Dear Marion,

Thank you for your second letter with the details of your health.
I'm glad you're feeling better. You will, I know, forgive my very
matter of fact comment that I wish you'd lose some weight. Klemens,
who had gained far too much, has embarked on a strict regime of diet
and exercise and has already lost about 7 lbs.

Thank you for your first letter, which I answer by return-mail (postwendend)
because, as I've confessed before, I write in real time, - that's
computerese for typing out what's on my mind when it's there, and not
shelving it in my cerebral cortex for later retrieval and transmission.

As an ex-talkshow hostess you're at your best when you ask:

"I'm curious to grasp, at least in the most general way,
what you think disturbed Helmut about your writing.
Cultural anachronism?  Formality?  What?" 

I answered, or tried, or presumed to answer these questions in
such detail that I've excised my answers from this letter and
filed all seven pages of them under 
http://home.earthlink.net/~ej1meyer/diary12/d120210.03
where you may look them up, if you're curious.

Good night, and sleep well.

Jochen