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7. W E L C O M E TO V O L U M E T W E N T Y - T H R E E H o w time f li e s w h e n one is h a v i n g fun... Or were we all (and not just this one) h a v i n g fun? M us t be, b e c a u s e we n ow are in our t w e n t y - t h i r d y ear of publishing "Scanner", t w e n t y - t w o of those years with Ye Ed. at the he lm (or, ra th e r, at the t y p e w r i t e r ). We have en j o y e d those m a n y y ea rs of d o c u m e n t i n g the c h a n g i n g m a r i n e scene and b r i n g i n g you i n t e r e s t i n g items from the past, an d we hope that our r e a de rs have e nj o y e d them just as much. N ew m e m b e r s m a y come and go (and they do, p a r t i c u l a r l y those who are not vitally interested, but m a y h ave seen a ship once, if only they could re m em b e r w h i c h one it was ), but our m ai n base of loyal m e m b e r s has r e m a i n e d wit h us a nd has e x p a n d e d r a t h e r c o n s i d e r a b l y over the years. We must be d o ing s o m e t h i n g right! In fact, our m e m b e r s h i p list i nc lu de s n e a r l y all of the m os t d e e p l y - i n v o l v e d m a r i n e h i s t o r i a n s and p h o t o g r a p h e r s in the Great La kes area, as w e l l as m a n y m e m b e r s who live far from the lakes. We w o u l d like to take this o p p o r t u n i t y to thank all of those m e m b e r s who have c o n t i n u e d to s u p p o r t us w i t h their fees. A sp ec ial t h a n k - y o u goes out to all of our r e g u l a r c o r r e s p o n d e n t s who ke ep us s u p p l i e d w it h m a r i n e news, i n t e r e s t i n g cl i p p i n g s , historical comment, photos, su gg es ti on s, and the like. W i t h o u t the a s s i s t a n c e of all of those who w ri te to us on a re gu la r and f r e q u e n t b asis, we c o u l d not p ro du ce this ne ws l e t t e r . We reg re t the fact that we s i m p l y do not h a ve the time to send a p e r s o n a l r ep ly to each sub mi s s i o n , but we w a nt y o u all to know that we a p p r e c i a t e your ef f o r t s and kind t h o u g h t s an yw a y. Pleas e keep all tho se n e ws r e p o rt s and clippings c om ing in to us. YOUR E DI TOR , THE TYPIST (!) We mus t e x t e n d to the r e a d e r s our si nce re a p o l o g i e s for the a p p e a r a n c e and la t en e s s of the M i d - S u m m e r i s s u e of "Sca nne r" . Your E d i t o r had a v e r y busy summe r and the s i t u a t i o n w a s c o m p o u n d e d by two v a c a t i o n periods, one in J uly a nd one in A u g u s t . As well, the u n f o r t u n a t e p a s s i n g of a ver y close fr ie n d m a d e the p r e p a r a t i o n of copy for "S canner" a most d i f f i c u l t task and one that a l m o s t got the be st of us. Then, just w h e n we f i n a l l y got things to an a c c e p t a b l e state of r ea di nes s, we fo u n d that our s e v e n t e e n - y e a r - o l d ty pe wr it er, w h i c h had p e r f o r m e d y e o m a n d uty w i t h " S c a n n e r " for so long, was on the verge of h a n d i n g in its d in ne r pail a nd r e t i r i n g to w h e r e v e r d e c e a s e d t y p e w r i t e r s go. We m a n a g e d to scr uf f our w a y t h ro ugh, n e v e r k n o w i n g whe n the m a c h i n e w o u l d toss in the to wel for good, but the r e s u l t s w e r e a n y t h i n g but a e s t h e t i c a l l y ple asi ng . The Editor is on l y n o w b e g i n n i n g to r e c o v e r from the trauma w h i c h the ent i re s i t u a t i o n produced! The d a y the M i d - S u m m e r i s s u e went to the printer, Ye Ed. r u sh ed to the n e a r e s t p u r v e y o r of t y p e w r i t e r s and s e c u r e d the best p o r t a b l e unit w h i c h was a v a i l a b l e (and at a g o o d p rice, too). We p r o u d l y l u gg ed the n e w unit (much s m a l l e r a n d l i g h t e r t ha n the old beast) home via subway, H a r b o u r f r o n t s t r e e t c a r and f e r r y boat and, ever since, hav e been p r a c t i s i n g such w o n d e r s as numerous coded functions, multi-page memory, justified m ar gi ns , a u t o m a t i c u n d e r l i n i n g w h e n d e s ired, b u i l t - i n s pe l l i n g ch eck and p r i v a t e d i c t i o n a r y , and a u t o m a t i c c e n t e r i n g of titles, co mp le te w i t h bold print. Is this an E d i t o r ' s H e a v e n ? We don't know for sure ( wi n n i n g the lo t t e r y mi gh t be b e t t e r ) , but we are c e r t a i n that the end result, in the fo rm of a m uc h m o r e r e a d a b l e " S c a n n e r " , w ill be a p p r e c i a t e d by all of our readers. If not, tough! B e c a u s e we are e n j o y i n g even if we c a n n o t p r o n o u n c e its name! * * * * using this Japanese wonder-machine, *