Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the first issue of the revived (and revitalized) teemings, the e-zine of the Straight Dope Message Board!

A few things have changed since teemings went on hiatus five years ago, like the rise of YouTube (which enables us to add audio and video to our offerings). Other things haven’t: Dopers are still a smart, interesting bunch of people with creative pursuits that don’t fit into the constraints of the message board format that brought us all together. My goal is for teemings to provide a medium for sharing those creative pursuits. Some of them are on display in this issue, and in future issues I hope that the offerings will increase in both number and type.

Putting teemings together is a big job, and there are a lot of people to thank. First is Gfactor, whose idea this was. Sneaky devil that he is, he managed to make me think — for at least five minutes — that the idea was mine, but when I later reconstructed the oh-so-casual IM conversation in which it came up … nope, all him. If you ever see him standing next to a fence with a bucket of whitewash, run! Of course, in his defense, he’s been very active in the startup: among other things, he has served as my sounding board in the very early stages, made sure that we’re copacetic with all the copyright issues, and created the audio clips that are embedded in WordMan’s T-Bone Walker article. Giving him the title “consigliere” only hints at his role.

Next on board was Eutychus, the editor of the original teemings. He graciously agreed to let us use the title, and — even more graciously — offered to host the ’zine on his server. Most graciously of all, he volunteered to be the webmaster and set the entire thing up. I think the site looks great, and it’s all Euty’s work.

The fourth member of our team is the lovely and talented Misnomer, a professional editor who saw the Café Society thread announcing our return and PMed me to ask if she could be of any assistance. What made her offer even more amazing was that it arrived the morning after it had occurred to me that I really needed another editor, but well before I had come up with a strategy for recruiting one. She has been a great help, and claims to be enjoying the role of my assistant editor (guess she doesn’t read ATMB).

Finally, I’d like to thank all the Dopers who have submitted work — especially samclem and WordMan, who allowed themselves to be recruited as columnists. We have a great mix of poetry, fiction, and prose for your reading enjoyment, all of it written by members of the Straight Dope Message Board. I’m thrilled to see the return of so many authors who wrote for the original teemings, and am even more thrilled to see several new names. Perhaps you’ll consider joining them!

I hope you enjoy this first issue of the teemings revival. Please let us know what you think: praise, suggestions, and criticism (hopefully constructive) are all welcome. If something we’re posted strikes you as worth further discussion, feel free to start a thread at the SDMB and link back to the article — and let us know, so we can link to the thread from here. Use the “contact us” button at the bottom of every page.