With sadness, all around good egg Alan Abelson, 87, dies of a heart attack. Anyone who trades is very familiar with Abelson's sometimes controversial column, always the first read in Barron's, a couple pages in, once you move through the full page ads. Alan was one of the few writer's that could take dull and boring economic and market news and transform it into something intensely exciting, interesting, humorous, and fun to read, all at the same time, while providing valuable trading insight. This witty wordsmith will be greatly missed.