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Hello everyone,
GREETINGS!
Believe it or not, it is once again July 14th at 7:58 am.
It is staggering to think that another full year has passed us by.
For those of you who don’t remember the beginning of it all, you should know that FIVE YEARS AGO, on Wednesday July 14th, 2004 at 7:58 am, the first annual DITA Day was born.
Of course this was a full year after July 14th, 2003, when the words that gave DITA Day its reason for being first appeared here at the Casebook. That was SIX years ago today.
Who would have guessed that a full six years later, we’d still be here and the situation would still be exactly the same?
And so, in the name of what now actually qualifies as nostalgia, here again, in all its celebratory glory, is an excerpt from the first official DITA day post from five years ago.
***********************************
Originally posted Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 7:58 am
Welcome everyone, to one of Diary World's special celebrations!
We are especially delighted that you could join us here for the
First Annual International Day of Diary Testing Awareness
Diary Testing Awareness Day, or DiTA Day as we like to call it here, is a simple thing, really. It's a joyous celebration of everything that is the crazy, topsy-turvy, high-speed world of Maybrick Diary Investigations.
Now, I know what you are asking. Why today, of all days? Why now?
Well, I'll tell you.
You see, exactly one year ago, at exactly this moment, I was right here on the boards, engaged in on ongoing discussion with a poster still among us about getting the Maybrick Diary thoroughly and properly retested by a reputable scientific lab.
And, just in passing, almost as a side note, on that day, at this time, I wrote these words -- the founding words of DiTA Day.
Here's a small suggestion. Today is the 14th of July. Let's agree to meet here around the middle of every month, from now on, and see if the diary has been thoroughly and properly re-tested by a reputable scientific organization.
After all the talk, after all the discussions and arguments and pushing and resistance and all the rest, only one thing matters. Will this document, one that is clearly suspicious and whose origins remain an unsettled question, be re-examined by professionals in a laboratory setting in order to discover whatever is possible about it in an objective fashion? Each month, we can stop by here for a moment and see what the answer is to that question.
Now, it quickly became apparent that stopping by on the 14th of every month was, shall we say, a bit too optimistic of a suggestion.
So I decided to wait a full year. That's right. I figured I'd let the first twelve months of visits go by and then start our little tradition of gathering each month to see what had actually happened.
And now, a full three hundred and sixty five (or was it sixty-six) days later, here I am. Here we all are. Just checking in.
And here in Diary World, where our motto ("Nothing new, Nothing real") bespeaks our history, we have now established DiTA Day, where on July 14th of every year, good and true men and women shall gather in the spirit of circular craziness that is our wont and take a moment to see if any new test results are to be read and discussed and then share a friendly drink or twelve.
DiTA day, incidentally, is proudly sponsored by Guinness. Guinness -- Now you can drink it right from the bottle. -- "Brilliant!"
Once every year, on July 14, we'll all put down our keyboards and our anger and our frustration and our dreams and hopes and desires and join together in the holiday spirit and remember what has brought us all into each other's lives -- Diary World, and the childlike spirit of its founder Mike Barrett, who asks us to remember, in the mode of Uncle Walt, "It all started with a drink."
And so that's how we should celebrate.
Here at Diary World we love all you people. Honestly, we do. Even those with whom we fight and argue, even those we don't love, we really love. Our lives would be just a bit emptier without you.
And so we ask you to take this one special day each year and join us in celebrating the spirit of our World. Where, even if, month after month or year after year, there turns out to be "nothing new, nothing real," we can still come together and celebrate that very nothingness in a happy and joyous way.
Throughout the day, special performances will be happening all across Diary World. There'll be dramatic readings and re-enactments, and music and food and rink specials and discounted admission prices and just generally a load of fun for the whole family.
So, you are urged to celebrate wherever you are, too.
Go to your local pub and toast the coming year of Diary World activity. Because here we will have no talk about the past. We are only interested in the future, about all the good stuff that is (or isn't) going to happen in the next twelve months.
