Does anybody have any information about Hal?
As one who doesn't have any information about Hal, I took this question at face value: I don't have any information about Hal (nor do I know anyone else here who does), and am thus disqualified from answering. I'm guessing you took it to mean, "can anybody who might reasonably be conjectured to have information about Hal, if any is available, let us know that they don't have such information if indeed they don't?"
Pursuant to that interpretation, since I number myself among those "who might reasonably be conjectured to have information about Hal, if any is available"—having undertaken to maintain contact between this motley crew and him on
a previous occasion or two—I should be judged to have been as inconsiderate as cyn.
Therefore, my apologies!
I must confess, though, that this whole line of reasoning strikes me as unduly dependent upon the assumption that others share your particular sensibilities as respects reading between the lines. Perhaps an explicit question directed to cyn—she is, after all, in the thread—would have been more straightforward?
