My Dear Readers:

There will be no fresh content today on THE PLANET (at least today and perhaps longer). We received terrible news on Saturday. Our brother Peter died suddenly at home on Friday. I ask for your kind indulgence in the interim.

Thanks for your understanding. I thank all those who have contacted me, on this site or in some other fashion, with condolences. They mean more than you realize.

My brother Pete was the oldest of three boys, six years older than me and three years ahead of Mike. Pete provided us with a great example of how to be a boy then, later, how to be a man. There is a hole now, an empty part, but I hold it true that we rise on the “stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things … Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drowned.” These are the comforting words of Alfred Tennyson, from his epic poem, “In Memorium.” It’s the alarm clock that wakes me from a nightmare.

I hope to find it in me to write a proper tribute to Peter, but that must come of its own choosing.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

DAN VALENTI

JUNE 17, 2013