Ed St.Germain and I were insurance defense attorneys in the Riverside-San Bernardino California for almost twenty years. I understand he also worked for the San Bernardino County District Attorney, and was a Viet Nam vet before that. For over half of the years of our acquaintance, Ed worked just down the hall from me, in the same law firm. We ate together, and our families visited. We parsed our cases before trial and celebrated our victories after. I hadn't seen Ed since he moved back to New York, but he included me in his subscriber list of his more-or-less weekly email post for the past several years. It was filled with jokes and humorous movies and the like. Sometimes his conservatism leaked through the humor and I would have to respond like the liberal I am, occasionally with obscenity included for emphasis. He and I had our differences but we agreed far more often than not. Ed had unflagging courage and drive in a world that I think he believed was falling apart. He never told me this, but my impression is he liked the past so much because he was distressed at what he foresaw in the future. His greatest skill was as a trial lawyer--analytical, well outfitted with medical knowledge, melodramatic and extremely independent. He also liked to dress up in funny costumes. He could say more in a grunt than most people do in paragraphs and he often would. Ed wrote extensively about his failing health in his last months. He never batted an eyelash and wanted his readers to know what he was experiencing. His diary was so compelling that I suggested he publish it. That's the way Ed St.Germain was: he called things as they were, all the while wringing life out of every experience, whether fortunate or unfortunate. Not a bad way to go. I'll miss you, Ed. Walt Farmer