"When Are You?"

The operative question indeed. For those of you who are not among the "lost", it will be difficult to explain the myriad of plot twists that resulted in our gang replacing the opening "W". Yet, it's oddly, hauntingly profound. At least Daniel would think so.

You don't have to be a relativitist to notice that the very idea of our own identities are inextricably linked to the time coordinates that produced them. "Who" you are is less what you eat and more of a function of "when" you ate it, so to speak.

These days, you can a live whenever you like. Take the Society for Creative Anachronism, who were certainly the first pioneers in this realm. You can experience the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, attend a Civil War ball, or celebrate the Crash of '29 - all without letting go of your Blackberry.

Ask Edith Wharton, who, if she had been set free from the 19th century, might very well never inhabited the house of mirth.