Delighted as I was by the turnout at last month's Transatlantic Make-Up
Holiday Point (The Arubylon Project), I have a confession to make: Flag
Day, the Aruban national holiday of March 18, was not my first choice
for a Point.  Had the calendar and my schedule been more favorable, I
would have opted for Friday, April 14.

As it happened, there were compelling reasons for me to be at home in
April, and this weekend's competing claims (family gatherings for the
holidays and Eastercon) would have worked against drawing other
attendees to a Point.

Why April 14?  It would have marked the tenth anniversary of the UK
premiere of Babylon 5's Season 3.  That was an occasion that many
long-time readers of this newsgroup observed with an expedition to the
Stones at Avebury and a Babblings at Page's Bar to watch the broadcast
of "Matters of Honor," followed by a private viewing of the Season 3
Trilogy, tapes of which had been airlifted into the UK from North
America.

On hand for those events were Morgan's 'Muricans, among whom the
present writer numbered.  It was my first opportunity to put faces to
the names of fans who had hitherto been known to me only from the texts
of their Usenet postings.

We've seen and shared much since then: marriages, births, deaths,
countless pints, the Wrap Party, limericks, dire puns, Vorlon fortune
cookies, tales of baby piots, well-deserved jabs at Wolf and SFX, and
did I mention the countless pints?

Delenn was right: Humans know how to build communities.  Almost ten
years on last month, and yet we still could hold a Transatlantic Point
that attracted a first-timer or two.

So, wherever you might find yourself on April 14, I hope you'll take
time to lift a glass, think fondly of the ten years of transatlantic
fandom just concluded, and look ahead in hopeful anticipation of the
next ten years to come.

Cheers!


STEVE