They say that James Brown is the hardest working man in show business.  The literary world is not quite show business, so perhaps the comparison is not apt, but I would nevertheless put our new designer, Cody Dennison, up against Mr. Brown any day of the week.  I suspect the Godfather of Soul would find himself ragged and run down after trying to keep up with the Godfather of DUCTS for just a few hours.  The new design you see in this issue is the result of Cody's extraordinary dedication and vision.

We have begun raising money, as many of you know, so that we might some day expand DUCTS and (gulp) pay our editors and contributors.  So if you enjoy the thought-provoking essays and memoirs, if you are captivated by our fiction, poetry and art, I urge you to donate whatever amount you can.  

I was sitting in Phil's apartment one day a few weeks back with Phil and his lovely wife Julie, when Phil suddenly looked up from his massive plate of spaghetti and said, "You know what blows me away about DUCTS? The incredible quality of the writing! I wiped my chin on my sleeve. "Yes, indeed," I said, and then Julie took the bottle of wine away from both of us.  But that, of course, is exactly what DUCTS is all about.  The new design is a lovely decoration -- we now have pretty shutters and working hinges, pipes and ducts (yes, I said it) -- but all of it would be meaningless without the remarkable personal stories and art that serve as the foundation of our web pages.  Special thanks, then, as always to our remarkable editors, Tim, Cindy, Charles, Laura and Ryan for making it happen and congratulations to all our amazing writers. And one last thanks: to Josh Levine for hosting DUCTS on his server.

For those interested in sending humor our way, note that the illustrious Daniel McCoy, heretofore known as one of our illustrators, is taking over the reigns from Laura Buchholtz.  Thanks for the hard work over the years, Laura!  And good luck to you Dan -- we're delighted to have you on board. 

If you've read this far you are truly sucked into Ducts.  I hope, as always, that you'll enjoy this splendid issue and return, again and again, to explore and rediscover all of the wonderful work within.

Jonathan Kravetz, Editor