A time for renewal.

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If this column were a more or less regular Boidem column, my traditional date tie-in, linked to from that easily (and probably often) overlooked asterisk, would seek out some noteworthy but often also little-known event in the history of communications technologies. I'd note, for instance, that it was on this day, in 1840 that The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued in the United Kingdom. Certainly that's both significant enough to merit recognition here, yet also obscure enough to make it seem as though I've done my homework - well and beyond simply looking for a cool date tie-in on Wikipedia. And the Penny Black really does merit recognition.

Many "first" events, however, seem to have their fair share of claimants. Though the Penny Black is more or less universally recognized as the first "official" adhesive postage stamp, there seems to have been at least a bit of competition toward that "firstness". The website of Toke Nørby of Denmark which seems to have won awards as a top philatelic site carries a page by Ken Lawrence who seems to have done much more extensive research on the subject that most of us would ever find called for. Lawrence lists a number of examples that may have preceded the Penny Black. We're hardly ever as original as we'd like to think.

But this isn't a more or less regular Boidem column. It's the first column written independently from the original gracious hosting of the School of Education of Tel Aviv University. An event of that magnitude merits a special date, and what could be more special, and appropriate, than the first day of Spring?

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