A sudden flash I had last night - then came home to a header reference to Gollum...

Tolkien is dead. No matter how wonderful you think the stories or the literary techniques, etc. (Shippey's Author of the Century is highly recommended if you want to add some scholarly value to the tales) there will never be any more. Sometimes the this hits me in a sudden flash that feels like Road Runner's favorite Acme anvil has taken sudden residence on my rib cage.

Listening to HCNFU I realized the same thing may happen for those of us who like DB's pop music. And that hit me almost as hard as the damn anvil. But, then my heart screamed out, "but David's not dead! He's real, he comes to the message board and posts about the morning's news the morning it is published. Which means he's not only not dead, he'se visibly alive; I know what he was doing 45 minutes ago - reading the papers. How can I stand the idea that there may never be more of this music when the creator is (or at least seems) so accessible?

Is that a bird up there or just another anv(THUMP)il?

Since there are so many unsatisfying loose ends in Tolkien, that's all the torment I can handle. I so hope we all fare a little better at the hands of this other favorite storyteller.Is that Ok, enough shameless flattery for one evening. It was not meant as such, but my tolerance for fawning, gushing fandom is minimal. But, David, I'm sure you're grateful to know you're noit dead.

Kelly