Yes, we're back despite the vast left-wing conspiracy to make charges of lewd and lascivious behavior against the official SELEDA buhE dabo gagari stick. As the sworn affidavit hence and thenceby certifies, we… er… we… daggammit! What kind of a world has this become when people can't even comment on someone's difo dabo without everybody going all Mengistu Haile Mariam-ballistic like?

Hmmm. That's no way to start on Editors' Notes.

Seledamoch, dehna alachulin wei?

We are all sporting "I went to the SELEDA retreat and all I got was this ulcer" t-shirts, oh good Seledawiyan. Were it not for the cherinet of Qulibiew Mike (mn yalqibetal esu?), who had to be released of all other duties just to watch over SELEDA upper management as they descended to Earth to mingle with SELEDA plebs, SELEDA, like post-zemecha Ethiopia, would have been no mo' a fun place to be at. Ere indEt y'kon neber! Kilos of smelling salts, shipped in directly from Turkey, helped with the fainting spells every time it hit upper management that there was no VIP dining room. Things nose-dived from there when upper management's personal lolEwech fell asleep while fanning our bosses, leading to quaint beads of sweat shor-er-er-ing down their faces.

Keziyam leTiq-o-o-o-, there was the thorny issue of not just breaking bread with "the kind of people who fly commercial", but breaking the same bread. They were having none of that, we'll tell you right now, not as long as the gods of Gucci were alive, well, and smelling fabulous on Fifth Av.

And you wonder why there was a revolution!

And so it went, the drb CHqona we thought was long conquered. The thick wilderness of the retreat place served as our harborage, with only the noises of hungry wild animals waking us up from our recurring nightmare of running into upper management in the communal bathroom. Serves us right for thinking that this staggeringly cockamamie idea would somehow bond us. Instead, look at us. As they say opulently from the bankoni of an 18th Street bar, "Off honkuN!"

Welcome, appropriately enough, to The YluNta and MisTr Issue! Is it us, or are our contributors getting more and more Bizunesh Beqele Fabulous? Ere they so are! Once again, we are stunned into silence, which, as many of you might clamor to attest, is not necessarily a bad thing. We'll just let their words speak for them. Entuff… entuff… inde NASDAQ ziq b'len we thank all of our September contributors for delving into issues a lot of us work hard to ignore. Let the demons fall, one by one.

Speaking of contributions (and maybe demons), and as proof that we actually managed to do some work at the retreat besides resuscitating our yluNta-biss leadership, we are happy to announce the upcoming themes for the next few months. So, start melemameT-ing your muse to co-operate and inspire you. October is The Color and Identity Issue, and November The Spirits and Spirituality Issue; in December we'll take on The HIV/AIDS Issue. We'll ring in the year 2002 with The Communication Issue, and follow that up in February with the … er…. Esti qoi… uuuss… with The Sex Issue. As a natural sequel to that, we'll go with The Depression & Ecstasy Issue in March.

Wow. Did we do that much work? Besmeab! Mn nekan? Anyway, tink argutbet. After that, put nimble fingers to keyboard and let it roll… we can take it. Well, no we can't, but we like saying we can.

Moving riiiiight along… notice that SELEDA Chat will be on Tuesday, September 18th at 7:00 p.m. East Coast of these United States time. And before it disintegrates into the usual non-fecund "out of the box" blathering, we'll make time to discuss this month's fabulous Bawza. Come. Bring your thoughts. Leave your egos at the door, 'coz, well, we have plenty for errbaddi.

We need a vacation from our vacation, ladies and gentlemen, so we'll leave you with a slithery excuse as to why The Mail has so shamelessly been once again meshegagered to the next issue…. You see, Mail Editor got stung by a… wasp while trying to… pick injorri from an apple tree in a very redneck part of town.

Ok… everybody… together…. "Slip sliding away… Slip sliiiiiiii-ding a-wayyyy-heh heh"… Mn mareg ychalal?

Welcome us back with your comments. Send us your thoughts and recipes for "genfo fr-fr" (an actual breakfast "request" from upper management) to editors@seleda.com.

Melkam Addis Amet. Cher ygTemen.

The Humble Editors.