This issue features articles by Christina Lake, concerning New Year's celebrations among Melbourne fans, Ted White's take on the origin and development of Corflu bidding tradition, Lesley Reece's views on the Socratic method, Randy Byer's take on being past-president of the fringe-fan writers of America and the need to found another group, the fake-fan writers of America, Victor Gonzalez' research into just how frequent Apparatchik really is, some fine letters from our readers, and some dull-witted crap by me.

To have the courtesy your cradle promised, / But to be still hot Summer's tanlings, and / The shrinking slaves of Winter.

It is one of the ironies of capital cities that each acts as a symbol of its nation, and yet few are even remotely representative of it. London has always set itself apart from the rest of Britain — but political, economic and social trends are conspiring to drive that wedge deeper.

If we are to be drinking from a firehose, with billions of web pages at our fingertips, then we should possess the skills to manage its flow.