_________
The domain of cyberspace known as whittsend.com derives its name from a secluded piece of land between Point Mountain and the Delaware River in the town of Hancock in Delaware County, in the state of New York.
__________________
The Whitt family moved onto this property at the end of the sixties and
some members of the family live here to this day with dogs, cats and other
animals both domesticated and wild. Other long missed members are buried
in this land.- The extended family regularly
assembles here for relaxation, fun, communion and
meditation.- The place lends itself wonderfully
to all of these pursuits.- It’s a good
place to go when you’re at your wit’s end, a consideration which
certainly entered into its naming.
Here you can lose yourself for a while in good-natured roughhousing or sports
and games, both organized and chaotic.- The
card game of choice is Oh Hell, played at times with all-consuming intensity
by young and old alike.
Here you can replenish your energies, spiritual and secular, with rest and
good food, some of it fresh from the garden.
Here you can gather your thoughts and share them, sometimes putting them
at considerable risk, with other people who take the time to exercise their
minds.- You can demonstrate and refine your
talents.
Here you look out over the river toward Pennsylvania, or up the mountainside
toward the abandoned mausoleum at the summit, or at the stars in a clear
night sky and contemplate the passing of generations and the turning of the
universe and assess your proper place in the grand scheme—small but
not inconsequential.
The mission of the Whitt’s End website is to serve purposes in Cyberia
analogous to the functions performed by the Whitt’s End family
home.- Welcome.
The site will present items intended to entertain, to inform, and to stimulate thought.- It will be kept in mind that our culture is already staggering under an information glut, so we pledge to refrain from frivolous additions to this stockpile.- In fact, we will endeavor to help ameliorate one of the problems of the information age, i.e. the difficulty of sorting out and concentrating on significant matters which too often get lost in the flood of news.- While the rest of the world and the powers of cyberspace rush on to the next event and the next, we will be saying, "Look, here is something that merits continued attention," or "Here is something of value which is getting lost in the shuffle," or "Here is something from the past that should be reconsidered in the context of the present (or vice versa)."- Our concentration will be centered on matters to which we think we can bring a fresh perspective.
This site will be user friendly.- The pages will be uncluttered and easy to read; this promise is virtually guaranteed by the fact that the principal maintainer of the site is legally blind and therefore very sensitive to matters of visual presentation. -We will eschew gratuitous demonstrations of our technical proficiency; this will be relatively easy to do because the technical skills we possess are somewhat limited and we have little desire to spend valuable time in attempting to upgrade these skills.- At the same time, we will try not to be boring either in style or in substance.- Also, we pledge to check our links on a regular basis.
This website welcomes contributions and responses to material published here; articles submitted for publication on this website should be literate, tasteful, and interesting according to the standards established by John and Janet Whitt; these standards are not written, but can be inferred from the qualities of pages already published. Mere disagreement will not be a consideration toward selection or non-selection for publication; in fact, we welcome intelligent and reasoned dissent (if that be possible) from the perspectives we present here.
| The banner to the right was made by David Whitt, a nephew of John and Janet, who is one of those who "live here to this day" and is also much more talented technnologically (and artisitcally?) than the keepers of this website.- |  |
 john@whittsend.com |
This page was last updated December 29, 1998. |