feeling sad

[lupinesque]

One of my favorite writers died yesterday:  Stephen Jay Gould, who 
was a rare creature, a scientist who wrote for laypeople without 
talking down to them or wrapping his subject in some kind of 
mystique.  I have been devouring his essays almost as fast as he can 
turn them out for the past 15 years.  When he survived cancer in the 
80's, he explained that the natural treasures still to discover 
helped give him the will to live--"I could not dent the richness in a 
hundred lifetimes, but I simply must have a look at a few more of 
those pretty pebbles."  It makes me very sad that there will be no 
more of Gould's pretty offerings.

Amy