====== Bartok ======

===== Recruitment =====

In early 1997 I was looking for places that would publish variety cryptics, the market for which 
seems to worsen by the hour. The Enigma was listed as a source of cryptics in one of the appendices 
of [[Hex]]'s excellent //Random House Guide to Cryptic Crosswords//. I quickly sent a cryptic to 
[[Sibyl]] (she was still listed as the current editor). I wasn't online so I sent by snail mail; 
that, combined possibly with the changing editorship, led alas to the submission's being lost in the
mail. I resent the puzzle 3 months later--this time got a friendly apologetic reply from [[Sibyl]], 
explaining that I should sent to [[Hot]] and [[Trazom]] and also that I needed to be a member to be 
published in the NPL (which I did not know). I sent for a third time to [[Trazom]], and also joined 
the NPL. Got an enthusiastic reply explaining that the August issue was due out in something like 2 
minutes and I had better hurry and call him if I wanted to be in the magazine. I called him at once, 
interrupting his dinner, and we reworked a few problem clues <del>write</del> //right// there over 
the phone, and happily the result became TRIBUTE (Aug. '97).

Within a week or two of my joining, I received several welcoming letters, including one from [[Kegler]], 
who lives just 17 minutes from my house. In no time I was attending the parties, where I met [[Panache]], 
[[Manache]], [[Bluff]], [[rubrick|Rastelli]], [[Fuldu]] and others. 

===== Recruits =====

  * [[Artistry]]

===== Nom =====


I had to grab hold of a nom quickly as well, and with the
clock ticking I chose "Bartok" simply because he is my
favorite composer and I often play his works (I'm a sometime
pianist). I suppose you could make some wordplay out of it
("Barr talk" homonym?), but it's really as simple as that.

==== Combinoms ====

No data.

===== Offices =====

No data.