Marty dropped dead at home, alone, on Monday morning. Tributes appeared continuously until Tuesday night, when Pat posted, “His goodness notwithstanding, I’ll mostly remember his pinging wit.”

Soon they attacked “notwithstanding,” followed by “pinging” (“rather ‘stinging'”? someone named Alex asked), then “wit” (“I’d say ‘sarcasm,'” Daniel declared), and, finally, “goodness.”

Paul Lamar lives with his husband, Mark, in Albany, NY, where he teaches workshops in memoir, fiction, and poetry.