"So, what's with the pilgrim, anyway?" people
often ask, when they see the Journal for the
first time. So we may as well begin there.
His name is Meshach Milbourn, and he lived
a few hundred years ago in Somerset County,
Maryland, which is where we grew up, and
where our heart still resides.
His purpose here is to remind us that it's
what you know that matters, not what you own,
for ownership is as fleeting as all temporal
conditions. Meshach's tale is told in
The Man In The Steeple-top Hat,
for those curious about history or post-colonial
headware.
Meshach comes to mind today because of other
parallels between his life, and ours of late.
His was no barrel of laughs, and neither is ours.
The most important thing a periodical must do,
we believe, is to be that: periodical. Win,
lose or draw, it must pop up in a regular manner
in a regular place. It must also have a purpose.
Our main purpose has always been to chronicle
the events surrounding the development of an
independent internet service provider, and in that
we have never been lacking for content. Our best group effort there was clearly No Margin For Error, an account of ICNet's growth from the back of a strip store to their own building. We owe John and Richard our thanks for never interfering with our chronicle here, even when (as it did just last week), it simply did not make good business sense.
Our purpose has also been to look outside, as well
as within, and in the past year,
our writers have taken on some pretty
important issues. Here's how it shakes out:
In
Small Towns, Big Issues,
Kelley Rouse, Jo Campbell and Al Cohen looked at the
Landlord Licensing and grassroots politics.
A pretty thorough look, too.
But we do have a penchant for getting into trouble,
and when we went after the Sailor Project,
we certainly found it. See
City Mouse, Country Mouse.
One of the more interesting computing pieces was
from our powerhouse writer, Jo Campbell,
who set the record straight on who was first in
building a computer. As is often the case, history
and public perception are wrong.
Atanasoff, Inventor of the Real Computer
Our HTML editor, Bob Long, is a pretty good
writer, too. He took up an important technical
issue in PGP And Your Privacy.
At the heart of this, it's really just people
to people. In a way, for us, it's
simply a series of
Conversations With My Father and, for him,
an Octogenarian and His Computer. This year
would not have been possible without the patience
and support of our gentle bride who has watched a
whole year of weekends disappear, with hardly a
word of thanks.
But a publication is always between strangers,
between friends who never really meet. And that
is what brings our little troupe back to the
stage every week, for nothing more than the
satisfaction we get from communicating with
you. For that, each week, you have our deepest
and most sincere appreciation.
We look forward to another year. Thanks for your
support.
April 7, 1996 Charles Paparella The Shore Journal
Cards and letters always welcome...