Dear Imre & Family: It's been ages since I wrote. I do so now out of deep feelings of shame & guilt but selfishly too. 1st some news:- Officially retired since 12-09-01 I've still got 1 undergraduate course, Value Engineering, in the fall semester. It's about set-piece industrial-type problem solving using a specific but rather loose discipline in a student team(typically 5)/commercial client supervisor environment with about 6 different teams working on different client specified projects. It's fun & mostly an exercise in organization/administration rather than didactics. I inherited from another retiree because none of my overspecialised largely 2nd rate still-employed colleagues would touch it but it's very popular with students so it can't be eliminated from our curriculum as has so much practically useful material to make room for fashionable eco-eco-nan-nano-bio-bio bullshit that fascinates dilettantes. I still edit The Transactions . You may recall I contracted the job via ghastly slow e-mail in your lab when Wendy & I visited in 1996. As I grow older it becomes more of a burden than a source of satisfaction but it has its rewarding moments & (like Value Engineering) nobody wants it & I'll not let it die @ least not until I do. On 14-02-28 Wendy has a crisis (never got a clear diagnosis) that brought her weight to 44kg & blood electrolyte to an almost fatal 103 (whatever that means; ask Simon). Though these data were corrected to normality she's been in decline in physical strength & (more important) mental faculties. She sleeps most of the time. Memory & some cognitive skill seem to be fairly intact there's a "bad connection". Her interpretation & execution of speech & writing are severely compromised. The interface between sensory/ motor facility & the brain seem to have been badly damaged & are deteriorating. Of course the medical profession ply her with @ least 10 different drugs whose affects are obscure at best. She has home care when I or another family member isn't there. Could go on but you've had enough gory detail & I want you to finish reading this. Erika & husband Michael have just returned from a over-the-Christmas-New-Years holiday in Patagonia & we've not yet learned of their adventures so near the Antarctic Circle. Stuart's daughter Gabrielle does very well in "gymnasium", is very artistic & has talent for language (the sole family candidate to learn Hungarian maybe). The youngest, Natan, 12, is on the Canadian national diving team. With luck he could make the Olympic podium in 2020. Now we come to Joseph, 21, the eldest grandchild & the embarrassingly selfish part of this e-mail. After a very rocky* teenage, this last semester he made the "Dean's List" in his studies @ Concordia (he couldn't possibly have been accepted @ McGill when he applied for university admission). Yesterday, quite suddenly, he expressed a fascination with metalorganic catalysis. He's already taken quite a bit of chemistry (undergraduate level) & is considering MoC as a concentration. I indiscreetly boasted that I was quite familiar with a famous Hungarian researcher in the field. So the bottom line is, is there any change he could get a summer job in your institute that would not make him a total inconvenient imposition on your good graces? He's preparing an updated CV (which I asked that he prepare before hand; off to a bad start?) which I'll send if you wish. We'll also investigate Canadian funding for undergraduate research summer employment. If lead time is lousy then maybe next year or afterwards of even graduate studies. Don't be too shy to say, "Bugger off, forget it." which would be quite appropriate given the circumstances & my impertinence. Every year during May & June while I'm in Europe (mostly Austria but occasionally Germany, Slovenia & even Croatia) I feel guilty for never quite getting on the train to Budapest. Please accept & convey my apology to Eva & also my best regards to Mátyás (Ildiko), Simon & Tomás. With great affection, Paul * Too hideous to discuss without a bottle of kékfrankos.