thanks flea, I appreciate the knowledged response. That was factual and helpful information that in no way insulted me nor anyone else on the board (at least the way I read it). Just exactly the kind of post I love.

Yeah, but this one is actually you, right?

That it is!

Huh, that's a pretty good article. I'm surprised I wrote it.

If dear Gus has in fact died, I think he would enjoy this thread discussion.

I think he'd consider it the best wake ever (except, maybe, Tim Finnegan's).

That he would. Though I suspect he'd prefer a bit more scotch.

Hee, more than a few Laura Holt hits out there as well. Enough of you have hugged me and been to my home to know I am for realz.

Even though you seem too good to be realz.

You know Trudy...

upsets of actual family members.

I am doubting that there are actual family members and that they're actually upset because I don't believe anybody has died. My doubts are entirely reasonable based on the information we've gathered here.

Yes, but when we google Sunil Patel with "Veronica Mars" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender" you're fucked. We'll find you.

Trudy, I agree with everyone else. You seem a lot more concerned with the feelings of people who may never see this discussion, and even if they did see it, might understand it and be reasonable.

Your comment on gossiping is condescending.

I'm not trying to belittle any contribution Gus made to this board. He was very smart and witty. But before I make a contribution to a charity in someone's name or mourn for them, it would be nice to know that they're actually dead.

I've had to track down obits before when an acquaintance has died. I've asked family members about obituaries and service information. I've been asked about that kind of information regarding members of my own family who've died. I didn't find it insulting.

Here's the thing. When Gus died, if he did, I went to see what I could find out about him as part of grieving -- I was hoping for an obit, for some trace of his life. It was weird to find nothing. And then other people reported the same thing. And then things got really weird, so I looked up his scholarly papers and found nothing. And we all, individually, started to wonder if we had been misled, and if so how many times we'd been misled.

I never bothered looking up his scholarly papers while he was around because frankly, I didn't care. Just as I've never checked to see if Dana really sings with the Houston Symphony -- I take it on faith that she does. (Dana knows that I believe her, which is why I can use her as an example here.) But even if Dana turned out never to have sung a note, she'd still be Dana and be wonderful.

If the only problem here were that the weremonkey and the novel and the university might be fables, nobody would have started investigating. The problem here is that we may all have grieved over the death of somebody we loved who isn't dead.

That's counterfeit coin. And the real grief of real us -- real me, thanks very much -- is just as significant as the possible grief of possible relatives who might get around to reading Bureaucracy. I am reasonably sure that I have been lied to in small things. That is enough evidence that I might have been lied to in a big thing, and it isn't petty enough of me to want the truth.

Even though you seem too good to be realz.

Except she fixed our TiVo. And I've seen the dimples in person.

No dimply smiley person could ever be so technologically adept! It's unpossible.

Laura totally rocks the dimples.