That was not entirely lost on other people, either, it turns out.

I'm not specifically limiting this to the past tense, actually, either.

Whaddya mean usta?

Um, Fred? You *still* are Somebody...

No "usta" about it.

P.

I always admired you, though I know today I expressed it in less than perfect ways.

I still think you're "somebody", for what that might be worth.

P. S.: A belated Happy Birthday to you.

You are still somebody, Fred, to a lot of people. I know it's hard to feel that way about yourself, but you are.

Well, you're Somebody to me...

interestingly enough though, this reminds me that I was just quoting this Emily Dickenson poem to myself the other day and pondering why I like it and whether or not I believe it:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Shouldn't that be "to an admiring blog"?

B

*grin* that does seem an appropriate update.

I remember when I first met you how impressed I was to be hanging out with Fred Haskell. I still feel that way, can't imagine it ever changing.

You're still the fan whose announced intention to attend any given convention will prompt me to buy a membership and pack some musical instruments.

Hmmm... charming, witty, polite, talented and knowledgeable... yep, you are a somebody!

Oh, my dear. I love you.

K.

Perhaps not the sort of Somebody you want to be, but you are still a fondly remembered Somebody to me, a Somebody who has always been on my list of "Somebody I would like to sit down and talk with."

You are the Fred, and that is all you have to be. You are, in fact, my favorite Fred out of all the Freds I know.

Ah, yes, the time when you were *merely* Somebody, as opposed to when, the other day, I actually said to a friend, "Like unto Fred," and my friend knew *exactly* when I meant...

That must've been about the time I was the assistant somebody.