Well... we may have a problem.
Last night I emailed Jay and Phil about this, to make sure the both knew what was going on with this and to get any input or suggestions or whatever regarding infringing on the Lemons brand, pitfalls they may see per their years in publishing, and maybe they'd even want to join the fun at some point.
Phil's reply was to check with him on the use of any Über Gallery photos because he didn't take all of them. Good to know.
Jay's reply was -- flattered, impressed, but no go. He doesn't see how this could be seen as an independent effort (Not an official (inside) Lemons thing) and that they were planning to do a compendium in the future.
Obviously I disagree with the first point, the second point sounds very interesting, and I can't help but wonder how much this has to do with the second point. I always felt they had to have a book project or three in mind and whatever these would turn out to be they would certainly be more colorful, coherent, and comprehensive that this project, and I would grab a couple copies of each as soon as they became available. But that's another story. I won't go into this more here but will try to work this out with Jay.
There is a hell of a lot of story in Lemons. There's the big story of the culture Jay has created, something that probably merits a sociology text book dedicated to such things. And of course there are the stories of the individual races, and of individual teams. Lives have been changed! Story stuff! Hübner was so taken by his experience that he self-published his team's story. I've been considering doing something along those lines myself. I am sure a number of you have as well.
The more I worked on this project the more I was convinced it should be done. It was pure Lemons in spirit. Show up, write something, and you are in. Butt turrible writing or rollered Rustoleum writing, doesn't matter. Just bring a decent theme and throw in a couple of pictures and you are good to go.
For the mean time, please keep sending stuff in. I'll paste it in and will make it look nice. If we never do get the book out, well, at least you'll get an attractive book-like reprint of your article to share with family and friends.
Mike