What an unforgettable surprise at our zoom seminar on May 25 – to be presented with a festschrift! Feeling so honored and thankful to my dear colleagues who initiated this and contributed to this exciting book (Read Festschrift: Language and Society in the Caucasus) (Universus Academic Press).

My warmest thanks to the authors Oliver Reisner, Gerd Carling, Manana Kobaidze, Merab Chukhua, Klas-Göran Karlsson, Stephen F. Jones, Derek Hutcheson, Bo Petersson, Lars Funch Hansen, Lidia S. Zhigunova, Raymond Taras, Alexandre Kukhianidze. Thank you all who joined in at the seminar – from the Caucasus to the US – for the many memorable words. So happy to see all friends and colleagues in the Tabula gratulatoria!

Special thanks, of course, to the editors for all their efforts: Christofer Berglund, Katrine Gotfredsen, Jean Hudson and Bo Petersson (RUCARR, Malmö University). It was amazing to meet with so many colleagues, friends, students and PhD candidates, with whom I have collaborated over the years, starting back in the 1980s until today, and with whom I look forward to further collaboration.