours.
The first lines of our mailing labels are pretty varied these days, but here’s a typical one:
A $10 -2.7 = 7.30 M 06-96
This is from the label of a regular Member whose dues were due on the first of June this year; so M, let us say, is now in arrears. M is a U.S. resident (that is signalled by the leading ‘A’) and had a balance of $10 until LL 96/1 went out; at that time $2.70 was subtracted from M’s balance, leaving $7.30 earmarked for M’s use later. Here’s another first line:
B $13.60 -4 = 9.60 S 04-97
This one is for a Sustainer (‘S’) who lives in Canada or Mexico (the ‘B’ tells us that). S’s dues are paid up to April 1997 (‘04-97’). S also received LL 96/1 and, being a B, had $4 subtracted from his balance for it. S still has $9.60 in our kitty. Another case:
C $4.50 -5 = -.50 R 06-97
This one is for a Retired or student member (the new ‘R’ code tells us that) who lives overseas (that leading ‘C’), and R is paid up until June 1997. R’s recent LL cost R $5, as R lives overseas; but R didn’t have quite that much in the bank. But we sent R this issue anyhow, hoping that R would notice R’s now-negative balance and decide to augment it in time for the next distribution of LL (which could be in November or December 1996, and contain L3; so do please hurry, R, if you want these next LLs, soi srisu).
Please observe that copies of LL sent overseas cost us more to post than to print. So we cannot afford to send free LLs overseas except to those in especially deserving economic circumstances...like our jungi and ruski logli. I’m sorry, but unless overseas members like R (who happens to live in Taiwan) keep their LL balances positive, we are forced by our economic circumstances to drop them from our LL mailings. This is painful; but 4 ounces worth of airmail postage is more than we—even at our current level of affluence—can afford to ignore!
However, our finances can support sending free copies of LL to China, Russia, India, or, for example, South Africa, if we knew of interested scholars living there (we don’t yet). But not to Taiwan or Japan.
Let me continue with a few more first lines:
A LL bal: $13 -2.7 = 10.30
This one is for what we call a “Hi-Bal Customer”: someone—call him ‘C’—bought some books or software from us, possibly years ago, and left some money on deposit with us. By sending C copies of LL until C’s balance is used up, we’re paying C back. At the same time, C may become so enthralled with the copies of LL we send C, soi crano, that C will notice with alarm when C’s balance falls below the probable cost of the next issue. Then, we hope, C will hurriedly send us a new check. (So, C, please keep looking at your label!)
Here’s another, slightly more complicated case:
A Last LN: 97/2; LL bal: $38.20 -2.7
This one is a U.S. “Hi-Bal Subscriber”, let us call him ‘S’. S is apparently not a TLI member but is a subscriber to LN, and the “Last LN” S will receive on this subscription will be the second issued in 1997. But S also has a balance big enough to pay for quite a few LLs. Notice that there’s not enough room on this line for the “last transaction” arithmetic we usually show. Still, we always show as much of it as we can.
Here’s a “Lo-Bal Subscriber”, one who happens to be a U.S. research library:
A Last LN: 99/2
This subscription—which was bought for this library by one of our logli—runs through the second LN issue of 1999; but as there is no LL balance, there is nothing else to keep track of.
Here are two very simple first lines. On both labels there is literally nothing to keep track of:
A $0 H
A $0 F
H is an “Honorary member”, someone who has done something notable for Loglan in the past, and to whom we now send courtesy copies of everything we publish. F is a “Free member”, one of those logli currently living in a country where the economy does not easily support such expenditures. We treat both H and F in exactly the same way. I.e., we send them whatever they can, or wish to, use of our publications and products, and we will continue to do so indefinitely.
There is only one more thing you need to know about the first line on your label, and that is how to decode the letter-codes we use for our several kinds of members. You have just learned what ‘H’ and ‘F’ mean. But here, for your convenience, is the entire current list of membership codes and statuses:
A = Academist (unless also P)
B = Board member (unless also P)
F = Free member (dues forgiven)
H = Honorary member
M = ordinary Member
P = Patron
R = student or Retiree (wishing to pay lower dues)
S = Sustainer
T = Trustee
The accounting policy we’re observing with As, Bs, Fs, Hs, Ps, and Ts is that, if they have a balance, we subtract from it the cost of each LL we send them, and if and when they don’t, we will send LL to them free.
