Sad news. Alan Levy passed away this morning. There's something strange about people dying when they're people you're not close to, but that you sort of expect to see around every so often on a permanent, consistent basis. I can't feel a great sense of loss myself, only because I didn't know the man personally. But it shakes your world up nonetheless.

People often poked fun of his "Prague Profile" columns in the Prague Post, but the absolute worst anybody could credibly say about Alan Levy still had an undertone of grudging respect. It was well-earned -- and we should all be so fortunate. I'd count myself extremely lucky if I end up living a life like that one. Doug Arellanes, whose experience of Levy's Kafkaville is greater than my own, plans to post something on this later, so I'll leave it at that.