  I outline, from a theoretical and somewhat personal perspective, significant
features of Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Accelerators. I discuss recent
studies of Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe). I pay special attention to the recently
discovered gamma ray flares in the Crab Nebula's emission, focusing on the
possibility, raised by the observations, that the accelerating electric field
exceeds the magnetic field, suggesting that reconnection in the persistent
current layer (a current sheet) plays a significant role in the behavior of
this well studied Pevatron. I address the present status of the termination
shock model for the particle accelerator that converts the wind flow energy to
the observed non thermal particle spectra, concluding that it has a number of
major difficulties related to the transverse magnetic geometry of the shock
wave. I discuss recent work on the inferred pair outflow rates, which are in
excess of those predicted by existing theories of pair creation, and use those
results to point out that the consequent mass loading of the wind reduces the
wind's bulk flow 4-velocity to the point that dissipation of the magnetic field
in a pulsar's wind upstream of the termination shock is restored to life as a
viable model for the solution of the "sigma problem". I discuss some
suggestions that current starvation in the current flow supporting the
structured ("striped") upstream magnetic field induces a transition to
superluminal wave propagation. I show that current starvation probably does not
occur, because those currents are carried in the current sheet separating there
stripes rather than in the stripes themselves.