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The sutori—second and subsequent—lines of your mailing labels all have pretty much the same kind of information. At the left on these lines are your name and address; on the right, is our record of the TLI products you have purchased or been given. The codes we use to take note of these gifts or purchases are not very arcane:
L1 Loglan 1 LIP L Interactive Parser
PD Paper Dict. LOD L Online Dictionary
HD Hardback Dict. All All our software
N3 Notebook 3 Evry Everything we make
C1 Cassette 1 FC Flashcards
C2 Cassette 2 RP Reprint (SA article)
C1-2 Cassettes 1 & 2 AB Autumn Bulletin
M1 MacTeach 1 TP TL TitlePages
M2 MacTeach 2 nTL n back-cc of TL
M3 MacTeach 3 nLN n back-cc of LN
M1-3 MacTeach 1-3 nLL n back-cc of LL
Why do we keep such detailed records? Because it’s often very useful for us to know how well or badly we have equipped a certain logli...one who, perhaps, is volunteering for some task for which lei (that logli) will need more gear. When we observe that happening, we make certain lei gets it.
Help us keep your equipment record up to date.
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Now that we have the product codes in front of us, we can publish our current prices in a convenient place once more ...convenient, that is, for those of you who might be thinking of upgrading your own “climbing gear” this year. The two prices listed are in U.S. dollars . The first one is to Members, the second, to non-Members:
L1 $7.5/15 LIP $10/20
PD 4/8 LOD 10/20
HD 6/12 All 27.5/55
N3 10/20 Evry 50/100
C1 5/10 FC 8/8
C2 5/10 RP 1/1, no P&H
C1-2 10/20 AB 1/1, no P&H
M1 5/10 TP 1/1, no P&H
M2 5/10 nTL n x 1/1
M3 5/10 nLN n x 1/1
M1-3 12.5/25 nLL n x 1/1
Except as noted, please add $3 to each order for Postage & Handling. California residents should also pay 7% sales tax on the merchandise ordered.
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Did you notice that there’s been a change in our charges for backcopies? Lognet used to be $3/backcopy. Now all backcopies are $1/ea across the board: for the old TLs, for the new LLs, and for the newish LNs. There’s always some planned printing overrun, of course; and as the number of issues grows, so does the space their backcopies occupy. It always seems a waste to me that they’re occupying our shelves instead of yours. So please take them off our shelves, Logl. (Logl—pronounced [LOH-gll]—is just another and shorter way of saying Hoi Logli.) But remember this: if you order even one backcopy, you must still pay the full P&H charge. So the cost of having a single backcopy sent to you is $4! This is a good reason to order your backcopies in reasonably large batches.
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To help you decide about backcopies, the in-print set of TLs is: TL 3/3,4, 4/1, 4/4, 5/1-3, 6/1, 7/1, nine issues in all, dating from 1979 to 1984. If you want to make selections among them, first order TP (the TL titlepages): price $1, no P&H. I have a complete set of masters and will loan you any subset of them for copying if you will make a deposit large enough, soi crano, to guarantee their safe return.
The in-print set of LNs is rather more extensive: LN 89/1, 90/1,3, 91/1-2,4, 92/1-3, 93/1-4, 94/1-3, 95/1-2, 961-3, 21 issues in all. In fact, only two issues of LN are out-of-print: 90/2 and 91/3. But again I have masters to loan.
The in-print set of LLs is LL 96/1 and counting!
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Some misunderstanding arose over my use of the parenthetic word ‘(optional)’ in the June Questionnaire. I used it there to characterize the Dues Rate at which Trustees, Academists, Board members, and Honorary members pay their dues. What ‘optional’ meant, in that context, is not that these statuses are optional, but that the people who occupy them pay dues optionally. Some Academists, for example, have elected to be Patrons, too, and thus pay dues at a very high rate. Most “officials” pay no dues at all.
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I’m very pleased with the gap-filling move the Keugru has just made (see Sau la Keugru, page 22), a fortiori with our discovery of the gap it filled. By adopting NI+cu as the construction formula for the “indefinite set-descriptor” we have rectified the design of Loglan in an important way. The gap it fills was inadvertently created by me in 1987 when I reintroduced “indefinite description” in Notebook 3, and neglected to trace out all the implications of that move.
In fact, this is probably the most important “truing of the work” since James Carter pointed out to us in 1983 that the wrong one of the two kinds of modifying phrases, the “argument modifying” and the “sentence modifying” kind, had been selected to be unmarked. Before Carter, sentence modifiers had been the marked form—marked with gi, you may recall—while argument modifiers were left unmarked. Carter showed us that the sentence modifying sense of phrases like in the Spring is much more commonly intended (He went to Paris in the Spring) than the equally legitimate but rarer argument modifying sense: He went to (the) Paris (that existed) in the Spring. So it was the sentence modifiers that deserved the unmarked form...as indeed, due to Carter, they now have.
Having tocu, for example, will be like that. Since 1987 we’ve not been able to say elegantly what A couple of men moved the piano says so elegantly in English. Now we can. Tocu mrenu pa muvmao le pianfa. How good that feels! —Hue JCB