A brief history of the Kook of the Month Awards

*In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth...*
/And then came humans, and then Usenet, and then Craig Dickson/
*Craig Dickson and Usenet got along nicely, and he decided to help
Usenet by creating the Kook of the Month award*
/Its purpose was to show appreciation for the Truly Strange of Usenet,
those few souls whose twisted views of the world could entertain those
who cared to look at them/
*Unfortunately, many of Usenet did not think of the KotM award in the
same way; instead, they saw it as an excuse to mock their favorite
enemy*
/Craig didn't want to further this; he truly loved those poor souls and
the strange worlds that they lived in.  And so rather than further the
attack, he quietly let the awards die/
*And there was much weeping...*

/The Kook of the Month Awards languished alone, until one day it was
re-discovered by two explorers (and minor kooks in their own right),
Lewis de Payne and Matthew Legare/  
*Not surprisingly, there was immediately a scuffle over who would get to 
wield the powerful Awards*
/Lewis de Payne fought from the position that he was the Speed Seducer, so 
he should rule all/
*Matthew Legare fought from the position that he was actually willing to
do some work with it, so maybe he should be doing this*
/For a long time, it looked like Lewiz was going to win.../
*It's hard to fight _the_ Speed Seducer*
*Luckily, Matt had the foresight to summon the Spirit of Craig Dickson, 
who gave Matt his blessing*
/Finally, Matt, armed with the Spirit of the Old One, summoned Lewiz to
the final battle - and was victorious/
*Lewiz was vanquished; the Kook of the Month Awards had found a new home. 
And there was much rejoicing*

/Unfortunately, even after all of this work, all was not well/
*The awards had taken a turn for the worse; the winners of the Awards
were beginning to feel as Craig feared they would feel, persecuted instead
of honored*
/They began to attack Matt whenever they saw him, rather than treating
him as a medal-bearer or even as a fellow Kook/
*Matt had also been injured during the final battle with Lewiz...*
/The final blow came when another Kook, Steve Boursy, tried to usurp
Matt's rightful position as Vote-Wrangler/
*Though unsuccessful, the 'bump did manage to slow Matt down*
/It was enough.  After holding out for as long as possible, Matthew
Legare unwillingly left alt.usenet.kooks, the position of Vote-Wrangler
left hidden, hopefully for his return.../
*And there was much weeping*

/Several months later, the void of Vote-Wrangler had still not been filled/
*Nobody wanted the position; it was a dangerous place, and besides which
nobody could find the helm*
/Besides, there was always the hope that maybe, someday, Matthew Legare
would return to reclaim his home.../
*Finally, one day two Daemons appeared at the gates - Nik and Kile, the
Killfile Daemons of Tim Skirvin.  They had contacted Matt, asking if
they would be allowed to take over the position...*
/Matt had agreed - and told them where to find the helm of the
Vote-Wrangler/
*The Daemons bested the challenges and stormed the newsgroup - and were
victorious*
/And, again, the Kook of the Month Awards returned to the land/
*It is a different land, now, untamed and overgrown*
/Yet, we hope we can hold it together, and again share with the world
the true glory that comes with being a Kook/