Many have asked about the origins of the P-Zone, and just how it arose from the primordal stew and evolved to become the fine, intelligent site that it is. To answer that, we must travel back in history, say four, maybe five years ago. A young fellow, an aspiring webmaster named Aileron (otherwise known as Ed Weiss in the real world), discovered a book at the local public library that would, without exaggeration, change his life forever. That book was Borgel, by none other than Daniel M. Pinkwater.

Aileron read the book voraciously, pausing only to glance at the cover of the paperback and trying to figure out why those strange characters on the root beer stand seemed vaguely familiar. Shortly after finishing Borgel, our young bibliophile in the making started looking for other books by this wondrous, wacky author who called himself Pinkwater. Soon enough, he mustered up enough courage to sit down and write a friendly letter to DP, which expressed his sincere admiration and feeling of awe toward the writer and his creations. Aileron received a beautifully illustrated postcard (an orange one, in fact), which to this day remains a priceless artifact lost somewhere in the wilds of his room.

Time passed, and Al Gore invented the Internet. Getting an early jump on the bandwagon, Aileron designed a personal web page, entitled "Aileron's Place," which duly made note of the webmaster's affinity for books by one Daniel Pinkwater. It occurred to the young lad that perhaps Mr. Pinkwater would feel honored if a site dedicated to the author's honor would be established. Unfortunately though, bright as he was, Aileron did not have Daniel's email address, and was loathe to waste yet another tree by writing the traditional way. What was he to do?

The answer arrived in the form of an email, in which was written something along the lines of: "Thanks for mentioning me on your page. Daniel Pinkwater" Indeed, it was the selfsame Daniel Pinkwater that our by-now jubilant protagonist wished to honor by web design! After a hurried volley of emails, construction began, and a short while later, the P-Zone was born.

More time passed. More features were added, including the ever-popular Talk to DP Forum, the photo gallery, and the book store. A state of Pinkwaterian utopia seemed to have been reached. In 1998, however, Aileron chose to study abroad for an extended period of time, and relinquished control of the P-Zone to the very capable Evan Sayre, purveyor of Malamute Tapes, who gave the entire site a much-needed cosmetic face-lift and continued to maintain its vital infrastructure. The P-Zone prospered all the while, and we salute Evan for his tireless efforts in maintaining the site.

Fast forward to July, 2000. Due to logistical concerns, responsibility for the P-Zone was transferred to Ed Weiss (his former moniker having fallen into disuse), now a collitch student, who immediately began work on a new, revised version of the much-beloved classic. Daniel kindly consented to allow the P-Zone to be hosted on the same server as The Official Pinkwater Page, which will allow a greater degree of flexibility in futures features and projects.

As the P-Zone continues to grow and mature, much akin to the aging of a fine wine or cheese (Gorgonzola, to be specific), history will undoubtedly be made, and the proud saga of the P-Zone shall continue.