Sorry to hear this. Hope his husband is ok. Sadness comes with all this evidence that he leaves a trail of ongoing love and beauty in many lives.
Love to all. We need all the goodness this ecosystem (and others like it) can muster right now, that’s for sure! > On Jan 26, 2026, at 1:21 PM, '[email protected]' via Shakespeare at Winedale > Email List <[email protected]> wrote: > > David was an absolute sweetheart-- immediately warm and welcoming. And so > funny. I feel lucky that I got to know him at the reunions and got to see > him in action. He tickled me. > > I love you guys > Terry > > On Monday, January 26, 2026 at 11:40:46 AM EST, Anne Smith via Winedale-l > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > As a 90s Winedale alum, I heard many a tale of David, a Plan II genius, which > made him the man, the myth, the legend to us. And then having the good > fortune to get to know him via Reunions, I understood why. And I then could > be in awe of the beautiful human he was. His timing was impeccable. His gift > for finding deep moments of play was a joy to watch. Never a showboat, he > stole many a performance moment, while (usually!!) staying in bounds of the > text and the story. I can still chuckle about all of his “noting” during Much > Adonin 2015. > > I’m so sad to learn of his passing. We few, we happy few, are quite lucky to > have known him. > > Anne > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jan 26, 2026, at 10:43 AM, Mary Collins <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Dearest Jayne, >> >> What an obituary! It captures The mercurial David, and I learned so >> much about him while reading it. Thank you for sending it. Like you, I send >> love to All, >> >> Mary >> >> Mary Collins >> 646-554-3076 >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> >> On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 3:08 PM Jayne Mack Suhler <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> For those of you who knew and loved David, his obituary >> <https://www.legacy.com/legacy/david-ziegler?ttm_pid=210749124&ttm_affiliate=legacyremembers&ttm_affiliatetype=standard&ttm_campaign=legacy>. >> This has also been posted on his Facebook page. Love to all, Jayne >> >> >> >> From: "[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>" >> <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of >> Michael Godwin <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> >> Reply-To: "[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>" >> <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> >> Date: Friday, January 9, 2026 at 1:13 PM >> To: Shakespeare Winedale >> <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>>, Shakespeare >> at Winedale 1970-2000 alums <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> >> Subject: Re: Welcome to 2026! Plus some content. >> >> >> >> P.S. As the prince told Gertrude, "arras me no more questions, and I'll kill >> you no more guys." >> >> >> >> Love, Mike >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 1:45 PM Michael Godwin <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> >> >> A couple of people have noted that our message traffic on the big Winedale >> mailing lists has dropped a lot since Thanksgiving. This is understandable, >> I think, because 2025 was an eventful, and frequently stressful year, even >> though a lot of us managed to get together and commune and share time with >> one another, which I very much appreciate. >> >> >> >> (This is where Google AI is suggesting to me all sorts of bromides to finish >> off this email, which may be a sign of how much progress AI still needs to >> make in guessing what I might want to say!) >> >> >> >> I do have a couple of things I want to share, though. >> >> >> >> (a) HAMNET, which I first heard about as a novel from other alums (I think >> maybe Susan Gayle Todd first brought it to my attention), is now a movie, >> which I'm dying to see but which isn't yet in anything like wide release. I >> think maybe I can arrange to see it this weekend--if I do, I'll report back. >> (I know from second-hand reports that there's more of Shakespeare's text in >> it than there is in the novel, and my thought is, how can that be anything >> but good? Not that this is a criticism of the novel, though.) >> >> >> >> (b) I wrote a little essay that seems to be getting some traction among >> those who read me regularly, and so I thought I might share it with you too. >> See below. Needs a good title. >> >> >> >> ------------------------ >> >> >> >> Multiply 260 by 0.667, and you get 173 and change. One year ago, I weighed >> 260 pounds (about 118 kg). This morning, I weighed very slightly less than >> 173 pounds. I want to emphasize here that although I’m pleased with this >> progress, it would be a mistake to say that I’m “proud” of it—the success in >> getting back down into the 170s is attributable to the American Pharma >> Industry developing suitable drugs to address (and reverse) problems created >> by the American Food Industry. (My ultimate goal, if you must know, is >> probably somewhere around 160–I’m five-foot-eight, about an inch shorter >> than I was in college, so not too terrible a decline in height.) >> >> What I brought to the table (so to speak) was my willingness to find ways to >> afford medications that my insurance would not yet cover. It may do so >> now—will check at refill time. If you want to know what role my willpower >> and resolve played, it’s this: I made the decision to prioritize fixing a >> persistent health problem that dates from my early 20s. Although I had been >> overweight from time to time before then, true obesity itself didn’t start >> manifesting for me until about 1980. For a long time I thought it was >> something particular to my own life that had changed. (I had graduated from >> college, was trying to figure out next steps in work and education, wasn’t >> always eating the best food, started drinking more—alcohol is a great >> analgesic, and putting on weight quickly tends to increase one’s daily aches >> and pains.) Did I exercise? Why, yes, and I also developed significant >> muscle mass, which was helpful in moving around a much larger version of >> myself. (It should be noted that the rise in gym memberships in the USA >> tracks the obesity stats—Americans were investing in working out more *at >> the very same time* that obesity was on its abrupt rise.) >> >> But what I was slow to recognize