It’s that date that rolls around once a year, cher public, the day we celebrate the 1993 founding of parterre box and the 1923 birth of Maria Callas.

It’s also the day when we explain yet once again that here at parterre we celebrate Callas’s birth on December 3, even though her birth certificate says December 2 and the diva herself marked the occasion on December 4. The fact is, our own JJ wrote this whole first issue of the zine himself, several months before he met La Cieca, and the lad simply got the date wrong. It happened so often back then in that pre-internet era.

By the time more sensible heads could convince the stubborn young JJ that the earlier date was in fact correct, it was too late; that December 3 “dual birthday” was too firmly established in the burgeoning parterre lore.

And so, cher public, a happy 19th anniversary to parterre box and especially to you, without whom all our hard work would have been in vain for nothing. Here’s wishing you all the best as we enter our 20th year of the parterre era!