Tallyrand Tamed, or Wild Doug’s Sweet Dougie Now
by Marie Cockrell
from
Diplomacy World #6
At the time I met Doug Beyerlein at DIPCON 74, I, like many others, assumed that
he was the infamous Tallyrand, who once tried (unsuccessfully, thank God) to
turn DIPWMACY WORLD into the thinking man's locker room. I was thus taken by
surprise when I learned that Doug was an engineer. He did not write his moves
with a mechanical pencil, though, and he was nice, a loyal ally, liked almost
everything I liked, and gave me funny looks when he thought I wasn't watching,
so I concluded that there was hope.
There was. Two months later I was being asked to come out to California for a
visit, and three months later I was being asked to be co-custodian of the
Boardperson Numbers, The latter I took to be a marriage proposal (and I hope
Doug concurs with me on this).
As far as Doug and I know, we are the only couple that has met through Diplomacy
and has subsequently decided to marry. If there are any single women reading
this, I can't honestly recommend wargaming as a way to meet eligible men. It is
so terribly difficult to be sweet and cute while threatening to blast a country
off the map. When I started postal play, I was sure that the men in my games
would resent me. Or if not, wouldn't they suppose that a female wargamer would
be a big, mean bruiser, a veritable Brunnhilde? Happily, they didn't. Some of
them were even rather intrigued by the whole idea. Doug was one of these.
Doug swept me off my feet with real style. Did he wine and dine me, plying me
with liquor while playing Rachmaninoff on the stereo? Did we leap in slow motion
through buttercup fields with the glow of the soft-folcus sunset matching The
Glow In Our Hearts? No, we took bike rides , played tennis, and took hikes over
innumerable ridges and through an elevation gain and loss of 2,000 feet,
sweating and panting and aching the while. And is it possible to love someone
who puts you through all that physical hardship, alternately calls you a tough
cookie and a soggy banana, expects you to stay awake during his slide shows, and
commands you to produce more Diplomacy wins for the greater glory of the
Beyerlein name? Well, yes.