Life's easier when I don't have to write. But sometimes the buck stops at my desk...so...

Some of you will undoubtedly notice that the volume number of this issue is not sequential with the previous issue. And most of you would assume that's a mistake. Well, perhaps. But actually we're just carrying on an ANVIL Magazine tradition. Looking back into the first three issues of ANVIL (at that time the official newspaper of the California State Farriers Association), we find that Volume 1 No. 1 was the November/December issues of 1976. And then we find that Volume I No. 2 is the January/February 1977 issue, followed by Volume II No. 2 - the March/April 1977 edition. Seems as though the original framers of ANVIL corrected their errors with the logical and proper sequencing in mid-stream.

So now we're going to do the same thing. As Hank Williams Jr.'s song lyrics twang, ". . . it's a family tradition."

The investigation began when we received an e-mail from a lovely librarian in Colorado pointing out that our sequential numbering system had shown irregular irregularities, to say the least. We've decided to slip this whole debacle into the arena of journalistic integrity which requires absolute truth. So here goes. As far as we can tell, this issue that you have in your hands should be Volume XXV, No. 9. Unfortunately, this means that we are already in our 25th year of publishing the secrets to life and have completely missed celebrating that fact! Tempus fugit (time flies). So we'll just have to celebrate next year. After all, by that point we will have actually completed 25 years of this dance of significant rhetoric-a remarkable example of stamina and perseverance in the hard, cruel world of horses, fire and iron.

As they say, when in doubt tell the truth - it will confuse your enemies and surprise your friends.

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