We’ve been planning our “Blast from the Past” issue for some time now, but it’s taken awhile to put together. As we worked our way through the archives, we began to get a sort of “Uh-oh” feeling. As in, “Uh-oh, we have WAY too many favorite stories, cartoons, limericks, photos, etc. than we can possibly feature in a single ‘best of’ issue.” Which is why you see “Vol. 1″ on the cover. Truth is, we have enough material to fill at least three issues, and we’re still digging around in the vault. So if your favorite writer or story isn’t represented in these particular pages, sit tight-this is your classic case of a work-in-progress, the key word being “classic.” If you have any favorites you’d like to see honored in a future issue, feel free to shoot me an email. Or just shoot me. It’s too hard making these types of decisions.

We have a special issue lined up for you this month—we like to refer to it as our “April” issue. Jason Love and Rosie Sorenson both expound on modern technology; Mary Tompsett names names; Jason Offutt offers his thoughts on clogged toilets; Giosue’ Santarelli talks taxes; Robyn Justo checks out Italianpeoplemeet.com (come on, you know you’ve been curious about it); and we’re officially starting the rumor that Bigfoot has been sighted in Big Sur (they call him “Big Sir” down there). We have a poem on seagulls! We have Kafka and Costello! We would have had even more, but it’s tax time and Uncle Sam said we owed fourteen blonde jokes and six rants. One of the rants was about taxes. I feel an audit coming on.

A lot of people ask me what an editor does. If you find out, let me know. One thing I seem to do quite a bit of is welcome new columnists, and this month is no exception. Giosue’ Santarelli and Jason Offutt have agreed to join our staff, and we couldn’t be happier. Giosue’ is a prolific political columnist, humor columnist, and feature writer who has been scribbling for nearly 40 years. His story “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” was our cover story for November 2007. Jason has graced us with his humor pieces at various times over the last two years, always to positive reviews from our readers. It’s a pleasure to be able to feature such talented writers on a monthly basis. It certainly makes my job as editor much easier. Speaking of which, I’d better get back to work. Now where’d I put that trombone?