It seems a lot has happened since we published our last issue. In light of that, we find it comforting that some things don’t change, such as the observation we occasionally hear from people who probably haven’t actually read The Sacred Cow: “Oh, you edit a literary magazine? How nice.”

Yet here we are with a new issue of The Sacred Cow. We have new contributors, new pieces; in fact, you’ll find that none of what we publish in these pages has been published in our magazine before. If we’re perfectly honest with ourselves, we have to admit that this accomplishment feels nice.

This is our thirteenth issue, our baker’s dozenth. As we all know, a baker’s dozen was originally in tended to ensure a baker’s integrity, founded on the mathematical principle that if someone wants twelve items and you give him thirteen, somewhere in that group of thirteen are twelve presumably edible items.

This is not a perfect rule, of course. For instance, strict observance of the Gregorian calendar leaves us with twelve months, one of which is so much shorter than the others that a person can hardly help feeling cheated. And there’s not much we can do about it.

If you don’t enjoy football but had to watch the Super Bowl anyway; or if you’re unattached and were merely counting down until after Valentine’s Day when you could buy discounted chocolate for yourself with no obligation to share; or if you work at a job that doesn’t close on Presidents Day and doesn’t even offer any special sales, and you’re wondering why we even bother with February at all — that’s not our fault, but we hope we can help ameliorate some of that with this baker’s dozenth issue. If this is the first time you’ve picked up The Sacred Cow, we have twelve more issues that we hope you’ll enjoy. And if you’ve read every one of them, we trust you’ll find this thirteenth issue as readable and as nice as all the others.