No one dislikes off-topics more than I do--at least--hardly anyone! However, when a list member becomes very ill or passes on, I personally feel it is not irrelevant to let members know. One does wonder why we have not heard from a member in a while and I had noticed Walter's name absent from the list for a while. My vote would be for the posting of such notices--after all, we are a community--and while not a sympathy or get-well list, I do not believe (fortunately) that these events are very frequent. -- To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, or the way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the list owner at jfw-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx