On the personal front, my life is returning to normal after a tempestuous Spring. Dionne and I are maintaining radio silence ("run silent, run deep" - that's my new motto). I am starting to meet new people and I have no less than three dates coming up in the next week. I have also landed a major programming contract which should keep me busy for the next few months and put me back into the black.

I just returned from a week long family gathering at the old homestead in Idaho. Roger and I spent many hours hacking away on my computer. Some of the results can be seen in the new improved Mr. Wizard column which debuts this issue.

While in Idaho I picked a few scrawny huckleberries in Teton National Park, saw a performance of PDQ Bach, went golfing in the rain, and lost money at the racetrack for the second time this summer. The racetrack is great fun by the way. The horses are magnificent and it's as pleasant a way to lose money as I've ever found.

Although the voice card count is down this issue, our pile of wrapped packages is up and I think I have the bug in the unwrapping routine fixed. I am making a heroic effort to start some new voice card topics and I hope you will all pitch in next time out. I want verbage verbage verbage!

Although Paul mysteriously omitted his quotations this time, Stuart came through with more hyperpoetry. Incidentally, be sure to update your member lists with Stuart's new Ohio address. Both Roger and Robert contributed sound effects and, as mentioned above, I am opening a new era with the first Mr. Wizard HyperTalk Tutorial.

On the ever-changing membership front, we may lose Holly soon but we should gain an exciting new member in issue 9. Thanks to all of you for hanging on through a lazy summer. Keep those packets rolling in!