predecessor that is to say that most formidable of all woodland beasts the hodag. The oft-told hodag emerges from the ashes of cremated oxen having been born from the accumulation of all the abuse and torment these animals suffered at the hands of their cruel masters. It then unleashes itself upon any hapless logger or greenhorn who has the misfortune to meet it in the far countryside or on the tote-road trail. So, good reader, what does this have to do with Lumberwoods? Let alone gremlins or flying pigs? See, this cabinet of curiosities exists mostly online. What it had in tangible form, contained in a 10x10 shed, has gone in a manner so beautifully elocuted by those two great philosophers Cheech and Chong, "up in smoke." And so, Lumberwoods finds itself much like the hodag or phoenix, literally rising out of its own ashes. But the particularly interesting thing about this occurrence was the rather auspicious timing, for it happened in the time directly proceeding Lumberwoods' twentieth anniversary. Lumberwoods was established on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006, and with this new dawn upon us, and since having

been presented with this very folkloric happenstance, it seems if we are to continue, to be reborn from fire, there are two routes: the way of the phoenix or the way the hodag. —Oh come on, was there ever even a question? It’s the way of the hodag, way too cool of an opportunity to pass up! However, from where I stand, it seems to me that the hodag is not malevolent in contrast to the alleged noble phoenix. But the important distinction is we know what the hodag does in its down time, but the phoenix keeps it a secret. Could be peddling smack for all you know and to think someone had the audacity to name a car after it! See, the hodag's rampage is far from arbitrary. Hodags are mother nature's revenge. They restore balance to nature, or more aptly settle a score, by wrecking havoc upon those who wrought her and her creations harm. A phoenix? Continued existence for immortality alone is just doing a thing for the sake of doing it. It is rather on the whole a pointless existence. But the hodag presents rebirth as an opportunity, as a matter of purpose! And if one is to rise from the ashes, wouldn't it be best to have some reason for it?