During World War II, Lessinger slogged through Belgium, Germany and Austria with the 11th Armored Division. After the war he enrolled as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving his doctorate, Lessinger soon went his own way, developing what he now calls perishable economies. Random House published his first findings in 1986. Jack has been an avid violinist nearly all his life. At 83, playing chamber music is still his major delight. Any candidates to play the two Shostakovich piano trios?

Jacob Thornton is 20, a sophmore at Western Washington University in Bellingham, ardently pursuing computer graphics since he was 12. He studied cartooning briefly with David Horsey, 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner. (In the '70s, Horsey's cartoons in the University of Washington's student newspaper were much admired by Professor Lessinger.)