Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words- Plautus

Welcome to a special 9th birthday issue of The Cud!

Nine years... It's hard to believe, but The Cud is now almost a decade old. Way back in November of 2004, along with co-founder Oliver Pennington we launched The Cud with the goal to produce a monthly online magazine of 'free-form articles and opinion pieces on subjects from across the spectrum' and to engage our readers with the challenge to 'Entertain A New Perspective: Chew The Cud.'

Though these were perhaps lofty goals for two mere drinking buddies, I think we've done okay. This year our site not only continued to survive -but thrive- in a crowded field of online magazines and media, and also celebrated our landmark 100th issue (which, incidentally, saw a return to the pages of The Cud for the first time in five years from our aforementioned former editor, Mr. Pennington). In 2013 we also welcomed the addition of James Slade's Across The Aisle guest column. His writing has enriched The Cud with a broader perspective on several political and social issues- and readers have responded enthusiastically. Other regular contributors like photographer Caitlin Cunningham (The CC Photo Files), author David M. Fitzpatrick (Cud Flashes In The Pan) and poet Dominic Montalto have continued to expand upon their considerable body of good work in partnership with this publication.

As we do each and every year, we asked you, our readers, to vote for your favorite articles of the past twelve months. Your choices have compiled an issue that reflects exactly the kind of diversity of thought, writing and subject matter that we envisioned when first launching the magazine, and our thanks go to all of our generous, talented writers as well as to those responsible for maintaining and promoting our website from issue to issue.

Above all, however, our thanks to you, our readers, for keeping us going. Each month we read your feedback and letters with great interest, always hoping to improve and meet your expectations, and we're excited to see that our audience has branched out from humble beginnings in Australia to a readership now primarily based in the United States and yet continuing to grow beyond, throughout the globe. We can't do this without you and hope to keep on going for a great many more years yet...

Thanks, ye Cudlings!

Evan Kanarakis
Editor, The Cud