An evening’s international conversation over Skype has shown once again what a stupendous communications device this is.

To have detailed images of Tom and Maria, our friends in Montreal, filling my computer screen and those of my wife Susan and me filling theirs stirred in me feelings of awe. How can this free service provide such face-to-face contact so simply and without fail?

We had scope to review family news, as well as evaluation of Terrence Malik’s film “The Tree of Life” and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” We finished by exchanging details on our friends’ forthcoming visit.

 Among the technology wonders of our age, Skype deserves much more than honorable mention,