Alt.pinecone used to be a newsgroup with a pleasantly high piffle ratio. A wide variety of topics was raised on alt.pinecone, ranging from East Timor to math jokes. Some of my favorite alt.pinecone posters were Dave Calam, John Bayko, Nastasha, Nate Smith, and Whamo (sometimes known as Wham-o!).

Cone-bearing trees never became dominant in the forest due to their propensity for postponing decisions with theoretical questions: "Should we drop our needles in the Fall, or not? What if this and what if that? etc." Hence the term con-IF-erous.

Pragmatic trees could make decisions more efficiently and became the dominant and colorful "deciduous" varieties." - stevep@shore.net (Steve Poggio), posting to alt.pinecone

Alas, time flies and things change, the center cannot hold, and all that, and the group mostly faded to silence. Since then it's been flooded by a bunch of seemingly well-meaning newbies, many of whom post in MIME, so I don't check the group these days. Now pinecones just remind me of home, since there are so many pine trees in my parents' yard.
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Sarah-Land starts BACK here!