In what was not that long ago I was aimlessly wandering around the Internet looking for new things and a new home for a web design idea I had when I Yahooed the Borough of Brooklyn and discovered this potentially exciting, yet roughly framed web site called Brooklyn On Line. Tired of having my chain yanked by the likes of AOL, Compuserve, and IDT from Hackensack Jersey, I was thrilled to find that Brooklyn On Line was located nearly in my back yard in Park Slope Brooklyn! "Great!", I said to myself, and I dialed the number which has since then been etched into my memory 398-8431, where I got some funky recording, "Hello - welcome to Wynn Data Limited - for information dial 2, blah blah blah - for Brett Wynkoop dial one". "Hello this is Brett Wynkoop", I heard in surly voice, "if this is urgent press one blah blah blah".

Hello - This is Dr Ruben Safir. I have a web site called the Jewish Billboard. What would it cost to gather it together and put it on your web server. A day later I get a phone call and we strike a deal for some space and get into a discussion about Brooklyn On Line. We hit it off rather quickly when I said - "You know - I might be able to do some work for your Brooklyn site. I'm rather passionate about Brooklyn and have had some ideas for web pages for awhile. Innocently enough, I think, he says sure, that's why I had a submit button. In retrospect, I don't think he realized what I had in mind.:)

Many of the Web pages you see here today on BOL are my creations. I did the Coney Island pages, the Midwood/Ave J pages, the Brooklyn On Line Logo, the Aquarium Pages, all of the Jewish Billboard (for better or worse) wrote a few new articles, and generally lived up the place! As a father of 6, Brooklyn is more than just a place for me, Brooklyn is the Home I choose to live in. It's hard sometimes for Brooklynites to recall the historical context of the place we share. So many immigrants and groups have swept through our town, Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportion in the mind of the world. There are towns upstate who have made themselves self important by Walt Whitman's pen. Well Whitman is a Brooklynite, and Whitman Hall at Brooklyn College was the place of my High School graduation. A tree grows here, and Private Joe of Bay Ridge won WWII. Dodger Blue is bled in Crown Heights and the Chosen lives in Williamsburg, Neil was drafted from Brighton Beach, Steeple Chase Park Rose in Coney Island. We have had Lords in Flatbush, A tree grew here, and Brooklynites always - Do the right thing - sorta!

When I walk the streets of Brooklyn, the blocks speak gently to me, sometimes in tears, and sometimes in pride. Lafeyette, Dekalb, Chancey Street, and Flabush Avenue echo to me life. Pitkin Avenue is not the street some would have you believe, one of broken promises and derelict buildings. No Pitkin Ave is a Street of Dreams. The Hot Dog, Teddy Bear, and Block Party were all invented here. Nathan's was made Famous, Ubert Chocolate Syrup and Entermans cakes are born here. The NY Bagel is really the Brooklyn Bagel, and while Tom Carvels empire is slowly being dismantled, I remember his Ice Cream when it existed on every corner.

So Hooray for Kings County and it's people. And rejoice from Canarsie to Red Hook, from Floyd Bennet Field to Bushwick, Brighton to Willaimsburg, East New York to Brooklyn Heights. Every day is a new chapter in a fabled city. If your coming to visit New York, and your not seeing Brooklyn, your just not seeing the city.

So I sit here with my Brooklyn Hat, drinking my Brooklyn Lager, thinking - what do we have in store for Brooklyn On Line. Just wait - we are just getting rolling! Join us for the fun!