* * *

Last year, I did a column about my cable provider expanding it's offerings. In that column I told of how, when searching for information regarding that story, I stumbled across a book. It was like striking gold, and this week, I struck another vein.

On Friday, as part of my daily reading, I surfed on over to Jesse's Word Of The Day. The word for the day was "propinquitous," a form of the word "propinquity." This being a new word for me, I naturally looked it up:

Proùpinùquiùty (prî-ping'kwi-tEE) n.

1. Proximity; nearness.
2. Kinship.
3. Similarity in nature.

Like last June, when I looked up the word "rubicon," the definition left me wanting to know more. That was when I decided to write another word column for this week. And so, I set out to search the net for more data. WWWebster didn't have much more to offer than the above, and Britannica wasn't much help either. I spent most of Friday searching the internet, using this search-engine and that. I found a band named Propinquity, several songs named Propinquity, a poem named Propinquity as well as one or two containing the word. First I found one one-act play, then I found another -- there's even a bed and breakfast in Louisiana named Propinquity.

I was planning to go on and on like that. I had so many links bookmarked that I stopped searching and began collating what I had. I got quite a few matches referencing Star Trek web pages, newsgroups, and FTP sites. Upon further investigation, I realized that they all matched my search criteria because of one story -- book, actually. The book -- surprise, surprise -- titled "Propinquity," is an adult novel based on another Star Trek book called "Only Human." After reading the first couple chapters of "Propinquity," I decided to read "Only Human" first. Not only is this the best book I have read in years, it is also the most current. Since I've been using speech output to read electronic books via the internet, I've been reading books -- albeit classics -- circa 100 years old. It's nice to read something new for a change . . . especially when it begins on well-known ground, with familiar characters -- as well as some new ones to figure out along the way. It is still a work in progress, so there is more to look forward to in the future.

Currently, three of what will be six parts are complete. In part one, the episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, titled "DeJa Q," is rewritten so that Q, the once-omnipotent outcast from the Q Continuum, does not get his powers restored at the end. Instead, that is just the beginning of this extremely well-written tale of Q. Part two has Q striking out on his own -- more or less -- with T'laren, a female Vulcan with a Texas accent and curly hair. (I'm still having a bit of trouble imagining that.) I'm still reading part three, so I can't say what happens yet, but I do plan on finding out just as soon as I finish this piece. Unfortunately, however, it will be a month or two, maybe more, before part four is done. I'll be waiting.

Until then, though, I've got plenty of reading material to hold me over.