You may have noticed Gene has been absent for a few days.

He was admitted to hospital middle of the night last Friday with chest pains. Angioplasti treatment yesterday was unsuccessful and he is now scheduled for a triple bypass operation tomorrow. He will stay in hospital for 5 or 6 days after that and has been told to rest at home for at least the same period again afterwards.

Although I knew about this on Saturday, Gene asked me not to say anything as he expected to be out in a few days. I just got off the phone with him and he said I should now inform you all but subject to the following proviso's:

He does not want a 'long sympathy' thread here, and can do without a stream of emails and phone messages. If there are any urgent messages for him, please pass them to me and I will relay them verbally.