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Back Issues

• 08.12.05
  
  The Post proudly celebrates its sixth birthday with a lovely graphic and an equally lovely anniversarial editorial. In the meantime, the Christmas Poetry Competition has been announced, and equally seasonal is quizzical's holiday-themed cartoon. The other cartoonists are, as always, in full flow (of ink, of course): Dr Anthea, LeRue, tonsilrevenge and EvilClaw have all proved their artistic prowess once again.
  
  A birthday is a time of beginnings, and rightly so in this case: Websailor launches a series on wildlife; Emmily congratulates first solo entries for the first time; Jodan takes advantage of his vice-presidential status to get on a soapbox. Gnomon has returned from a trip to Venice while Phred is just setting out across America. Reefgirl cooks Christmas dinner, Fireproofraven encounters Doctor Who¹, NotScientific watches a movie, Skankyrich watches cricket and Reefgirl, Paff and Pinniped all pay their tributes to celebrities and friends.
  
  And, of course, life continues as normal for Elentari, Smudger, Kath, Tony, tjm, tonsilrevenge and Knolly. (What? You mean our hero isn't an h2g2 Researcher?!)

• 22.12.05
  
  The Post wishes all its readers a very merry/happy Christmas with a lovely editorial by Shazz. Other submissions are also seasonal: the entrants in the annual Christmas Poetry Competition are presented and Pinniped's story 'Suffer Little Children' makes a timely comeback. Another repeat is Wowbagger's 'Night Before Christmas' cartoon — always a favourite. Dr A's Duck Tails wish us a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Smudger, Websailor President Hypatia are all celebrating Christmas in their columns, Cal discusses the history of Christmas cake and there's even a Christmas anagram quiz and wordsearch to round it all out.
  
  Other than that, things carry on much as normal. Poems from cactuscafe and Recumbentman feature; The Invisible Knight remembers the RAF and Sadi, a new contributor, reviews the movie Fight Club. Sudoku has also finally hit The Post, as we publish the first puzzle from Argon0.
  
  Knolly is still adventuring, the Evil Army is still marching, the platypi are still dancing, Escape Pods are still dreaming, Americans still must be explained to, the Blues are still Mancunian, Phred is still travelling and AlexAshman is still engaging in some pointless journeys — here, a roundtrip from Euston to Euston.
  
  We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

• 12.01.06
  
  The Post marches on into a brave new year as the tone of the back issue page undergoes another peculiar shift. Quizzical comments on the ongoing Intelligent Design debate, if that's not too grand a word to describe sensible, humble, open-minded people beset by yapping terriers of dogmatic ignorance, the winner of the Xmas Poetry compo is announced (I can't even think of a rhyme for Xmas), Smudger talks about the weather, and Websailor turns green.
  
  Elsewhere, Bluebear presents the history of tea, Phred Firecloud explores the geography of Oklahoma, and Alex describes the ornithology of the Congo. Lord Reith would surely approve of all this. There are also puzzles and poems of all kinds, and Tony2Times discovers something strangely disgusting made out of wax and kept in a jar.
  

• 26.01.06
  
  This time round Tony2Times finds that the nature of monkeys is ...irrepressible! (Please let us know if anyone actually gets that gag.) Elsewhere, Adventures in Cinema continues to be virtually ignored on its repeat appearance, The_Jon_M discusses public transport provision, and Ormondroyd is too chicken to go on the pull en route to the h2g2 Meet. Shame!
  
  All the regulars continue, while Pseudemys sends a letter from Rotorua in The Virtual Reinhard. AlexAshman shares a story about a banana.
  

• 09.02.06
  
  Echo (...echo, echo...) shares some fairly thoughtful thoughts with us concerning freedom of speech. Thankfully our own cartoon section can only cause harm in the form of split sides. Elentari shares an uplifting story of a ferocious university protest (some things never change) as the students insist on wearing clean clothes (well, maybe they do).
  
  h2g2 seems gripped by misanthropy as only a miserable two Valentines messages appear in the Post. With it being Valentine's Day, Smudger decides to tell us a story about New Year. The CAC continuum gets with the program a bit more though, but Quizzical is rather cynical on the subject of romance. In the meantime, the Back Issue page maintainer WLTM a 25-35 F w/a GSOH and a high tolerance for men who enjoy writing flippant precis of other people's work. GRO.

