  I summarize the status of pulsar theory, now 35 years after their discovery.
Although progress has been made in understanding the relevant processes
involved, there are several widely held misconceptions that are inhibiting
further advances. These include the idea that plasma ``must'' be accelerated
from the magnetic polar caps (the basis for the ``Hollow Cone Model'') and the
idea that winds would be driven away by centrifugal forces, with large
amplitude electromagnetic waves playing no role whatsoever. However, recent
theoretical work is converging on a picture that closely resembles the latest
HST and CHANDRA images, providing hope for the future. No less than 3 groups
have recently confirmed the early Krause-Polstorff-Michel simulations showing
that the fundamental plasma distribution around a rotating neutron star
consists of two polar domes and an equatorial torus of trapped nonneutral
plasma of opposite sign charges. Unless a lot of new physics can be added, this
distribution renders the Goldreich-Julian model irrelevant (i.e., along with
most of the theoretical publications over the last 33 years).
