"So slow is the rose to open" sang the poet. Little did we know how accurately his words would apply to our magazine. Actually our reason for appearing in such a dilatory fashion is somewhat contradictory: we are so late, because we wanted to speed up the composing of our issues.

The old "hot type" print shop that we knew and felt so comfortable with has, like so many other things that we grew up with, been gradually disappearing, but, recently, because of the sudden and dramatic impact of new technologies, we were pushed, a bit unwillingly, into the glamorous and seemingly all-conquering world of computers. Because of competition from "desk-top" publishers, our typesetting place closed and our old printer who had published all of our previous issues retired at the age of 85. Nonetheless, we imagined that our brave new world could have its virtues, but we little suspected the forms that its vices would take. Instead of having to rely upon the tense and uncertain schedules of the typesetting and print shops, we thought that we now might be able to do most of the work, ourselves, in putting together an issue of our magazine and gain more control over our destiny. How seductive is the siren call (actually the beep ) of the computer world. No longer do we have typographers and printers to suggest, to see, and to correct - there is only the hypnotic light of the computer screen and the highly-touted, but often flawed "power" solutions to our problems. The machine's attempt at "justification" ( how ironically appropriate that phrase turns out to be!) is amazingly good, but alas! not exact. The machine and its minions did not seem to realize that almost justified, a line which is almost straight is a meaningless achievement or concept, (is there an ideological point there?). In reality, it was often much quicker and more accurate to draw a straight line by hand and by eye than to do it on a computer.

Nonetheless we have studied, we have labored, we have cursed, we have struggled through a seemingly endless maze of software and computer fonts,... and we have brought forth our first computerized issue, textually and graphically. We do hope now that we have acquired suficient expertise with computers so that we will be able to appear more often...regularly? Well regularity is perhaps an over-rated virtue, better left to tracts about personal hygiene. At any rate here we are once again, however belatedly,