Every one of us has a couple in our lives like Erin and Dan. Or at least we should. You know the kind already -- funny, relatively articulate and stable, and just different enough from one another that their conflicts are infinitely amusing. They're like a two-person personal comedy show wherever they go, and you just know that if you could just find someone cool and compatible enough, you would be them.

For those of you who don't have an Erin and Dan in your life, enter One Fine Mess, a zine that's more like a long, chatty, argumentative letter from a pair of college roommates than a zine. Not that this is a bad thing -- I'd much rather have 10 zines like this one than one of the hard-hitting journalistic political zines out there, since I'm looking primarily for entertainment over information -- though Dan's tossed a little bit of information in here as well, much to Erin's chagrin.

Fun Facts is the point of contention. Well, actually, it's actually called the "Hilarious Zone" and it's composed of Fun Facts, Lydia's Laughables, a little cartoon made with the mouse, and even a maze where you can help Boots the goat get home. If you think it reminds you of the backside of a McDonald's tray liner, you'd be right, sans the presence of Hamburglar. Erin was convinced that this section is the Thing That Should Not Be, and Dan, utilizing his co-editorship veto power, put it in anyway.

And here, my friends, is the tiny thread of an argument that goes back and forth through most of the zine in subtle little ways, and is worth way more than the two-stamp cover price.

Hilarious Zone foibles aside, it's still a great issue. There were quite a few times that I interrupted my own significant other, who tried in vain to work on some linux-related project or another (something requiring a fair bit of concentration, I'd imagine), to read him a passage about, say, dead deer hanging from trees or walking around town wearing a caballero outfit.

And that's the thing about One Fine Mess. You get a lot of joy out of your meager two stamps. You get the joy of the reading, the joy of the quoting afterward, and the joy of daydreaming about how cool it would be to have Erin and Dan nearby, just to hang out and hope that some of their Infinite Cool would rub off on you.

Pick this up. Encourage this pair to keep writing. I can't wait to see what's next. Write them at 71 Storm St., Apt. 2C, Tarrytown, NY 10591.

[ by Elizabeth Badurina ]
Rambles: 6 April 2002