I originally wanted Issue No.7 to be easy and relaxing.

I started planning things in 1999, when I was exhausted from the previous volume of Death, Phones, and Scissors. I wanted a smaller seventh issue, something with more modest, manageable topics. I wanted a relaxing, 52-page vacation.

The fun times I’d imagined evaporated a few days after September 11th, 2001. Email inboxes and bumpersticker catalogs were flooded with religious and patriotic mumbo jumbo. Faced with an unending parade of pixelated eagles sobbing in the smoke of the Twin Towers, a light and easy issue suddenly seemed a tad frivolous. It was time for Church & State.

When the first edition came out, the cover read “Church & State: Part One.” There were plenty of images I couldn’t fit into the bindery limit of 100 pages, and I planned to break it into two full issues. Part Two would come out at some not-too-distant point in the future. But other things came up, and before long I’d shoved the extra material in a drawer to make room for other projects. A couple of years later I even made the Superstition issue. For some reason it was psychologically easier to construct a whole new issue than work on more of the same topic. Some of my reluctance was due to Americana fatigue, but I also hated the feeling that it had become an obligation.

In 2017, I finally assembled the saved material into a 24-page addendum to be included with the main issue. Those pages are no longer being included as a supplement. They and the addendums for two other issues are now part of an issue called “Collected Extras and Black Cat Mini-Issue,” listed on the opposite page.

In 2020, I put another 12 pages of new material into the “Additions 2020” issue, and there are now 24 more in “Additions 2023” issue.

Any questions? Lovely. I declare everything clarified. I hope you enjoy this issue’s sacred, star-spangled pleasures, and, as always, thank you for reading.