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From: Jasper
Date: 5/24/03
Time: 11:41:30 PM
Remote Name: 68.73.193.55
John,
Thank you for telling us what’s up with you. I can’t begin to tell you how much I value my fellow grown-up Smartfellows and I apologize for boxing you in the way I did. I may have been wrong to do it because my motives were not pure. I was thinking about how Rose was feeling but, like I wrote to her, I wasn’t worried about her. I was worried about you. Mostly, though, I was worried about being worried. I can’t afford to worry about things that I have no control over.
I hoped that you would respond to my “please be a little more specific” note in a way that would let everyone know why you replied to Rose the way you did at this vulnerable time in her life. We know your views on the subject so it wasn’t necessary to say anything to her about it – unless there was something important that you didn’t tell us. I could tell from my own experience and my long association with you that you had recently been playing peek-a-boo with the Grim Reaper but I didn’t think that it was in your nature to tell us. I was afraid that we might lose you.
You have always been kind to me (in your inimitable fashion) and incredibly patient when I was going thorough hell and putting everyone else through hell with the boards. It seemed that every time new people would begin to post the boards would go haywire or shut down completely. When Omar posted for the first time I was afraid that your post would have the same affect on him and everyone else who reads the boards but haven’t yet worked up the nerve to post. They don’t know us old-timers the way we know each other.
This is not the sort of thing I like to go into. I hope we can now put it behind us…
I agree with you about “expert” testimony, especially in areas where the experts disagree and “science” is more of an art. Forensic science has come a long way in some respects. But in terms of fixing time of death there are too many variables involved to do so precisely without taking the victim’s body temperature just BEFORE death. That, of course, is useless because in that case all you have to do is look at your watch.
The tools and techniques for this analysis haven’t changed significantly in over a hundred years. They are good for widening the time of death but not for narrowing it. If the time in question is AS MUCH AS two hours any forensic pathologist (or homicide detective) can tell you that from the coroner’s report. Less than that is guesswork. You can actually do better with barking dogs. –Jasper