• 23.02.06
  
  It seems some people just can't take a hint as Awix drags the sorry carcass of 24 Lies a Second back into the Post yet again for more old jokes and opinions of dubious merit. Elsewhere we have a novelty as someone gives birth in the editorial, a handy guide as Kath explains a British graduation ceremony, and a shameless plug as Thrifty Boy and the Duke of Dunstable advertise top boffin Robert 'O Lordy' Winston's DNA Memorial Lecture.
  
  The regular fiction and travel pieces continue, while there's a Sudoku and a quiz about Stargate (although sadly 'which one's supposed to be Kurt Russell?' once again fails to appear). Chronomanicmechanic writes an appropriately long column for someone whose name is so fiddly to type, it goes on about all sorts of things. Speaking of people with fiddly names, Dmitrigheorgehni reviews a new stage production of the Guide. Smudger submits another snippet which isn't a particularly essential bit of the Post but at least his name is easy to get right.
  

• 09.03.06
  
  EMR celebrates the birthday of the Great Man — that is, Douglas Adams — as the 9th March issue gets underway. Conclusions are afoot this week, as Pinniped concludes his tale of a Bowman at Towton and Phred reaches his destination in his epic American journey. Len and cactuscafe have both got poems for us this week, and Len discusses times gone by and an interesting encounter with the neighbours. Phil and Chronomanicmechanic also recall their childhoods.
  
  Meanwhile, as always, Tony2Times and the h2g2 Bookworms Club are reviewing, Emmily is celebrating Researchers' first solo entries, Websailor and Smudger are musing and the CAC Continuum and Escape Pod Dreams are just being odd. And if that doesn't satisfy you, well, there's always Sudoku.
  

• 23.03.06
  
  EMR is reading 1984 and appears to be going through her dystopia phase — we'll leave her to that and get on with this week's issue. Reefgirl has started a new sci-fi serial, mixing Stargate and Doctor Who. Phred sets off on another epic journey, this time in order to make it to the Ozarks for hootoo prez Hypatia's July Fourth meet. The Chief Executive Officer herself holds forth on books. Other media also being reviewed include music (from T2T) and movies (from Awix).
  
  And, as always, the regulars are at it. Need I say more?
  

• 06.04.06
  
  Great changes are going on in hootooland this week, as Editor Paully departs, to be replaced by Beth. A new profanity filter has also been installed, which blocks postings and entries containing certain combinations of letters judged to be obscene — and thus creating problems for Post Team editors trying to tidy up the archives.
  
  The rerun of 'Adventures in Cinema' concludes this week, but the fiction and poetry is not short of entrants as Len, Cal, Reefgirl and mriduldas all let their creative juices flow. As the 'Tales of a Newbie' reprise also draws to a close, EvilClaw and TonsilRevenge carry on submitting new cartoons. 'Norton in Australia', 'The Virtual Reinhard' and 'Pilgrimage to the Ozarks' continue, as Hypatia herself sets out on a journey to England. IRL, it's the Queen's birthday this week, and so Reefgirl discusses the festivities.
  
  Meanwhile (as ever!) NotScientific, TonsilRevenge, Tony2Times, Smudger, Websailor, tjm, Awix, Emmily and the CAC fill our Regulars slots with their always-interesting writing.
  

• 20.04.06
  
  EMR is still waxing philosophical and unnecessarily serious regarding the profanity filter in this week's editorial, so without further ado let's move on to The Post itself. A fair number of poems this week — from the likes of mriduldas, Len and lil — and two new fiction serials: Cal and Evangeline's 'The Caped Confuzzler' and Len's 'An Idyll Too Far' both embark upon their maiden chapters. Phred, Hypatia, Pseudemys and NVQAssessor are still travelling, while the CAC has launched a new interviews feature with their first subject, Eposina. Another new beginning is that of 'Without Comment or Complaint', the WWII memoirs of Staff Serjeant Ted Inge.
  
  More Researchers than EMR are stirring over the filter, though, as Hypatia discusses it in her latest column. And our other fond friends are reviewing and musing and commenting much as ever. Life goes on at The Post quite as normal...