coi lobypli! i mi du la tipitr park.--Introducing myself

["T. Peter Park" <tpeterpark@erols.com>]

coi lobypli!
          i mi du la tipitr park. (=T. Peter Park)
          I just joined lojban@egroups.com today, and thought I'd
introduce yourself to you all.
	  I'm an Estonian-born American, and still fluent native speaker of
Estonian, who has been involved and interested in Lojban on and off
since 1989. I had been rather inactive for several years, but was
stimulated to check out your list after a call last Wednesday night
(July 26) from la lojbab. 
         I was born in Tallinn in 1941. My parents and I fled from
Estonia to Sweden in 1944 during World War II, and then to the United
States in 1948. I became a U.S. citizen in 1957. For most of my life
after 1948, I have lived on Long Island near New York, except for the
years 1963-1972 when I was a student in the Universities of Virginia and
Maryland. I am now living in Garden City on Long Island, about 45
minutes by train from central downtown New York City. I have a Ph.D. in
European History from the University of Virginia (1970) and a Master's
degree in Library Science from the University of Maryland (1972). I
retired exactly 3 years ago, in July 1997, from the Lynbrook Public
Library in Lynbrook, Long Island, where I had been a Reference Librarian
since 1974. Since my retirement from the Lynbrook Library, I have been
trying to start a new career as a writer and independent private
researcher. I can speak, read, or write English, Estonian (native
speaker), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and a little
Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Loglan, and Lojban.
         My principal reading and research interests include history,
linguistics, philosophy, theology, sociology, and strange phenomena
(UFO's, extra-sensory perception, ghosts, poltergeists, "Bigfoot," other
mystery primates, lake monsters, crop circles, alleged religious
miracles, etc.) I have published a few articles on some of these
interests in historical journals and in a journal devoted to strange
phenomena called THE ANOMALIST. Last April, I delivered a paper on the
19th century Scottish historian, biographer, essayist, and social critic
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) at an international Carlyle conference at St.
Joseph's University in Philadelphia. I have also been working on and off
this past year or so on the MS of a science-fiction novel, THE LINCOLN
SYMBIOSIS, about a race of not-quite-human humanoids living incognito
amongst *Homo sapiens*.
         In linguistics, I am particularly interested in the origin of
language, the prehistory and remote relationships of languages, the
possibility of all languages being ultimately related, the Sapir-Whorf
Hypthesis, and in constructed languages like Esperanto. Loglan, and
Lojban. I was first introduced to Loglan by reading an article,
"Loglan," by James Cook Brown in the June 1960 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
I first heard of Lojban in the Spring of 1989, when I
saw an advertisement for it in DISCOVER magazine. I answered
the advertisement, and got some basic introductory Lojban from la
lojbab. and his "Logical Language Group" organization (la lojbangirz.) I
was rather intensely involved in Lojban for a while, in 1989-1990, but
then became inactive as other activities, interests, tasks,
responsibilities, and personal involvements took up more of my time and
attention. I have recently thought of perhaps starting to become a
little bit more active again in Lojban. Hearing last week from la
lojbab. certainly helped stimulate my interest in increased Lojban
activity!
         I really look forward to hearing from you all on this list!
                       With my best regards to you all,
                       T. Peter Park ("la tipitr park.")
                       <tpeterpark@erols.com>
                       Garden City South, Long Island, New York, U.S.A.