Yeah, Little Hawk hasn't been around much lately.

He wasn't insulting at all, but he did have a sort of smug, superior, "above-it-all" aura about him that, in itself, could be kind of down-putting.

He always reminded me of the Grand High Lama sitting in the lotus position on top of a mountain high in the Himalayas. A young man who wanted to know the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything heard about the Grand High Lama and, like Conway, the protagonist of James Hilton's Lost Horizon, he made his way halfway around the world and clawed his way laboriously up the mountain, where he found the Grand High Lama, as he had been told, sitting in the lotus position in front of his cave near the peak of the mountain.

He told the Grand High Lama of his quest and then asked the crucial question: "What, your Holiness, is the Meaning of Life?"

To which, the Grand High Lama smiled benevolently at the eager young man and responded gently, "My son, Life is a Fountain."

The young man sat there and digested that for quite a while, then exploded in anger.

"I've search for you and your alleged wisdom the world over, then risk my life climbing this bloody mountain to ask you my all-important question—and you sit there and tell me, 'Life is a Fountain. . . !???"

The Grand High Lama looked at the young man in bewilderment and said, "You mean Life isn't a Fountain!!???"

Don Firth

P. S. The Small Raptor did have a leavening influence on many of the discussions when they tended to get a bit hot under the collar.