It's 3:15 a.m. Saturday, June 8, 1996. Sure, most sane people are in bed. But if I don't jot down my thoughts now, they'll disappear like the dew.

Someone told me via e-mail Charles Paparella was no longer affliliated with ICNet. The notion struck me as absurd. As fate would have it, cp popped into The Daily Times newsroom where I work. He was looking for Dalton Dickerson Fleming III, aka Dick Fleming.

I asked cp about the rumor. (Never use a one-source story. Even if it came from your Mother, check it out). He said the company is growing so fast that his feeble old mind was overwhelmed, and the management was going to let him spend some time away from The Internet Mash Unit, doing what he does best. No word yet on what that is, but I'll let you know.

Although he's the new editor of my ramblings, it can safely be said cp is one of a kind. That won't win you many poker games, but unique people are a treasure. People like Bob Drudge, cp, writer extraordinaire Kelley Rouse and so many other people have helped ICNet become a communications force on Delmarva.

The bottom line: no one person deserves all the credit when a project succeeds; it is most often the team concept which produces winners.

When a sports team isn't doing as well as the owner expects, the first to go is the manager (who may or may not had any talent to manage). Change (evolution, if you will) is and was always inevitable. Today, it's much more prevelant, commonplace even.

Regrettably, Dear Diary (there I go again), the fine folks at ICNet need to upgrade all referrences to Mel Toadvine in their system. He is now a former editor of The Daily Times.

Mel was more than my boss. He was (and still is) a friend, a fine writer, a truly nice, caring person who followed the Golden Rule: "Do unto others ..." Although his strong suit has always been common sense, he was also smitten by the power of the computer and the Internet. He was the driving force behind the on-line variation of The Daily Times.

People concerned about Mel's well-being need not worry. Like the four cats who allow my wife, Donna, and I to live with them, "Toady" has a way of landing on his feet (paws?). Even in tough economic times, people with talent and/or backbone survive. Some even discover better ways of putting more Pepperrum Powder on the table in their new jobs.

The Daily Times without Mel Toadvine? Hard to imagine. Think of Cal Ripken Jr. in anything but an Orioles uniform or The Shore Journal without cp and Rouse. It's a sign of the times: Here today, gone today.

The Olympic Games are a pussycat when it comes to competition in the real world of survival, of making an honest living.

June 8, 1996 John Bozman All Rights Reserved

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