This one kind of petered out, but may be a place to start.

http://www.apva.org/resource/jjrc/index.html
Harris Kern
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ronald Whitaker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 5:07 PM
Subject: Re: 09282048Z07 What If


> What if I became the first to commit to a subscription to that web site? 
> What a nice idea you have proposed for us to ponder.  Thanks.
>
> Ronald L. Whitaker
> Athens, OH
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Walter Waddell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 4:51 PM
> Subject: 09282048Z07 What If
>
>
>> My 180-degree panoramic northwest porch view here in Verona, Virginia 
>> hardly compares with
>> the ambient pleasantness and grandeur of the sweeping vistas viewed from 
>> Madison's
>> Montpelier, Jefferson's Monticello, or Monroe's Ashlawn-Highland estates. 
>> Similarly, my
>> life accomplishments, successes, and failures are hardly material for 
>> historical note. But
>> I believe I did once enjoy something more than these great men may have 
>> had either the
>> time or opportunity to do so during their occupancy of those great 
>> estates.
>>
>> I keep an old, but beautifully restored, milk box on my porch. My wife 
>> has colored it in
>> keeping with the porch's décor and weatherproofed it for me. I store 
>> varied reading
>> material in it and after yard work and on other occasions when I am just 
>> enjoying my
>> porch; I can reach in to my outdoor library and have, to my mind, some of 
>> the best of what
>> this world offers.
>>
>> In preparing the milk box to winter over, I was made to empty it 
>> contents. At the bottom
>> of the stack were several issues of the Virginia Cavalcade. I thumbed 
>> through them and
>> remembered that I had read one or two articles from each but had not read 
>> all the articles
>> from all of them. All of these issues were very recent to the 
>> announcement to the magazine's
>> death. I had this thought that I had at one time all the intentions of 
>> perusing their
>> contents; but, upon knowing that the magazine would no longer be a 
>> regular in my mailbox,
>> I "kinda" gave up -- succumbing to the sin of despair, disappointment, 
>> and defeat --
>> nothing to look forward to so why bother.
>>
>> As I write this, I remember the wonderful Virginia stories, the colorful 
>> and beautiful
>> photographs and art work, and the engaging maps and drawings this 
>> magazine brought to my
>> mailbox and the pleasure I had enjoying a good read on my very own 
>> porch -- again
>> something I had that those fellows above may not have had.
>>
>> James Shreeve said in his "The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of 
>> Modern Human
>> Origins: "By all appearances, the people of the Upper Paleolithic came 
>> into an innocent,
>> unexamined world and galvanized it with symbol, art, metaphor, and story. 
>> They did not
>> simply invent better means of surviving. They invented meaning itself." 
>> The rationales for
>> the emergence of modern humans are varied and many. "No matter the cause, 
>> 40,000 years ago
>> our ancestors developed an imagination. They learned to ask, What if?.."
>>
>> What if: a pool of authoritative, talented historians could submit 
>> digital material to an
>> authoritative, professionally managed editorial staff?
>>
>> What if: approved material could be published entirely and only in "html" 
>> or "pdf" format
>> complete with photographs and graphics and published on a web site?
>>
>> What if: interested readers could subscribe to that web site and enjoy 
>> complete
>> "downloading" rights to published material?
>>
>> What if: interested subscribers could print out that material in a 
>> variety of quantity and
>> quality forms including, but not limited to, glossy 8 x 10 photographic 
>> paper?
>>
>> What if: interested subscribers could bind or insert downloaded pages 
>> into plastic sleeves
>> and create their own copy of a magazine?
>>
>> What if: I could sit on my lowly porch and relish something that former 
>> magnificent
>> Virginia "thinkers, movers, and shakers" couldn't even imagine despite 
>> the splendor from
>> their own vistas?
>>
>> What if: someone has a better idea?
>>
>> What if: they made it known?
>