Gather your friends together and share a beer or seventeen over some of the diary's wonderful and scary words, or read Crashaw together by candlelight, or browse police evidence lists, or just leave your initials on something. Put on your "tin match box empty... now where have I seen that before?" t-shirts and your Diary World mouse ears and head off to the races and pretend to get into a jealous rage over your wife. All in the spirit of good fun, of course.
But most of all, share the love and warmth and the congenial spirit that is and always has been at the heart of Diary World.
Because here at the World, we may be mean to each other now and then (like our founding fathers, James and Mike), but that doesn't mean we don't love you.
So welcome again, everyone, to DiTA Day! We wish you all the happiest of days.
And so, I would like to officially open these first annual DiTA Day festivities with the very first DiTA Day report. I do so in a new spirit of optimism, a new spirit of belief in the future, and new anticipation for the months and years ahead.
Ladies and gentleman, the 2004 DiTA day is now officially underway.
Our first report:
"Nothing new, nothing real."
--John
*******************************
And since that time, of course, we have been delighted on subsequent DITA Days by the presence of the official Diary World mascot, that walking symbol of pure Imagination – Figment!
So he too is here once again to wish you all the happiest of days and to remind you and Diary Worlders everywhere that there is still, after all these many years spent waiting for the thorough and rigorous testing of both of these suspicious artefacts using the latest available technologies to take place…
Nothing new and nothing real.
Let the celebrations commence!
--John
PS: It is of course now more than two full years since we were all told that there was super secret squirrel evidence that, if people were allowed to see it, would prove to a jury that the diary came out of the real James Maybrick’s house. Maybe. Then again, here’s the way those remarks were chacterized by another eminent Ripper author recently on another site:
“As for Keith, my memory of what he said at Liverpool was simply that if someone in the future was to see information in his files then they would conclude that the diary came out of Battlecrease House. He did not say that the diary did come out of Battlecrease, or that he thought it came out of Battlecrease or that the guy in the future would be correct in concluding that the diary came out of Battlecrease. As far as I am aware there is no immediate on-going research into the diary.”
So that certainly clarifies that. At least it does in typical Diary World fashion.
See you next year.
GREETINGS! Believe it or not, it is once again July 14th at 7:58 am.
It is staggering to think that another full year has passed us by.
For those of you who don’t remember the beginning of it all, you should know that FIVE YEARS AGO, on Wednesday July 14th, 2004 at 7:58 am, the first annual DITA Day was born.
Of course this was a full year after July 14th, 2003, when the words that gave DITA Day its reason for being first appeared here at the Casebook. That was SIX years ago today.
Who would have guessed that a full six years later, we’d still be here and the situation would still be exactly the same?
And so, in the name of what now actually qualifies as nostalgia, here again, in all its celebratory glory, is an excerpt from the first official DITA day post from five years ago.
***********************************
Originally posted Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 7:58 am
Welcome everyone, to one of Diary World's special celebrations!
We are especially delighted that you could join us here for the
First Annual International Day of Diary Testing Awareness
Diary Testing Awareness Day, or DiTA Day as we like to call it here, is a simple thing, really. It's a joyous celebration of everything that is the crazy, topsy-turvy, high-speed world of Maybrick Diary Investigations.
Now, I know what you are asking. Why today, of all days? Why now?
Well, I'll tell you.
You see, exactly one year ago, at exactly this moment, I was right here on the boards, engaged in on ongoing discussion with a poster still among us about getting the Maybrick Diary thoroughly and properly retested by a reputable scientific lab.
And, just in passing, almost as a side note, on that day, at this time, I wrote these words -- the founding words of DiTA Day.
Here's a small suggestion. Today is the 14th of July. Let's agree to meet here around the middle of every month, from now on, and see if the diary has been thoroughly and properly re-tested by a reputable scientific organization.
After all the talk, after all the discussions and arguments and pushing and resistance and all the rest, only one thing matters. Will this document, one that is clearly suspicious and whose origins remain an unsettled question, be re-examined by professionals in a laboratory setting in order to discover whatever is possible about it in an objective fashion? Each month, we can stop by here for a moment and see what the answer is to that question.
