From the New World

[Jhildt at aol.com]

Hi, Grant.

Recovering well from Christmas, I hope.  Nothing like a dip in the pool to
soothe things out on the day after, I'd think.  But then I got a pair of
gloves (plus lots of swell books and a 1-Gig hard drive), just the thing for
our weather here on the NE coast of the not-so-new world 'bout this time.  

And speaking of new worlds, I agree completely that an incredible aspect of
this ww-net is the simultaneity of communication, with space and time-zone no
object.  That, and the fact that from billions we cull small groups as if
chatting over a back fence (complete with kibutzers) about some common
interest.  I told my brother (not yet on the net) the other day that I felt
like I had the world in my living room for a chat.  If that sounds
stary-eyed, it's because I am, no apologies.  I grew up with Marshall McLuhan
and Bucky Fuller as prophets.  Now_this_is a global village!

There's an interesting cyber-si-fi book by Bruce Sterling called_Islands In
The Net_.  It describes a world, not too many years into the next millennium,
much like the one we're actually starting to get.  Everybody's digitally
linked, or at least the "haves" are.  The difference, at least so far, is the
ominous corporate control of "the Net" described in the book.  We'd better
watch out, or we'll get a world someone else thinks we derserve.

Enough soapbox.  Sorry.  

To keep to the thread of P., I'm just finishing_V._, with Old Stencil in
Malta in a blaze of tying up loose ends, or so it seems.  Now here's an odd
fact: "The main physical characteristic of Malta  is a well-defined
escarpment that bisects it along the  Victoria Lines Fault." [E.B.]  Now I
knew Vicky was behind all of this, but really!

Hope everyone got what they wanted.

Best,  
             Jeffrey in Nueva Jork