New Haven, Connecticut
December 6, 2000

Dear Readers,

Today’s letter is the fourth in our ongoing series of letters by Aliza Pollack about her experience of having and treating cancer. As I explained inyesterday’s editor’s letter, this week we’re coming clean on the chronological shenanigans that have marked Aliza’s previous letters (the first was written in March and published in August; thesecond was written in April and published in September; the third was written in July and published yesterday). The time warp is diminishing: today’s letter was written (to her friend Miriam) just two months ago, when Aliza returned from a trip east for the Jewish holidays.

One unusual result of this time-delay: This is the second letter we’ve published about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and how some years, those holidays can take on a deeper meaning than usual. The first was Lauren Zalaznick’s excellent and controversial letter about receiving an email that she wasn’t meant to read.

For more background on Aliza and her letters, please read the editor’s letterthat accompanied her first letter.

We’ll be publishing one more installment from Aliza this week, an exchange of emails between her and me over the last couple of months. That will get us up-to-date with her present condition, and will also, in the process, raise the veil on the Open Letters editorial process somewhat.

That exchange will most probably run on Friday. But it might run tomorrow. Please stay tuned.

Yours truly,

Paul Tough