Tuesday Imp lunches are generally a time of light-hearted talk over
nectar and ambrosia.  Last week, talk turned tough as the Imps, in their
monthly union meeting took a strike vote against Infocom.  Union rep Steve
Mereetzky read a prepared statement to the press explaining the Imps Union
disgruntlement with management over such issues as free agency, overtime,
benefits, and bagels.
	The striking Imps set up picket lines outside 125 CambridgePark Drive
carrying signs proclaiming "Info Unfair!" and "More Bagels, More Freedom!"
Picket lines by sympathetic Teamsters were set up in Cresskill, NJ, Mountain
View, CA, Menlo Park, CA, and Upper Sandusky, OH (just for the hell of it).
Back in Cambridge, Infocom's Micro Systems Group and Testing Department
refused to cross the picket line in a show of solidarity with the Imps.
	Chris Reeve, InfoVice Pres of Development explained that management
has been trying to get the Imps to the bargaining table for months, but they
refused to come.  Dave Lebling, an Imp Union leader, hearing this, exclaimed,
"He's full of grueshit.  Trying to talk with management is like a bad wizard
trying to nitfol.  It just doesn't happen.  They've been stubborn for months
and haven't once even approached anything vaguely resembling a bargaining
table."
	Mike Dornbrook, InfoMarketing Director, the most vocal of management
explained later that Beyond Zork, Border Zone, Sherlock, Infocomics, and a
host of other games are in danger.  But management has a plan should the Imps
stage a long strike.
	"Bring on the NURDs!" shouted Gabrielle Accardi, InfoSales
Development Manager.  NURDs are Non Union Replacement Designers that
management plans to employ on a per game basis if the Imps stay on strike.
Management plans to bring in the NURDs through the steam tunnels from 150
CambridgePark Drive,, thereby avoiding a possible confrontation with the
Imps.  Plans are also set to release "replacement games" for those that are
endangered by the strike.
	"Beyond Bork" would be the tale of a misguided judge, written by
Robert Bork, who was a tester at Infocom, but when he couldn't get a job as
an Imp, quit and went on to Yale Law School.  "Sort of Groan" is a game about
East-West Summit meeting in the late 1980's that will be written by Frank
Blank, a distant cousin of Marc Blank, the designer of "Border Zone."
Unconfirmed rumors also exist that InfoManagement has contacted Michael
Bywater as a potential NURD.
	In a flagrant violation of company policy and good taste, the Imps
have booby-trapped the 20 with all sorts of witty sayings to disrupt the flow
of replacement games, but thus far there has been no violence.