On an elevator at our local hospital, where I was delivering a Sunday New York Times to a friend awaiting imminent quadruple bypass surgery, I encountered a man in his fifties or sixties carrying too many roses to count.

I get quiet for long periods...I don't like to complain in the present tense. I get everybody worried who reads this and things usually pass eventually. So I can report that although I've been through hairy side-effects for three different meds, I am now off all of them and walking my three miles again.

At last, after all sorts of guessing as to causes, my strange two-week depression and long cry jags are over. It happened just like that. How such a quick cure? I quit taking Prevacid.