A weekly writer's workshop helps 5 to 10 HRSFA members hone their skills in science fiction and other genres. Many of their pieces end up in Fusion, the group's magazine--pub- lished sporadically--and a few have gone on tosucceed as authors.

In addition, a number of SIGs are dedicated towatching science fiction films or TV seriesestogether. If you are a Harvard student with ahankering for TRON or that elusive episode of "Dr.Who" or "Mystery Science Theater 3000," these arethe people who can help.

And there is gaming. This often obsessivepastime involves role-playing and strategygames--essentially any game where players say thewords "elf" or "battalion of nuclear death" morethan once. It's what attracted a lot of HRSFAmembers to the group.

"People who game will always find ways to game,they will find each other," says HRSFA TreasurerChris R. Hall '99. "Gaming brings a lot of peopletogether. About a quarter of [HRSFA members]game."

The group sponsors Gameathons in the ScienceCenter, multi-day affairs full of board, video andmind games. These events have lasted for 50 hoursstraight in the past. Most gaming, however, goeson in small groups loosely affiliated with HRSFA.

Beam Me Up

But a big part of HRSFA's activities promotenothing more than weirdness in its purest form.

This commitment to the strange begins at thetop. When things go wrong at club meetings, thereis an officially-selected "scapegoat" who cowersin the corner while members yell at the quiveringform.

Other unofficial officers in the past haveincluded "Minister of Death" and "Mr. Chips, Dips,Chains and Whips." In the group's constitution, itstates that any lightly-attended SIG "shall ceaseto exist as utterly and finally as didCzechoslovakia in 1939."

HRSFA brings bizarre to the outside world withevents like the Wyld Hunt in the fall, and theMyld Hunt--a leisurely stroll after a slow-movingfox, ending with tea and croquet at the Quad--inthe spring.

HRSFA members concentrating in Folklore andMythology dreamed up the Wyld Hunt early in the1990s and imbued it with a mix of Celtic andGermanic traditions. The blue paint is meant tosimulate woad--the hallucinogenic paint used byCeltic Warriors to induce a battle frenzy(remember Braveheart?).

According to Matthew B. Ender '93, a HRSFA alumon hand for the hunt, when he was anundergraduate, about half of the "hounds"decorated themselves with actual woad.

At Saturday's hunt, the blue-painted HRSFAhounds draw stares and honks from bystanders asthe pack winds its way through the Square area.

"Last year I was the stag, and I picturedpeople cursing at me walking down the street,"says Matthew G. Withers '01, one of the group'sco-chairs. "But people just look at us and say"That's really strange."

That mood changes drastically as the groupmoves on to its second event of the night--theComing of the Hour, an annual event held in honorof the end of daylight savings time.

Gathering at 2 a.m., a group of about 70Harvard and MIT students as well as othergroupies, dressed all in black, processes aroundthe Yard listening to speeches about thebenevolent god Chronos, who gave the earth itsextra hour.