On bandwagons and contracts

摘要

The landscape of the BJGP is taking on a familiar pattern to those of us keen, or sad, enough to explore its terrain regularly. We begin on the gentle lawn of the Editor's monthly focus, and proceed smartly on to the starker heath of the editorials, where important people expound their views from towers of varying shades of ivory. Thus prepared, we tackle the uneven land occupied by the ‘Original Papers’, glancing at some, exploring others, and fleeing at the very sight of a few. Across the stepping stones of a Brief Report or two we land on the solidity of a review of Recent Advances, usually well worth the full tour. The rather drab patchwork fields of the letters pages come next, and then the greener grass of the situations vacant columns (New Zealand always looks tempting). Wearied and dehydrated by now, the conscientious traveller reaches the peculiar region known as the Back Pages. Here can be found fountains of intelligence, bogs of academe, hallucinatory visions of postmodernism and informatics, and rocks of commonsense. And here am I, trying to fit in somewhere, and realising that metaphors soon become tiresome. Sorry.