The present issue marks the halfway point of my tenure as Chair of the JGL Editorial Committee. At this juncture, I would very much like to express my gratitude to Ilana Mezhevich, who has served as Editorial and Production Assistant over this two and a half year period. As Dr. Mezhevich has now completed her doctoral studies—with great success, of course—she is retiring from her JGL position. Her critical assessments of submissions to the JGL, and her truly impressive proofreading and editing skills will be greatly missed. At the same time, I am pleased to announce that another doctoral student at the University of Calgary, Ashley Burnett, has taken over this position.

It takes the efforts of many people to produce a journal, and here the work of the referees is indispensable in maintaining a high quality publication. In the interests of maintaining anonymity in the refereeing process, we can only recognize on a five-year cycle the names of colleagues who have contributed to the JGL in this way. In the meantime, let me just say that I remain very grateful to the referees for their hard work and very impressed by the overall level of professionalism, always carried out, of course, without remuneration of any kind. For me, the interaction with the referees—reading the very detailed and thoughtful reports that we invariably receive—is the most interesting and rewarding aspect of being editor. At this time, though, I would also like to single out two colleagues for special mention. First, Richard Page, as Review Editor, continues to provide a wonderful service to the JGL and, more generally, to the discipline of linguistics. His efforts have ensured that there is a steady stream of timely reviews. Second, I would like to extend a special note of gratitude to Joseph Salmons. If I ever have a question— about pretty much anything—Joe is always the first person I turn to. His collegiality, friendship, and support over the years have been greatly appreciated.

I am also very happy to acknowledge again the support provided to the JGL at the University of Calgary. I am particularly grateful to two individuals: Stephen Randall, former Dean of Social Sciences, for his long-term commitment to contribute funding for the Editorial and Production Assistant, and Nicholas Žekulin, Director of the Language Research Centre, for providing office and computer support for the production of the JGL.

***

I should also note in these pages that the JGL's contract with Cambridge University Press was renewed for another five years (effective January 2006). It is a great pleasure working with the Cambridge crew, particularly Jonathan Geffner and Robert Dreesen (and formerly, Mark Zadrozny), and I am very pleased with the mutual benefits that this publishing arrangement brings. The good news for authors is that they continue to receive twenty-five offprints free of charge, and an author also has the right to post a final PDF copy of his or her article on a personal web page.

In addition, Cambridge University Press has recently made an agreement with the electronic archiving initiative called Portico (http://www.portico.org/), which allows for the availability of all back volumes of Cambridge journals, even in the unlikely event, for example, that Cambridge can no longer provide access.

***

As part of my JGL editorial duties, I attend the informal Editor's Circle held each year at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. This meeting, chaired by Brian Joseph, editor of Language, is usually attended by a dozen or so editors representing various linguistics journals. At the past meeting in Anaheim (January 2007), a draft version of a Linguistics Style Sheet was approved, with the goal of moving toward a common set of conventions for all linguistics journals. The final version, which the JGL will adopt, is posted on the Linguist List (available at http://www.linglist.org/pubs/tocs/index.html/). In fact, in the case of the JGL, the changes are so minor that they will probably go unnoticed by most readers. The new Style Sheet is very close to Language style, which the JGL already follows in all major respects. A policy we definitely will continue—as prescribed by the new Style Sheet as well—is to use full first names for cited authors and editors (rather than only initials), and to use complete names for each bibliographic reference (rather than using a line ______ for repeated instances of an author's or editor's name). These two points are crucial for electronic searching, and as the new Style Sheet states: “Each citation should be internally complete.” Our sincere thanks goes to Joseph Salmons, whose efforts were instrumental in securing a consensus on the common Style Sheet.

Speaking of issues of style, there are advantages to maintaining a single language standard throughout the pages of a journal, and in my role of editor of the JGL I have made a valiant effort to follow Mark Louden's lead in maintaining high standards of American English. However, I am afraid here that the inbred Canadian tolerance and blissful willingness to live in hybrid systems is only a curse. Of course, the proper way to spell tyre is tire, but it is simply barbaric to spell cheque as check. I find recognise (as opposed to recognize) mildly annoying, but at the same time much prefer colour, centre even though color, center cause me no real concern or irritation. On this note, though, I do have a confession—I will never be comfortable with the impossible that/which distinction of “polished American prose” (Chicago Manual of Style, §5.202). Nevertheless, although I would much prefer to rely on my own intuitions, we do our best to maintain the high standards we have inherited, and trust that our readers will take the occasional mixture of recognizable Canadianisms as a bit of added spice.