was that the same problems I was having >> (fairly rapid increase in weight, increasing experiments with dietary change >> in the hopes of reversing the lurch into obesity—experiments that ultimately >> weren’t successful and that may even have made things worse) were not >> specific to me, but in fact were accelerating through the U.S. population >> and then quickly afterwards in most of the developed world. The global stats >> showed that this was happening everywhere in reasonably prosperous or >> quickly developing countries soon after this obesity acceleration manifested >> in the USA. >> >> The chief candidate as a source of the problem seemed straightforward, a >> quarter of a century after 1980: the industrialized production of food as a >> product shaped as much by applied chemistry as by agriculture. One reason >> Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES and other writing on how to eat have continued >> to be current for years even as various diet books have fallen by the >> wayside is that they shift our attention to, inter alia, buying one’s food >> around the edge of the supermarket—that’s where the more natural, and more >> recently grown, produce at, e.g., Whole Foods and Safeway, lives. >> >> But while following Pollan’s prescriptions (I’m using the word >> metaphorically—he’s a science journalist, not a doctor) might help someone >> avoid the sources of the obesity epidemic, it’s less successful in reversing >> that epidemic. For someone like me—and here I still hesitate to share that >> for a long time weighing in the mid-200s of pounds signified success for me, >> because for one mercifully brief period in the late 1990s I crossed the >> 300-pound line—more proactive interventions, including medical >> interventions, seemed necessary. Part of getting my weight to move in the >> downward direction was bariatric surgery (in late 2004), which certainly >> helped keep me alive long enough to reach the era of Ozempic et al., but >> which, as is the case with most weight-loss surgery, was only partially >> successful in returning to non-obesity … or achieving it in the first place. >> (Childhood obesity is a major thing now in the USA and elsewhere—earlier in >> my lifetime, it wasn’t.) >> >> So here I am in 2026, weighing at least a few pounds less than I did when >> entering college in 1975, trying to make sense of where I am now. The guy I >> see in the mirror is visibly older, but in most respects better looking and >> fitter than I have been for most of my adult life. But I also have to wonder >> what my life might have been like if I had never had this particular health >> issue … well, “weighing me down” seems like an appropriate trope. >> >> I hope to make up, in the time I have left, the progress in my professional >> work that I might have achieved had I been healthier over most of the last >> four or five decades. But I should stress that there have been a few ways in >> which my path has been helpful to me professionally and personally. First, I >> really have done an immense amount of avocational academic research to get a >> handle on the problem—here I credit my undergraduate education at UT Austin >> for building in me the habit of reading scientific papers on the regular, >> rather than mere journalistic or other popular accounts of what the research >> may or may not show. I also acquired a certain amount of persnicketiness >> when it comes to experimental models, for which I should credit Plan II >> philosophy (at UT Austin) for introducing me to Karl Popper’s work >> specifically, and the philosophy of science generally. >> >> My work as a journalist and as a lawyer has also made me more careful about >> sourcing what I post or publish, which is all to the good, even when the >> topic in question is not food or medicine or even science generally. >> >> But most important, I think, is that my inability to solve my particular >> problems through application of willpower/resolve has made me more >> sympathetic to other people who can’t just willpower their ways out of their >> difficulties, which may be health-related or rooted in something else. I >> listen better now, I think. Now if I could just trigger an epidemic of >> better reading, better listening, and greater willingness to question one’s >> own theories at least as much as one critically examines those of >> others—that would be something I could really be proud of. >> >> >> >> ----------- >> >> >> >> That's it! Hope to see you all again soon! >> >> >> >> Love, >> >> >> >> Mike >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Be vigitant, I beseech you! >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Shakespeare at Winedale Email List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CAKFh3H-D9Jfg%2B8Rba5vY-7cSRyarcuifYFAX%2B4Rz%3D5RFZMeURw%40mail.gmail.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CAKFh3H-D9Jfg%2B8Rba5vY-7cSRyarcuifYFAX%2B4Rz%3D5RFZMeURw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. >> >> >> >> -- >> Be vigitant, I beseech you! >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Shakespeare at Winedale Email List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/BYAPR20MB246939F51EE7CC72ABE5DB4EA792A%40BYAPR20MB2469.namprd20.prod.outlook.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/BYAPR20MB246939F51EE7CC72ABE5DB4EA792A%40BYAPR20MB2469.namprd20.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. >> >> >> -- >> Be vigitant, I beseech you! >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Shakespeare at Winedale Email List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CA%2B8OBZVPHfED6J4UB78_sbqKZfEXnrGoxar1YiNAKh1eSV8F1Q%40mail.gmail.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CA%2B8OBZVPHfED6J4UB78_sbqKZfEXnrGoxar1YiNAKh1eSV8F1Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . > _______________________________________________ > Winedale-l mailing list -- [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > > -- > Be vigitant, I beseech you! > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Shakespeare at Winedale Email List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/394116662.2650526.1769462504949%40mail.yahoo.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/394116662.2650526.1769462504949%40mail.yahoo.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
_______________________________________________ Winedale-l mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
