This section is provided in case you’re really bored — perhaps you’re in prison or something!

The use of “we” or “us” in this text refers to me — Robert L Mathews — and my cat, Hobbes. I am, though, deeply indebted to my fiancée, Sandra; she came up with the name (Menuette, in case you’ve missed it) and assumed full responsibility for complaining that I stayed up too late at night “screwing around with the computer again.” She was right.

I’ve screwed around with the computer a few times before: previous Mac software I’ve written includes Helium and Word Minder, both of which were included in the book The Mac Shareware 500 (published by Ventana Press). I also wrote Speed Beep, which “should have been a hit, but wasn’t,” according to superstar modern rock musician Thomas Dolby (he was actually talking about his classic song Europa and the Pirate Twins, but he would have said it about Speed Beep if he’d known). The latest, greatest, more successful incarnations of Helium and Speed Beep, known as Helium Pro and Speed Beep Pro, are published by Atticus Software as part of an excellent Macintosh utility collection named Super 7 Utilities — you can contact Atticus at (203) 324-1142 for more information.

In closing, I’d like to share with you a special sentiment that a close friend once wrote in my high school yearbook. Just when things seem the darkest, and life offers no hope, I find that I can always turn to these simple thoughts of youth for quiet reassurance. I hope they move you in the same way.

Stay cool, and have a bitchin’ summer.