Alan Dumas, a late feature and entertainment writer for the Rocky Mountain News, predicted the Rocky's demise at a dinner years ago. As I recall, he didn't think it would see the year 2000.

Now both Alan and the paper are gone. Alan had a remarkable voice, both on paper and in person. He had an epic, sonorous barotone and was as clever and smart as any member of the Algonquin Round Table, but kinder and fair. He once told me as I struggled with my own theater criticism to "tell the truth." To sugar-coat a bad production, he said, was to do both the audience and the art form a disservice. To send people to bad plays ultimately would hurt the theater.

Had Alan survived to see the death of his newspaper, I suspect he would have been philosophical about its end. He had, after all, predicted it and he was the type who could land on his feet. Until he didn't.

Good luck to all the other writers today who need to find new ways to share their voices.