Dear Reader,

It has been nearly seven and a half months, but we are back! Only one issue of Frodo's Notebook was published in 2004, and for that I am sorry. The reason for our long absence, put quite simply, is that Frodo's Notebook is run by real people. Websites never have difficult semesters with heavy workloads; Magazines never decide that it is in their best interest to pack up and move to a new place to make a fresh start, but websites and magazines do not simply write and publish themselves either. 2004 was a year that saw a lot of changes for Frodo's Notebook and its staff. Because of the changes we were making to the website and the changes we were making in our own lives, we had a hard time keeping up with our planned schedule of publication. But 2004 is over and 2005 is upon us, so while a few apologies are in order, I want to focus on the future and what it means for this publication.

I would like to apologize first for our long absence and for the shortage of issues in 2004; though 2005 will bring many more changes in the lives of those of us here at FN, we will do absolutely everything in our power to bring you all four quarterly issues this year. Secondly, I must apologize to all of you who submitted work over the last year. Many of you did not hear back from us in a timely fashion. As far as I know, we have now responded to everyone who has submitted work to us over the last several months. If you submitted a piece to Frodo's Notebook more than three months ago and have not yet heard back from us, please let us know. The editors have been working hard to catch up on the backlog of submissions. Finally, I want to offer an apology to anyone who submitted an essay to us recently. Daniel Klotz, our essays editor, suffered a computer crash a few weeks ago and all of the submissions he had recieved were lost. Daniel is now running Linux instead of Windows, so we shouldn't have to worry about any more such catastrophes. In the mean time, this month's front page features two excellent essays from our archives; if you haven't read them before (or if you have), please read and enjoy them. Also, if you sent us an essay submission since our last issue, feel free to send it to us again; we want to be able to feature new essays in our spring issue.

Now, enough of the past... There are a few subtle changes to Frodo's Notebook in this issue. One of those changes is that Daniel Klotz has stepped down as Editor in Chief for the time being. I am doing my best to fill his shoes as Managing Editor. Summations and Selected Articles are missing from this issue, but they will be back in the spring, once I've gotten more comfortable with the Managing Editor position. There are also some new features in this issue, though. The most noticeable of these additions is the ability to search the site. Using the Google search box on the home page, you can search FrodosNotebook.com, FrodosNotebook.org, and the World Wide Web. Just be aware that when you click the "Search" button, you will be taken to a results page that is not a part of the Frodo's Notebook website. All of the search results are from FN, but the page itself is created and hosted by Google.com. Also new to Frodo's Notebook is the lack of frames. Although the look of the site hasn't changed, and some pages appear to use frames, the effect is created using CSS. Eliminating frames is just another step on our way to complete standards compliance.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Frodo's Notebook. As always, the writing is excellent, so don't miss any of it. We missed you while we were gone, and it feels very good to publish again. Count on seeing us more often in 2005.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Timothy Rezendes
Managing Editor
Frodo's Notebook
webmaster@frodosnotebook.com