...but I can't help noticing that there's no discussion of the long-term issue. The community around these parts isn't what it once was, but does still exist. It has needs, and those needs aren't being met.

I don't know if you caught up with the open thread, Avram; I suspect not. Over there I volunteered to take on the position of spam whacker. That offer still stands.

David Goldfarb @ 4 ... Please stop pushing so hard to get keys. I can't speak for other folks, but you're certainly making me uncomfortable and wary.

Not that it seems to be mattering, since they aren't reading this thread either.

David, I did appreciate your offer to help. I was trying to let you know how the tone was coming across, but I wound up missing my aimed-for tone myself. Apologies.

Thank you. It was just ... one thing too many, if that makes any sense?

Winnowing the spam out of open threads is, of course, both.

*Right now, I'm sitting across from the hospital bed where one of them is recovering from a hit-and-run incident. That's the bad news. The good news is, now we know for certain he's alive - he'd been out of touch with the family for almost three years, because he is a sub-functional schizophrenic when not medicated. He still isn't quite sufficiently recovered for me to be willing to tell him that his mother has died.

It's hard. My genuine sympathies.

Thank you for the sincere belly-laugh!

Also: good heavens! Wishing you the best!