"Sit Elsewhere, Before You Break Something! said the Ellison-man."
Appreciation by James Patrick Lockett Melancholy ain’t just Lassie guarding some cantaloupes. Nor is it the word that properly describes how I feel today. There are forty-eight synonyms in the Thesaurus for ‘sad’ and not one of them adequately convey how I feel. Just one of the many things I already miss about Harlan Ellison – I’m sure he would look at me and throw out ‘lugubrious’ or ‘woebegone’ or just a simple, ‘low.’ I’d started writing half a dozen times, different things the passed couple of days, and all the words always seemed to just mock my feelings. Maybe it’s not time yet. So, I sat eating (Hydrox) cookies and re-re-re-reading Ellison short stories – feeling sorry for our loss and mad that death slipped in like a thief in the night and took Harlan in his sleep. Normally, that’s the way we all want to go, but there’s something lily-livered about not having the guts/spine/pluck (take your pick) to risk encountering Harlan’s wrath. Eventually, I ran out of cook