Cover: Photo (c) J.G. Betts. Snow scene Torquay Devon
LUPO 56 for December 2021 has pieces from regulars and newcomers on the Beatles, bird-watching, children, coins, custard tarts, Dickinson, Dior, Henry the VIIIth, Kalamazoo, marmots, oxen (musk and draught), pikelets, saunas, school libraries, searching for inner peace, sheep, Shiva, shoe-shopping, snakes, songs, sphagnum, spirits in trees rather than barrels, statistics, statues, strap-hangers, straw-counting, swede-bashing and sudoku. There are also, less sibilantly, clay pigs, invisible attire, reindeer, and retirees in rigs (not wigs), as well as much else to draw the passing tribute of a smile. Sadly, however, the issue begins with something in memory of the late Susan de Sola together with two of her LUPO contributions.
Performing in the three pithy or potted Intervals and the Special Interval are Russel Winick, Paul Willis, Wendy Videlock, James A. Tweedie, Michael Swan, Henry Stimpson, Alex Steelsmith, Rana Shabibi, Margaret Owen Ruckert, Tony Peyser, Don Nigroni, Rumi Morkin, L. A. Mereoie, Bruce McGuffin, Martin McCarthy, Jenna Le, Elizabeth Horrocks, Julia Griffin, Brian Garrison, John S. Eustis, Martin Elster, Glo Curl, Mary Cresswell, Terese Coe, Susan Jarvis Bryant, Claire Booker, Alanna Blake and Jerome Betts.
We extend a warm winter welcome to the twelve bold or bolded newcomers to the Lupine Light-Show, namely Robin Clifford Wood, Rana Shabibi, Margaret Owen Ruckert, Alfred Nicol, Martin McGovern, Martin McCarthy, Steven Kent, Debi Lewis, Jeff Gallagher, David Dumouriez, Liz Bennett and Shai Afsai.
Finally, flushed by their forays into the ripe world of the Reithian mind, come the Competition 55 survivors John Wood, Jo Scutch, I. V. Neversere, Mike Mesterton-Gibbons, Daniel Galef and Susanna Clayson.
With thanks to Liza McAlister Williams, Michitaka Takinoiri and Jane Blanchard for the use of photographs and images, the usual apologies to those whose work has had to be held over, and seasonal wishes to all our contributors and readers in another Covid and climate crisis-struck year.