Now, it quickly became apparent that stopping by on the 14th of every month was, shall we say, a bit too optimistic of a suggestion.
So I decided to wait a full year. That's right. I figured I'd let the first twelve months of visits go by and then start our little tradition of gathering each month to see what had actually happened.
And now, a full three hundred and sixty five (or was it sixty-six) days later, here I am. Here we all are. Just checking in.
And here in Diary World, where our motto ("Nothing new, Nothing real") bespeaks our history, we have now established DiTA Day, where on July 14th of every year, good and true men and women shall gather in the spirit of circular craziness that is our wont and take a moment to see if any new test results are to be read and discussed and then share a friendly drink or twelve.
DiTA day, incidentally, is proudly sponsored by Guinness. Guinness -- Now you can drink it right from the bottle. -- "Brilliant!"
Once every year, on July 14, we'll all put down our keyboards and our anger and our frustration and our dreams and hopes and desires and join together in the holiday spirit and remember what has brought us all into each other's lives -- Diary World, and the childlike spirit of its founder Mike Barrett, who asks us to remember, in the mode of Uncle Walt, "It all started with a drink."
And so that's how we should celebrate.
Here at Diary World we love all you people. Honestly, we do. Even those with whom we fight and argue, even those we don't love, we really love. Our lives would be just a bit emptier without you.
And so we ask you to take this one special day each year and join us in celebrating the spirit of our World. Where, even if, month after month or year after year, there turns out to be "nothing new, nothing real," we can still come together and celebrate that very nothingness in a happy and joyous way.
Throughout the day, special performances will be happening all across Diary World. There'll be dramatic readings and re-enactments, and music and food and rink specials and discounted admission prices and just generally a load of fun for the whole family.
So, you are urged to celebrate wherever you are, too.
Go to your local pub and toast the coming year of Diary World activity. Because here we will have no talk about the past. We are only interested in the future, about all the good stuff that is (or isn't) going to happen in the next twelve months.
Gather your friends together and share a beer or seventeen over some of the diary's wonderful and scary words, or read Crashaw together by candlelight, or browse police evidence lists, or just leave your initials on something. Put on your "tin match box empty... now where have I seen that before?" t-shirts and your Diary World mouse ears and head off to the races and pretend to get into a jealous rage over your wife. All in the spirit of good fun, of course.
But most of all, share the love and warmth and the congenial spirit that is and always has been at the heart of Diary World.
Because here at the World, we may be mean to each other now and then (like our founding fathers, James and Mike), but that doesn't mean we don't love you.
So welcome again, everyone, to DiTA Day! We wish you all the happiest of days.
And so, I would like to officially open these first annual DiTA Day festivities with the very first DiTA Day report. I do so in a new spirit of optimism, a new spirit of belief in the future, and new anticipation for the months and years ahead.
Ladies and gentleman, the 2004 DiTA day is now officially underway.
Our first report:
"Nothing new, nothing real."
--John
*******************************
And since that time, of course, we have been delighted on subsequent DITA Days by the presence of the official Diary World mascot, that walking symbol of pure Imagination – Figment!
So he too is here once again to wish you all the happiest of days and to remind you and Diary Worlders everywhere that there is still, after all these many years spent waiting for the thorough and rigorous testing of both of these suspicious artefacts using the latest available technologies to take place…
Nothing new and nothing real.
Let the celebrations commence!
--John
PS: It is of course now more than two full years since we were all told that there was super secret squirrel evidence that, if people were allowed to see it, would prove to a jury that the diary came out of the real James Maybrick’s house. Maybe. Then again, here’s the way those remarks were chacterized by another eminent Ripper author recently on another site:
“As for Keith, my memory of what he said at Liverpool was simply that if someone in the future was to see information in his files then they would conclude that the diary came out of Battlecrease House. He did not say that the diary did come out of Battlecrease, or that he thought it came out of Battlecrease or that the guy in the future would be correct in concluding that the diary came out of Battlecrease. As far as I am aware there is no immediate on-going research into the diary.”
So that certainly clarifies that. At least it does in typical Diary World fashion.
See you next year.
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