"merci, by. for a moment there I was afraid that everyone had been so distracted by the soi dissant orthography that they had been put off the salient feature of the message, which is, obviously, a cri de
coeur. n'est-ce pas"

Dear tsuwm: I cannot understand your use of "soi dissant" in this context. Apparently it usually means "self-styled" . What did you intend it to mean here?