Dear MMD,  Doug Miller has just informed me of the passing of Warren
Trachtman.  I had been following Warren's recent battle with pancreatic
cancer at his publicly available blog, http://wtrachtman.blogspot.com/ 
Several weeks ago, I sent him the following letter with the hope it
would evoke a smile.  Alas, nature has taken its course:

"Dear Warren,

"I have been silently watching your blog for more than a year now and
have respected your wish to avoid a deluge of personal emails so there
is no necessity for this one to have a reply.  In light of your most
recent entry, I just thought you might take some comfort in hearing
from an old friend.

"You probably deserve the title of 'Doctor' just as much as any of the
oncologists you have been treated by.  I can just picture these doctors
standing in front of a mirror as they convincingly practice pronouncing
the names of the various drug cocktails they prescribe.  I thought your
most recent treatment needed to have more syllables:

   Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious --
   SupraxCalanFragminLacticExpien-or-Dostinex!

"I suppose your medical team deserves quite a commendation in
consideration of your extraordinary longevity, under the circumstances.
My oldest daughter, Melissa, has dedicated her life to counseling
breast cancer survivors, being one herself.  Her most recent blog entry
'Melissa's Healing Hope' was posted today.

"In case I haven't already said so, thank you, Warren, for all of your
wonderful contributions toward the preservation of the musical artistry
which is falling victim to acidic paper.  Your scan conversion and punch
matrix reconstruction tools have allowed these musical works to be
transferred to new paper which will last for centuries, long after all
the computers have become obsolete.

"I want to wish you all the best in the time remaining.  The older I get,
the more spiritual I become.  I'd like to believe there is no such thing
as death.  I really hope so and will look forward to possibly seeing you
again in another plane of existence.  Until then, be comfortable and safe.

"Your friend, Larry Doe"

There was no reply to my recent letter.

Sincerely,
Larry Doe
Hyde Park, New York